Productivity & Accuracy

Order preparation and management

In most warehouses, picking can account for up to 55% of labor hours, and a significant share of that time is lost to travel, with an operator spending nearly half of a route walking unnecessarily between locations.

Fox4Work^TM breaks this inefficient cycle by combining dynamic slotting, ABC analysis and hot zones, bringing fast-moving items closer to pickers. With this optimization, travel distances drop by 20% to 30%, and in batch mode, picking performance can reach up to +40% picks per hour—without adding headcount.

The solution goes further by digitalizing instructions (pick-to-light, electronic labels, mobile scanners, automated storage systems, robots, AMRs, beta versions of augmented reality glasses) to ensure accuracy above 99%, cut error rates by half, and achieve an OTIF close to 98%, while prioritizing urgent and transport constraints. Ultimately, a virtuous cycle is created: speed, accuracy, and customer satisfaction guaranteed.

Your challenges

The 4 challenges of order picking

Challenge #1

Optimize travel paths

In real-world warehouses, picking accounts for up to 55% of labor hours, with nearly half of that time spent on unnecessary travel. It is therefore essential to reduce this impact through intelligent slotting and fast-pick zones, minimizing needless back-and-forth between locations.

To this must be added algorithmic route guidance and a order consolidation system (batch/cluster picking), in order to reduce travel distances and increase the number of picks per hour during volume peaks, without resorting to temporary labor.

Challenge #2

Reliability without compromise

Speed means nothing without accuracy: every error impacts customer satisfaction. A WMS must therefore integrate digital guidance (pick-to-light, electronic labels, mobile scanners, storage automation, robots, AMRs, beta versions of augmented reality glasses) combined with barcode or RFID scanning to halve error rates and achieve picking accuracy above 99%.

The result must translate into fewer returns, fewer reshipments, and an OTIF above 98%, enabling customer promises to be met while reducing logistics costs.

Challenge #3

Prioritize urgencies

In a world of urgent deliveries and transport constraints, you need a system that integrates carrier cut-offs and customer priorities in real time (critical orders, premium customers) to automatically plan picking waves.

This intelligence enables urgent orders to leave the warehouse first, ensuring deadlines are met even during peak activity — and doing so more efficiently than less responsive competitors.

Challenge #4

Adapt to peaks

Your constraints require a modular, adaptive WMS to deploy functional building blocks à la carte—slotting, digitization, prioritization. This way, your warehouse evolves at its own pace, without disruption or extra cost.

You are therefore looking for agile order preparation capable of absorbing seasonal peaks with the same resources while maintaining consistent efficiency.

Inefficient travel, picking errors, unmanaged priorities and uncontrolled activity peaks… without a WMS, these issues create hidden costs, delays and lower customer satisfaction.

Our solution

Accelerate your shipments with Fox4Work^TM

To boost order picking, Fox4Work^TM combines three decisive levers: reduced travel, high-precision digitization, and real-time control. By repositioning fast movers closer to operators, consolidating multiple orders into the same route, and guiding each step via voice terminals, RF, or pick-to-light, our WMS removes unnecessary walking, secures every pick, and orchestrates urgencies without overload. The result: more lines picked, fewer errors—even when volumes surge.

Optimized routes: –20% to –30% less unnecessary walking

Picking accounts for up to 55% of warehouse costs, primarily because operators spend nearly half of their time moving. Fox4Work^TM continuously reorganizes locations through dynamic slotting and 'hot zones,' moving high-rotation items closer to the picking point and reducing travel distances by 20 to 30%. Each picking tour is then optimized by a routing algorithm that groups items by aisle and accounts for traffic flow direction. The workflow densifies: fewer meters traveled, less fatigue, and more lines per hour.

Zone-based picking & consolidation: +25% productivity

Fox4Work^TM automatically segments each order into dedicated picking zones: each operator picks only within their area (shelving, mezzanine, Kardex™…), reducing cross-traffic and smoothing circulation. At zone exit, totes are routed to a central consolidation station where the system assembles, in real time, all sub-lines of the same order before packing. This “zone + consolidation” orchestration keeps routes short, balances workload among pickers and eliminates the hunt for missing items at packing. Equipped warehouses typically see up to 25% more lines picked per hour without doubling headcount during peak season; the customer promise is met while limiting temp labor and end-of-day congestion.

High-precision digitalization: 99% accuracy and beyond

Speed only matters if it is reliable. By combining voice picking, RF terminals and pick-to-light, Fox4Work^TM halves the error rate and reaches 99% to 99.9% accuracy depending on the setup. Barcode or RFID scanning validates each item in real time—fewer returns, fewer reshipments, and an OTIF close to 98%, in line with top shipper benchmarks.

Dynamic prioritization: zero critical delays

Fox4Work^TM instantly integrates carrier cut-off times and premium orders. The algorithm selects the next line to pick based on customer value and truck schedules, ensuring urgent shipments always leave the dock on time. This real-time orchestration avoids penalties and re-planning; even during peaks, carrier slots are met without overstaffing, and customers receive their parcels right on time.

By combining optimized routes, smart consolidation, high-precision digitization and dynamic prioritization, Fox4Work^TM transforms order picking: fewer steps, more picks, near-zero errors and urgent orders shipped without stress. Your warehouse becomes more responsive, costs go down, and your customer promise becomes a decisive commercial advantage.

The impact on your logistics performance

Measurable results

Before

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Up to 98% OTIF orders

Before

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Up to 30% fewer steps

Before

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Up to 25% more picks

Before

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More than 99% accuracy

Ready to optimize your picking operations?

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Learn more

The 4 key challenges a WMS must address

Whether it is an e-commerce hub or an industrial platform, four challenges now dominate logistical performance: maintaining a reliable inventory to avoid stockouts and overstocking, accelerating order picking—which absorbs up to 70% of warehouse labor—smoothing out receiving and shipping to reduce truck dwell time (frequently exceeding two hours), and guaranteeing exhaustive traceability capable of reaching 99% accuracy through the barcode/RFID pairing.

A WMS like Fox4Work tackles these four areas head-on: real-time visibility for every SKU, dynamic slotting and batch picking to eliminate unnecessary travel, dock scheduling and directed put-away to relieve docks, and time-stamped audit logs with live KPIs to move from annual inventories to continuous control.

Discover how Fox4Work addresses each of these challenges—and why mastering them determines a warehouse’s profitability.

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