Batch Picking

Batching Overview

Batching orders together is the simplest way to get the most orders shipped in the fastest time. Batching takes advantage of grouping similar orders together combined with your criteria to make batches that have many orders with the same products. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• We encourage you to use a Bluetooth barcode scanner to pick and fulfill with

• All orders matching your criteria will be batched, even if multiple batches are made

• You must have inventory available within a bin to pick and fulfill a batch

• Set your scan options prior to picking batches

Enter your batches by going into a warehouse > orders > fulfill

Order Batch Details

Within SKUSavvy the order batch contains one or many orders and associated shipments needing fulfillment. By default batches are designed to put similar products across different orders together during pick so you can go to less bin locations while getting more product picked. Its a way of keeping all activity related to the order including batch criteria, pack actions, order splits, and shipment labels together.

Go to your fulfillment batches

Learn About Order Fulfillment

Note: all order shipments become a batch to fulfill even if it is just a single order

Single Order Batch

• Initiated on one selected order, a batch is created for that order if not already associated with the batch

• Single order batches get their own batch label

• One order fulfilled at a time

Multi Order Batch

• Initiated from the 'Fulfill' area of a warehouse

• Reduce time to pick multiple orders

• One batch label for multiple orders

• Multiple orders picked-packed-shipped at one time

Order Batch Home

• 1) Go into your warehouse > orders > fulfill to view and create batches

• 2) View packed shipments (those shipments that are already picked and packed but have not been shipped)

• 3) View current open batches

• 4) Merge batches with open orders

• 5) Enter filters to view batches matching those filters such as batch status, batch creation date, order delivery date, priority, staff assignment

• 6) Save batch filters and set a default view based on your filters

• 7) View batches and pull down on the caret icon to view the shipments within the batch and items required to complete the batch

• 8) Tap on a batch to begin pick-pack and fulfillment, view the progress and hover over a progress bar to view more details

• 9) View unbatched shipments which can be used to make new batches

• 10) Create new batches of orders by clicking on 'Batch Shipments'

• 11) Apply shipment filter criteria and save batch criteria so you can one-tap create batches with the criteria already pre-set

• 12) Tap on the caret icon to pull down a shipment and view its contents and order overview

Batch Fulfillment Video

Below is a video that explains the batching and fulfillment process as well as different ways you can set this up to match your operations.

Create a Batch

The first step in getting orders fulfilled is to assemble a batch of orders to pick. You can batch multiple orders or work on one single order. These workflows are slightly different so we will break them down separately. This step takes all open (not being fulfilled yet) orders and pairs them up so that like orders (similar products in the order) go together. Each batch is assigned to one or multiple employees within the warehouse you are batching from.

Single Order Fulfillment Batch

From the outbound orders table you can click tap 'Fulfill' to go to your order batches. Simply click on an individual order to go into that order to start fulfillment.

Go to Orders

• 1) Export icon to get a record of your orders

• 2) 'Fulfill' button from your outbound orders table will take you to your batched orders

• 3) Enter filters to narrow down orders being shown, you can save filters by clicking on the funnel icon and saving the filters as a default

• 4) 3-dot menu will enable you to adjust the table columns shown and their position

• 5) Tap on the order record to view details

• 6) Tap on the underlined text to view details specific to the order customer

Confirm that you want to fulfill just a single order, or you can go into the order batches instead to fulfill multiple orders.

With this method of batching SKUSavvy will put several orders together based on your batching criteria so you can pick through more orders faster. You can create multi-order batches by going to your fulfillments and scrolling down to 'Unbatched Shipments'

• 1) Create a new batch of shipments by tapping on 'Batch Shipments'

• 2) Enter filters to view narrow down the shipments available in the list

• 3) Save batch filters so you can one tap create batches based on these filters

• 4) View an order shipment, tap on the caret icon in the list to expand order details

Create a Batch

When you click 'Batch Shipments' you'll be given a prompt to make a batch according to the criteria you have set. The more unbatched orders you have between running the batching system, the better SKUSavvy's algorithm will work to put similar orders together into batches.

• 1) View saved batching filters, by selecting a filter SKUSavvy will automatically make batches based on your saved batch criteria

• 2) Batch by 'Item Similarity' when you are shipping via carrier or 'Delivery Zones' if you are managing your own delivery routes

• 3) 'Pick to tote' batching will segment the batch by totes on your pick cart, it is the most efficient, although it requires additional setup to use a pick to tote system

How to use Pick to Tote

• 4) Item limit for the batch determines the max amount of individual items that can be within the batches created

• 5) Shipment limit is the max amount of shipments that can be within the batches created

• 6) Order tags you want to batch by (you can select multiple for all criteria)

• 7) Product tags you want to batch by

• 8) Shipping methods you want to batch by

• 9) SKUs you want to batch by

• 10) Batch by the order creation dates

• 11) Batch by the delivery date (must be sent on the order as a order note property

• 12) Turn on 'Auto Assign Employees' to select one or multiple staff members to assign the batches made

• 13) Current staff assigned to receive batches, the employee must be added to the current warehouse you are making batches for them to become available for assignment

View Order Batches

• 1) Merge open batches to streamline fulfillment of partially completed batches

• 2) Filter your order batches by status, creation date, delivery date, priority, and staff assignment

• 3) View and select an order batch to start fulfilling

• 4) Press the caret icon on any batch record to open and view shipments contained in the batch

• 5) Print the batch barcode

• 6) View individual item progress in a batch

• 7) View batch status by number of shipments picked and packed as well as the orders fulfilled

Pick to tote will change the steps involved during fulfillment from this point on in the guide

Batch Picking

Using a connected hardware scanner you can simply start scanning bins/items on the pick list to begin picking

• 1) Batch number

• 2) Employee assigned to the batch, can be reassigned to 'hand-off' to another by selecting a new staff member

• 3) Batch settings - see below

• 4) View bin locations holding at least one item from the batch

• 5) Filter your pick list by all products, picked, or unpicked

• 6) Click to view all bins on the map holding product needing picking - select a bin on the map or within the list to highlight the product

• 7) Pick list and status of the pick for each item in the batch

• 8) Orders in the batch, tap to navigate through

• Tap on the right caret arrow to move through items in the batch

• 1) Showing a 3D warehouse map of the item and current bin locations

• 2) Item within the batch you are picking

• 3) Quantity of the item needed to complete all orders within the batch

• 4) Pick button to indicate a pick. This button will not show if you are using a bin and/or product scan requirement

• 5) Cycle through the pick list on mobile

• 6) Once all items are picked, move on to pack the order

Batch Fulfillment

Once a batch of items have been picked SKUSavvy will take you through the fulfillment of each order shipment within the batch. After picking tap on 'Pack' to move into the first order fulfillment.

• 1) Tap on 'Order Info' to show and edit shipping address, tags, notes, and shipping method

• 2) View the order and make edits to the order contents and quantities

• 3) Select packaging for the shipment (can be done through a barcode action scan as well)

• 4) Scan or tap on an item to package it, you can unpack an item on the right side after packing if needed

• 5) Add a box to the order for multi-box shipping, or split the order into a new shipment containing the unpacked items

More details on the order fulfillment and shipping workflow available, click below

Batch Settings

Batch settings enable you to customize the way your batches will be set up and the workflow for fulfillment steps. Open the batch settings by tapping on the 3-dot menu. Batch settings are saved on a per user, per device basis. 

Pick

• 1) Delete the batch. All shipments must be unpacked and unpicked. View the logs for this batch of orders

• 2) Toggle on/off the visual layout during picking

• 3) Show the warehouse layout in 3D/2D

• 4) If using pick-to-tote, select how many columns the pick cart has - this will split the totes up evenly amongst the pick cart columns

Pack

• 5) View your packaging inventory at this warehouse

• 6) Enable custom weight entry during fulfillment, otherwise system weights will be used

• 7) Limit the scanning to confirm every unit being packaged one by one

• 8) Require the confirmation for number of units being packaged if >1

• 9) When using multiple boxes for a single shipment this will enable you to pack the most recent item scanned to the last box added (starting a new box in the shipment)

• 10) Turn on the tote visual to indicate which tote the order is in

Ship

• 11) Use the provided test labels during fulfillment instead of using live carrier accounts

• 12) Print your shipping label immediately upon purchasing the label (fastest)

• 13) Automatically print the packing slip with the shipping label (typically on a 4x6" size)

Routing Strength

• 14) Debug routing - show the path SKUSavvy is taking you on to pick all products in the batch. Press 'Refine Path' to adopt your new settings into the current pick path

• 15) Max routing time - the maximum time you want to allow SKUSavvy to formulate the optimal path

• 16) Resolution - how small should SKUSavvy treat gaps between shelves for them to be considered walkable, lower (smaller typically better)

Carriers

• 17) Use custom labels - if you have built a custom shipping label within the SKUSavvy label builder, you can use this here instead of carrier labels

• 18) Tap on a carrier 'checkbox' to indicate which carriers you want to receive rates from during fulfillment

• 19) Expand the options for each carrier to turn on/off specific services

Create Custom Label

Batch Barcode

• 20) Assign a barcode to your batch, or print the current barcode generated

• 21) Enter a Barcode Name and preview the generated batch barcode. You can set this barcode format (QR, UPC, etc.) in your account barcode settings

Set Label Types

Delete a Batch

Deleting a batch will remove the order shipments assigned to that batch and place the order shipments back within your unbatched shipments table.

To delete a batch you much have all shipments unpacked, and all items unpicked to a bin.

• 1) Click into any batch, select the 3-dot menu

• 2) If all orders are unpacked, and all items are unpicked you can click and confirm deletion of the batch

Unpack a Shipment

If you have already picked and packed an order and then the order was cancelled, edits were made, or for whatever reason the shipment did not need to go out you will need to unpack the order. This reallocates the stock back to the batch, or directly back to the bin location so it is available.

Step 1: Unpack all items from orders in the batch by clicking on 'Unpack' for each item
Step 2: Unpick items to their bin

When you click on 'Unpack' SKUSavvy will show a module so you can indicate the quantity you are unpacking and whether or not you want to directly unpack quantity to the bin, or unpack to the batch.

Unpack to the batch

Without selecting a bin the item quantity will simply go back into the batch, as in it has been picked but not packed. You can unpack to the batch, then go back to the pick screen where SKUSavvy will indicate the last location of the items to unpick them visually.

Unpack to the bin

Simply select the bin at the time you are unpacking to put the inventory directly back in the bin. Or, you can leave it in the batch then go into the pick screen to unpick where it came from.

Unpick to Bins

If you have just picked or you unpacked to the batch, you will see a 'unpick' button from the visual pick screen. Simply tap on the unpick button for an item, select the quantity and confirm.

Select the pick location and quantity being unpicked

Handling Pickup Orders

Please refer to the guide below which will take you through the workflow to efficiently handle online pickup orders. 

Related Guides

Learn everything you need to know about fulfilling orders within a batch

Understand the settings affecting your account and everything related to workflow options