Pick to tote

In the context of order fulfillment operations, "pick to tote" is a picking method used in warehouses or distribution centers to efficiently pick multiple orders at once then assigning those items to a tote which represents a customer order. Here's how it works in SKUSavvy:

1. Tote Selection: In a pick to tote system, each batch is created by selecting the number of totes on a pick cart. Each tote is designated for a specific order in the batch and the orders are curated by the system then a batch is generated

2. Pick Cart Label: With a batch created and selected a picker scans their pick cart, or creates and assigns a label to the cart they will pick the batch with. This matches the system to the cart which will contain orders

3. Order Information: Order pickers receive information about the items they need to pick, location of the items, and the quantities required for each order

4. Picking Process: Order pickers move through the warehouse to locate the items required for their assigned orders. Once an item is marked picked, the system indicates what quantity should be placed in each of the corresponding totes assigned to the batch. Pickers can optionally scan the item, then scan the tote directly

5. Efficiency: Pick to tote is designed to be an efficient picking method. It reduces the need for order pickers to constantly return to a central packing area to place items into individual orders. Instead, they pick items directly into the totes, and these totes can be scanned during fulfillment to bring up the order information for each package

6. Sorting and Packing: Once the order picker has completed picking for their assigned orders, the totes are often sorted or moved to a packing area. Here, the totes are scanned or selected with the system showing the appropriate customer order cartons or packages for shipping and items are emptied from the tote

The pick to tote method is particularly useful in high-volume order fulfillment environments where efficiency and accuracy are essential. It reduces travel time for order pickers and minimizes the risk of errors during order assembly. This method is commonly used in e-commerce warehouses and distribution centers to streamline the picking and packing process.

Once you've clicked into Batch Shipments you'll see an option at the top to 'Pick to Tote' which should be turned on, then you'll select the number of totes you are going to use in the batch.

• 1) Select 'Pick to Tote' as the batching option

• 2) Enter the number of totes you plan to use (this will be one order per tote)

• 3) Click 'Batch' and SKUSavvy will auto-select the orders for the batch

The first time you use pick to tote you will want to label the cart and your totes with barcodes if you plan on using barcode scanning functionality with this pick method.

Click into a Pick to Tote Fulfillment Batch

When you click into a batch created with pick to tote the first screen you'll see is the cart barcode creation or assignment screen. Your pick carts only need to be assigned a barcode once, then you can reuse them.

Print Tote Batch (Cart) Barcode

• 1) Scan your existing cart barcode to assign this batch. If you've previously printed a barcode at this step, it can be reused across different batches when the cart is empty

• 2) Generate a new barcode for pick carts if this is the first time using pick-to-tote, or you are adding additional carts for fulfillment

• 3) Print the cart barcode (or optionally skip this step)

• 4) Assign a name to the barcode

• 5) Barcode for the cart, which can be scanned on future pic-to-tote batches

Once you click into a tote batch you can print all your tote barcodes for the batch. Tote barcodes are reusable and detected by the system then automatically assigned to the batch if you have them physically printed out on the tote already. Otherwise you will want to print tote barcodes out as you have totes being added to different pick carts.

• 1) Indicates you are in a tote batch

• 2) Pull up the totes, their contents, and printing of tote labels

Pull up the 'Tote Contents' to print your generated tote labels

In this stage there has not been any product allocated to the totes so tote contents are empty

Click the 3-dot batch menu to indicate how many columns your pick cart has

Next up is to begin picking product and letting SKUSavvy work its magic to indicate which tote you should place product into. To start, go back into the pick screen for your pick to tote batch and pick as normal. You can of course also use barcode scanning for this.

1) Pick or scan your products from the pick list as usual
2) Allocate items to your totes by tapping or if using a hardware scanner you can simply scan the product, then scan the tote to allocate automatically

The tote screen is shown as a side view of your pick cart and each tote is on its own row of the cart

3) Shows where products has already been allocated to a tote via scan or tap
4) Indicates a different order/new tote to allocate additional quantity to
5) Commit what has already been placed in totes ignoring the rest of the currently picked quantity - this will allocate some quantity to the tote and take you back to the pick screen

If you are using hardware barcode scanners, you can simply continue scanning items, then scan tote bins to allocate the quantity

After you have started picking and allocating items to totes, SKUSavvy will provide a display of each tote and each of the contents in that tote. This can be viewed by clicking on the 'Tote Contents' button from the main pick screen.

The tote contents will show you each tote, and all current items that have been allocated to the tote. Remember, each tote is an order.

• 1) Order number, which is also the tote ID (barcode is separate

• 2) Print tote barcode

• 3) Contents of the tote