Warehouse operations require a strict attention to detail and a clearly designed fulfilment process. A warehouse order selector is a fulfillment operation’s first line of defense against key challenges, including inaccurate orders and slow fulfillment times. They handle each step of the process, from the retrieval of items from their inventory zones through order staging and shipment.
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Learn how order selectors support accurate fulfillment operations and how warehouse operators, hiring managers, and supervisors can hire permanent or temporary personnel to support more accurate operations and achieve their most important KPIs.
What Is the Role of a Modern Warehouse Order Selector?
Warehouse order selectors or pickers fulfill incoming orders within the warehouse by retrieving the items belonging to each order and moving them to the shipment area. Depending on the industry or the size of the operation, this core duty can entail a variety of skills.
Example #1: Warehouses that ship large equipment or store items on heavy pallets may need to use heavy machinery such as pallet jacks, forklifts, and other PITs (Powered Industrial Trucks). Order selectors who use these machines require OSHA certification for each specific worksite, including operational training for their specific vehicles.
Example #2: Modern warehouses integrate technology to expedite operations and improve accuracy. Order selectors may be required to use hand scanners, voice-activated picking systems, and other automated inventory management tools to streamline inventory tracking, reduce the chance of manual errors, and lower cycle times.
Example #3: In addition to retrieving items for shipment, order selectors also maintain the stock space, put items back after a mis-pick, and control safety factors between staging and storage routes. High-performing order selectors make safety training, item transport efficiency, and storage organization integral to their duties to maximize their impact.
Key Takeaway
Order selectors do not occupy a static role. In modern warehouse fulfillment, they manage order accuracy, timing, and organization in warehouse areas, even as project needs or seasonal demands lead to new fulfillment standards.
Benefits of Well-Trained Order Selectors in Modern Warehouse Operations
By performing these and other duties, warehouse order selectors form a foundation for accurate fulfillment. From the time the order is received to the time it leaves the warehouse in its shipment, order selectors maintain high standards for accuracy and efficiency. Their attention to detail and organization often determines the effectiveness of the overall operation.
Well-trained, certified, and experienced order selectors bring these benefits to modern fulfillment:
Lower Return Rates
According to the National Retail Foundation, returns cost the retail industry around $850 billion annually, with almost 1 in 5 online purchases being returned. Warehouses that contribute to this statistic often do so not because their products are unsatisfactory but because their warehouses send out items of the wrong type, quantity, or condition. A single mis-pick can cost the operation multiple times the value of the original order due to numerous downstream costs in the return, reprocessing, and customer satisfaction process.
Top-performing supervisors know that by keeping return rates down, they keep cost efficiency up. The right order selectors move throughout the fulfillment process to check accuracy from order receipt to shipment finalization.
Prevent Unnecessary Stocking Costs
Accuracy on orders coming in and shipments going out is only one aspect of an order selector’s duties. Another way that skilled selectors maintain accurate fulfillment is by managing internal stock levels to meet demand without storing expensive overstock.
Modern inventory management software often automates reorders, but the system can only read the inventory levels maintained by the order selectors. Mistiming order scans, missing inventory updates, or using inventory management software incorrectly can cause the warehouse to overstock on items it doesn’t need and understock on items currently being ordered.
“Inventory distortion,” or the costs of understocks and overstocks, costs global retailers $1.7 trillion every year due to unnecessary storage costs and customer service issues. Skilled order selectors keep stock levels updated to prevent warehouses from adding to these statistics.
Improve Customer Loyalty
Mis-picking an order, in addition to decreasing cost efficiency, impacts customer loyalty. Customers who receive slow or inaccurate orders are less likely to leave good reviews, buy more in the future, or recommend the business. As all fulfillment professionals know, customer satisfaction is not an isolated issue. Bad word of mouth leads to fewer new customers as well.
By maintaining order accuracy, order selectors form the backbone of a business’s reputation, increasing the lifetime value of a customer conversion. This translates to a competitive edge that frees supervisors and operators to focus on growth rather than having to handle customer service issues on a daily basis.
Consult Rapid-Response Warehouse Support to Maintain Fulfillment Accuracy With Skilled Order Selectors
At NVT Staffing Warehouse Division, we know why modern warehouse managers struggle to maintain accurate fulfillment operations. Our rapid-response staff provides the experience, attention to detail, and reliability needed to maintain accurate operations and meet industry KPIs, including picking accuracy, cycle times, and customer satisfaction. NVT order selectors and other warehouse fulfillment roles can be deployed within 72 hours of contact and do not require a long-term contract, meaning your distribution efforts can continue running smoothly regardless of demand and without overpaying for idle labor in your off-seasons.
Contact our team today to learn how rapid-response order selectors maintain accurate fulfillment operations, increase accountability in permanent staff, and meet modern standards for accuracy and satisfaction in warehouse fulfillment.