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Presented by:

Jeff Lammert, Client Executive

Systems Engineering

Art Eldred, Client Executive,

Systems Engineering

Dan Perry, Senior Engineer

“Waveless” Order Processing:

Why Wave Picking is Hurting Your Business

© 2016 MHI® Copyright claimed for audiovisual works and sound recordings of seminar sessions. All rights reserved.

Definition: Wave, Autowave & Waveless Processing

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Wave Processing: (from a lean perspective) A collection of unrelated work efforts that are

combined together and the combined group is treated as an entity, the entity beginning

when the first work effort for any member of the group is initiated and the entity is

complete when all the individual efforts on all entity members are deemed finished.

Autowave Processing: (continuous flow systems) The release of additional waves for work

efforts are controlled by systemic triggers. The systemic triggers detect the completion of

all individual efforts on all entities of a combined group of work.

Waveless Processing: (continuous flow systems) Efforts required to fulfill an individual

order are related and thus each of those efforts must complete before the order is

complete. However, while the overall efforts of fulfilling many individual orders may be

performed at the same time there is no connection or dependencies between the efforts.

The efforts for each order start and complete independently from the efforts on ALL other

orders.

Source: WV Commerce Department Newsletter

Plan, Correct, Exception Monitor, Plan, Correct, Exception Correction, Plan, Correct, Exception Monitor, Plan, Correct

E-commerce Havoc on the

“Waveologists”

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Traditional Wave Processing

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Wave 2 Wave 3 Wave 4 Wave 5 Wave 6 Wave 74

Wave Completion Status – 18th Oct (actual)

Wave Completions

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Waveless Processing

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Waveless6

Sorter Capacity Utilization

Wave vs Waveless

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Sorter Completions

Wave vs Waveless

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How does waveless work?

Revolving Batch Size

For Every Order Completed 1 is Initiated

Efficiency of Batch Picking with Waveless Processing

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Waveless ≠ Batchless

• Waveless does not mean batch-less

• Larger batch size = Greater pick efficiency

– Larger batch = Greater pick density = Less distance between picks

= Less travel time

• In no case will waveless picking be less efficient than wave-

based picking Waveless Waves

Batch size Constant, revolving Diminishing as wave completes

Order prioritization Continuous At time of waving

Order introduction Continuous Only at beginning of wave

Order completion Continuous Skewed to end of wave

Impact on downstream processes

Level, continuous flow of work to packing & shipping

Uneven flow skewed to end of the wave

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Traditional Wave Processing

Two Loops, 2 Batches, 4 Orders

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Waveless Processing – Revolving Batch

Two Loops, 5+ Orders

SAME DISTANCE OF TRAVEL • 1 Additional Order • 6 Additional Pieces

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Benefit of

Waveless Prioritization

Wave #1 Wave#2 Expedited Wave Wave#3

Ord

er C

ut-

Off

Priority Order

Priority Order

“Wave-less” Continuous Processing

Ord

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New Orders Priority Order

Priority Order

Shipping Cut-off Time

New Orders

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Waveless is not new!

Notable Waveless Businesses:

Amazon, Kiva Systems Users, American Eagle,

Forever 21, Target, Levi

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Waveless Via the WES

Warehouse Execution System

• WES Synchronizes and Optimizes Across Processes and ALL WORK

Resources

• Reduce IT Complexity – Reduced systems and interfaces

– Reduced modifications

– Centralized business rules / order attributes

– Simplified upgrade pathway

– Lower level WCS is pure machine control

Traditional Siloed Infrastructure WAVELESS WES

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Sort #1 to Put-Walls - Ecom Sorter #1 to Put-Walls Expedite Sorter #2 to Retail Put to Store

Singles – Case Pick

Ecom Rush Wave #14

Wave #13

Wave #12

Wave #11

Waveless via the WES

Sort #1 to Put-Walls - Ecom Sorter #1 to Put-Walls Expedite Sorter #2 to Retail Put-To-Store

Singles – Case Pick

Fulfillment Center Workflows

30m 2hrs 1.5hrs 2hrs

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WES

WES

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•Most exception orders are due to “late” items

•By definition late items do arrive - but in a wave based system they are after the wave is

closed

•Waveless systems have NO wave closing

•Chutes remain assigned to an order until either the last item arrives or the chute “times out”

•In waveless systems chute timeouts can be quite long since chutes are dynamically

assigned and some chutes complete early and can be re-used. This reduces the

immediate need for the late item order chute. This added time allows many late item

orders to close without additional problem resolution activity.

Waveless Exception Handling Wave vs Waveless

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• Automatically compensates for changes in:

• Work requirements

• Work priorities

• Work resources

• Resource availability exceptions

• Plan is built incrementally as work progresses

• No need to “un-plan” in order to create a new plan

• Recognizes that most tasks are exception free while those that have exceptions just take additional time

to resolve

• Takes advantage of exception “opportunities” when possible

Key to Waveless Processing is

Dynamic Optimization

Benefits of Waveless

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For More Information:

Speaker: Jeff Lammert, jlammert@vargomail.com

Speaker: Art Eldred, aeldred@vargomail.com

website: www.vargosolutions.com

Or visit MODEX 2016 Booth #4978

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