Have you ever wondered what went into your order or who all touched your order? We have come a long way from using paper and pen to pick customer orders. After Harbor receives items from the manufacturer, they are staged in excess locations. Our warehouse management system or WMS directs users where to place pallets in overstock and when to pull them down to fulfill orders. Our warehouse operation is always looking for new ways to be more efficient and innovative. From tools for order selection to ways to give order selectors instant achievements and gratification.

The order selection department primarily operates Sunday through Thursday and starts picking orders at 2 PM. Orders that are being picked are put on trucks that night and delivered to the customer the next day. Almost as soon as an order is entered, we are printing tags and distributing them to their departments.

Order selectors predominately use a voice picking system. Order selectors train their voice unit with a list of commands. They can then interact via a headset and confirm the correct item, quantity, and verify route information. This gives the team member an overall hands-free experience.

Any each-picking is done as a team and picked into a tote. Team members work together to finish routes in tandem to keep the flow of the warehouse smooth and efficient. Totes are worked on together and sent to an automated sorting system where totes can be organized by pallet and route. We call this area of the warehouse the merge. They are then sent to our consolidation department where they scan and verify correct totes are being put on the correct pallet.

Case picking is when a customer orders a full case of an item rather than a partial. These departments use a riding pallet jack to complete a pallet at a time. An order selector in the department will start an order with an empty pallet. It is their responsibility to make sure that it is built in a way to make our transportation team efficient as well. The order selector must consider weight of the item, stop on the route, food safety requirements, as well as where they are placing the picking tag. This is all done while still being accurate and efficient.

After pallets are completed and wrapped, they are put onto Harbor dedicated trailers for our motivated and friendly transportation team to deliver to our customers. Order selectors are one of the key roles at Harbor and are essential in getting items to our trusted customers. This position has been a gateway for a lot of Harbor team members that have been promoted into customer service, IT, purchasing, and beyond.