> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tryoto.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Warehouse picking methods and waves > Choose between the four picking strategies in OTO PACK, group orders into waves, sort and consolidate items, scan serial numbers and handle picking errors. > [!NOTE] > > **Where to find it:** OTO PACK → Operations → Wave Picking — [Open in OTO ↗](https://app.tryoto.com/operations) Picking is where warehouse labour is won or lost. The item is the same either way; what changes is how far someone walks to reach it, and how many orders that walk serves. ## The four strategies OTO PACK supports four, and the right one depends on what your order profile looks like rather than on which is most sophisticated. | Strategy | How it works | Best for | | - | - | - | | **Single order picking** | One picker, one order, start to finish. A wave is created for that single order. | High-priority orders where the clock on *that* order is what matters. | | **Batch picking** | Orders with overlapping items are grouped so the same bin is visited once for several orders. | Warehouses where many orders contain the same few products. | | **Wave picking** | One picker handles several orders in one pass, reducing average time per order. | General throughput. Wave size is tunable in Advanced. | | **Zone picking** | Pickers are assigned to zones and only pick within theirs; the order is assembled from several zones. | Large warehouses, or ones with specialised areas and teams. | > [!TIP] > > **The trade-off** > > Every strategy past single-order picking buys walking time with sorting time: pick many orders together and you must afterwards separate them. That is what the **Sorting** stage is for, and why it is a tab of its own. ## Waves A wave is a batch of picking work, and it is the unit the whole picking stage is organized around. Waves are visible at **OTO PACK → Operations → Wave Picking**. ### Creating waves Three ways, in increasing order of leaving you alone: | Method | What it is | | - | - | | **By hand** | Select orders and make a wave of them. Necessary for a rush order. | | **Wave Creation Pilot** | A two-step guided tool — **Select Orders**, then **Create Wave** — that filters the pending orders into a sensible grouping for you. | | **Automatic wave creation** | Waves are formed on rules without anyone asking, so pickers always have work queued. | ![Wave Creation Pilot](https://mintcdn.com/oto/ft-bRlLvOnJkbVoC/images/wms-3-wave-pilot.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=ft-bRlLvOnJkbVoC\&q=85\&s=53491be6d508a3dcd9d79fd885225620) Fig. 1 — Pick a warehouse and a type of order; the counters above the list show how many SKUs and orders the filter has caught before you commit to a wave. ### Order segregation — the four types The pilot’s **Type of Orders** filter is where segregation actually happens. Four types, and each produces a materially different kind of picking round: | Type | What lands in the wave | Why group them | | - | - | - | | **Single Item Orders** | Orders of one item. | The fastest wave in any warehouse — no sorting stage at all, because every pick *is* an order. Run these as their own wave and they fly. | | **Identical Orders** | Orders containing the same items as each other. | One bin visit serves many orders. The purest form of batch picking. | | **Multiple Item Orders** | Orders with several lines. | These need sorting afterwards, so keeping them together keeps the sorting station busy in one block instead of trickling. | | **Unique Orders** | Orders whose items nothing else in the queue shares. | Nothing to be gained by batching them, so they are best isolated rather than left to dilute a wave that would otherwise be efficient. | > [!TIP] > > **The single-item wave is the easy win** > > If you do nothing else with segregation, separate the single-item orders. They skip sorting entirely, which is the most expensive stage in a multi-order pick — and in most consumer catalogues they are a large share of the day’s volume. The list beneath shows each candidate order with its **SKU’s**, **Quantities** and **Total Quantity**, all filterable, so a wave can be trimmed by hand before it is created. ### Wave size Tunable in Advanced, and one of the few genuinely consequential numbers in a warehouse. Waves that are too small waste the walk; too large and the sorting stage becomes the bottleneck, and a single problem item holds up more orders. ### Assigning pickers Two models, matching the two editions: | Edition | How work reaches a picker | | - | - | | **Basic** | A supervisor assigns pickers to orders. | | **Advanced** | Picker assignment automation distributes wave tasks without a supervisor in the loop. | Zones can carry a default picker, so work in a zone routes to its owner automatically. ## Sorting and consolidation After a multi-order pick, items are separated into their orders at a sorting station. The app directs each item to its slot: scan the product and it tells you which bin it belongs in. As the screen puts it, *“Scan the product you want to locate in sorting bins.”* That direction is what makes the stage reliable. Sorting by eye against a printed list is exactly where a multi-order pick gives back what it saved. ![Sorting in the app](https://mintcdn.com/oto/ft-bRlLvOnJkbVoC/images/wms-4-sort.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=ft-bRlLvOnJkbVoC\&q=85\&s=539584ca36536c6f8e2e51f57774c9cc) Fig. 2 — The Fill / Empty toggle is the whole stage in two words — filling bins from the pick, then emptying them into packing. | Mode | What you are doing | | - | - | | **Fill** | Distributing a completed pick into the sorting bins, one order per bin. | | **Empty** | Taking a finished bin out — its order is complete and ready to pack. | Either mode accepts a scan or a typed **SKU or Barcode Number**, so a damaged label does not stop the line. ## Serial numbers Where products are serialised, the serial number is validated **during picking** rather than at packing. Catching the wrong unit at the bin, rather than at the bench, avoids an unnecessary walk back — and for high-value or warranty-tracked goods it ties a specific unit to a specific order from the earliest possible moment. See [Product configuration](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/inventory-management/product-configuration.md) for how serialisation is set up. ## Picking an item The **ITEMS** screen is where a picker spends the walk. It opens with one instruction — **Scan bin location** — because the first thing to establish is that the picker is standing at the right shelf, not that they are holding the right product. ![Picking an item across two bins](https://mintcdn.com/oto/YkJay8Y-1RDv8ciw/images/wms-5-pick-items.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=YkJay8Y-1RDv8ciw\&q=85\&s=0522086dd453165d341983b27f6c72ac) Fig. 3 — The same SKU is stocked in SDC\_B001 and SDC\_C002; the picker takes what they need from either and the app tracks progress against the required quantity. Each item carries what someone at a shelf needs to identify it without hesitating: | On the item | Why it is there | | - | - | | **Photo** and product name | Faster and more certain than a description, particularly across a language barrier. | | **SKU** and **barcode** | Both shown, because either can be scanned and either might be the label on the box. | | **Bin locations** | Every bin holding this SKU, listed on the item itself. | | **Progress badge** | Picked against required — `0/100` until the count is made up. | ### One SKU, several bins The bin table beneath is the part that matters on a real warehouse floor. It lists every bin holding the item with its **Available** quantity, and a separate **QTY** stepper per bin. So a picker needing 100 units, facing 100 in one bin and 151 in another, decides where to take them from — and records it. The system knows which bin was drawn down, not merely that the item left the building. > [!TIP] > > **This is what keeps bin counts true** > > A system that only records *the item was picked* loses track of where stock actually sits within a week. Recording the bin at the moment of picking is what makes [cycle counts](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/inventory-management/inventory-count.md) match, replenishment suggestions sensible, and the next picker's walk short. > > It also gives the picker a choice they are qualified to make — take from the bin that is closer, or the one that is nearly empty and wants clearing. ## When picking goes wrong Stock that should be there sometimes is not. The screen offers **Not Available** alongside **Complete**, so a short pick is a first-class outcome rather than an error: the picker records what was actually found, and the order continues on that basis instead of stalling. > [!TIP] > > **Short picks are data** > > A bin that repeatedly short-picks is a bin whose count is wrong. Reading partial picks as a signal rather than an inconvenience is the cheapest inventory accuracy programme available — it is the same information a [cycle count](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/inventory-management/inventory-count.md) would have cost you a shift to discover. > > And because the bin was recorded at the point of picking, you know *which* bin to go and look at. ## Related * [Inbound and putaway](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/warehouse-management/inbound-putaway.md) — bins and zones, which decide how far anyone walks. * [Packing and dispatch](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/warehouse-management/packing-dispatch.md) — what happens to a completed wave. * [Hubs Management](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/hubs-management/overview.md) — picking method configured per hub. ## Related topics - [Add and configure warehouses and branches](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/hubs-management/hubs-management.md) - [OTO PACK mobile app for warehouse staff](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/warehouse-management/ops.md) - [Warehouse Management](https://docs.tryoto.com/modules/warehouse-management/overview.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.