A warehouse teeming with workers over its hundreds of thousands of square feet may not experience downtime in the traditional sense, but there are plenty of ways in which time is wasted on the sly while people appear to be working their tails off. Unscheduled maintenance, long transit times, and communication hang-ups are among the most popular ways that we waste time on the job. Whether we're too lazy to fix them or too stubborn to entertain new methods, there's no denying that we're often wasting time when a little forethought and preparation will go a long way to increase productivity and reduce effort.

Of all the things involved in running a warehouse to make operations managers furrow their brows, order picking efficiency has to top the list. The process by which your workers pick and pack orders contributes to the highest costs of running your business, as well as your greatest losses in productivity when things don't running smoothly.