Order Picking

Pulling the exact items an order calls for, one by one, off warehouse shelves or out of bins.

Order picking is a core step in warehouse logistics: pulling the quantities of items a customer order specifies out of inventory, then consolidating them for shipping. It splits into pallet-level, case-level, and piece-level picking. Piece picking has to handle thousands of different SKUs (stock-keeping units, meaning distinct product listings) in wildly varying shapes, materials, and packaging, often including soft bags and transparent items, which makes it the hardest form to automate. Robotic solutions typically use 3D vision to identify an item and plan a grasp point, then lift it with a suction cup or gripper into the order bin. Amazon has run picking challenges to push the research forward (the first drew 26 teams) and has released its Sparrow and, later, the touch-sensing Vulcan picking robots — Vulcan is reported to handle around 75% of the product types in Amazon's warehouses.

ExampleIn an e-commerce warehouse, shelves are brought to a workstation by a mobile robot; a robot arm uses vision to identify a tube of toothpaste and a pack of tissues in a storage bin, then suction-picks each one into the same order's shipping box.

Also called

Piece Picking

Related

Bin Picking · Pick-and-Place · Sorting · Tote Handling · Amazon Vulcan · Amazon Picking Challenge

Sources

Order picking - Wikipedia
Analysis and Observations from the First Amazon Picking Challenge
Amazon Vulcan: robot with a sense of touch for picking and stowing

As of

2025