Pick to Pack Process
Why small pilots beat plant-wide overhauls every time
Written By: David Carneal – Digital Efficiency Consulting Group (DECG)
When you look at your entire plant and think about fixing the pick-to-pack process everywhere, it can feel overwhelming. Different products, different customers, different personalities — it’s a lot. The trick is not to fix everything at once. It’s to pick one line or one product family and treat it as a small, focused pilot.
Choose a pilot area with real impact
Start where the pain is real but manageable: a high-volume product family, a key customer, or a line where your team is already engaged. You want enough activity to see patterns, but not so much complexity that every change turns into a debate.
Run a short, time-boxed experiment
For a few weeks, focus on that one area. Map the current pick-to-pack flow, try a couple of small changes in layout, ticket design, or checks, and measure what happens: fewer delays, fewer errors, less time spent chasing information. Keep the experiment short enough that people can see the finish line.
Capture what worked and copy it with care
At the end of the pilot, sit down with the people who lived through it and ask three questions: What helped? What didn’t? What should we copy somewhere else? Turn those answers into a simple “playbook” for that flow — a few pages, not a novel — and use it as the template when you expand to other lines.
This approach respects your people’s time and avoids the drama of plant-wide rollouts that never quite land. It’s a steady, low-risk way to turn small operational wins into lasting change.