How Many Kilometers Does Your Warehouse Operator Walk Every Day?
Your warehouse may not be slow. It may simply be making people walk too much.
Warehouse productivity is usually measured through picks per hour, order fulfillment rates and labor costs. Yet one factor often receives far less attention: the distance operators travel to complete their daily tasks.
In large distribution centers, where thousands of SKUs are stored and hundreds of orders are processed every day, even small inefficiencies in product placement or picking routes can add up to significant amounts of unnecessary movement.
And while warehouse management systems capture valuable operational data, that information is not always used to understand how much travel could actually be avoided.
Every unnecessary step adds up
A warehouse can meet its daily targets and still operate below its potential.
Orders are picked, shipments leave on time, and warehouse teams work efficiently within the processes they have been given. But as the business grows, those processes may no longer be the most effective.
Products that were once rarely ordered become fast movers. New SKUs are introduced, customer ordering patterns change, and seasonal demand creates new priorities.
Meanwhile, storage locations and picking rules often remain unchanged.
Warehouse teams know their products, processes and daily challenges very well. Their experience is valuable, but managing thousands of SKUs and constantly changing order patterns requires more than operational knowledge alone.
The challenge is not necessarily how fast people work, but how much unnecessary movement the warehouse requires them to make.
And that movement has a cost.
Every additional meter increases picking time. Across thousands of picking activities, those extra meters become hours of labor and lost operational capacity.
Two decisions that determine travel distance
Reducing unnecessary movement starts with understanding two closely connected aspects of warehouse operations: where products are stored and how operators move between them.
Slotting optimization determines the most efficient storage locations for products based on picking frequency, order history, product characteristics and items frequently ordered together.
Dynamic routing determines the most efficient sequence of picking locations for each order, reducing the distance operators need to travel.
These two decisions are closely connected.
Even an efficiently organized warehouse can lose valuable time if picking routes are poorly planned. Likewise, optimized routes cannot fully compensate for products stored in inefficient locations.
The greatest opportunity lies in optimizing both.
From warehouse data to smarter decisions
Most modern warehouses already generate substantial amounts of operational data through their WMS and ERP systems.
Order histories, picking frequencies, SKU characteristics and warehouse layouts contain valuable information about how the operation actually works.
The challenge is turning that information into practical improvements.
This is where data-driven warehouse optimization changes the approach.
Instead of relying only on historical practices or manually adjusting storage locations, warehouse managers can analyze actual picking patterns, identify inefficient product placement and evaluate alternative scenarios.
More importantly, they can assess the potential impact of those changes before introducing them into daily operations.
How Slotter turns data into measurable improvements
Developed by Logit, Slotter combines intelligent slotting and dynamic picking route optimization to help large warehouses reduce unnecessary movement and improve picking efficiency.
Using operational data from existing WMS and ERP systems, Slotter analyzes product demand, picking patterns, warehouse layout and operational constraints to identify more efficient storage locations and picking routes.
One of its key advantages is the ability to simulate proposed changes using historical order data.
Instead of physically relocating products and hoping for better results, warehouse teams can compare their current operations with optimized scenarios and estimate potential travel distance reductions before making changes.
The objective is not to redesign the entire warehouse, but to identify where targeted improvements can deliver the greatest operational benefit.
What do the results show?
Slotter has been tested in real warehouse environments, using historical orders and actual operational data rather than generic industry averages.
In one pilot project, a simulation showed the potential to reduce total picking travel distance by 44% compared with the existing warehouse layout.
The level of improvement naturally varies depending on warehouse layout, SKU distribution, order patterns and operational constraints. This is why Slotter evaluates the optimization potential of each warehouse using its own data, allowing companies to assess the expected impact before physically relocating any products.
For large distribution centers with extensive SKU portfolios and high picking volumes, shorter travel distances can translate into faster order picking, higher productivity, better workforce utilization and lower operational costs.
These improvements come from making smarter use of existing warehouse space, resources and data.
Optimization without replacing your existing systems
Warehouse optimization does not necessarily require a new WMS, major infrastructure investments or a complete redesign of existing processes.
Slotter works alongside existing WMS and ERP systems, receiving the required operational data through API integration or file-based data exchange. It uses that data to prepare optimized product placement plans and picking routes for warehouse teams.
The existing WMS continues to manage inventory, storage locations and the execution of warehouse tasks.
As product demand and order patterns evolve, optimization can also become a continuous process rather than a one-time improvement project.
The most efficient warehouse is not the one where people work harder
It is the one where people do not have to spend time on activities that add no value.
In large warehouses, every unnecessary kilometer represents time, labor and capacity that could be used more effectively.
And sometimes, the biggest productivity improvements do not come from expanding the warehouse, hiring more people or introducing new equipment.
They come from taking a closer look at how the warehouse already operates.
How much unnecessary travel is hidden in your warehouse?
Discover how Slotter can help you optimize product placement, reduce picking distances and make better use of your existing warehouse resources.