A picking area is a storage type or a section within a storage type in which all picking activities are carried out in the same way. The picking area groups storage bins together from the standpoint of picking strategies and is a symmetrical counterpart to the storage section, which groups bins from the standpoint of putaway strategies. The picking area is therefore parallel in nature to the storage section and is situated hierarchically between the storage type and storage bin.

In the SAP Retail system, for example, all items in a delivery (or in several deliveries) are usually printed out on the one picking list. If you define separate picking areas, the system can automatically split the picking list, so that the lists can be picked at the same time, rather than sequentially. This speeds up the shipping process. The individual parts of the picking list form different transfer orders.

To use picking areas, you must maintain the following data in the Master Data section of the Warehouse Management IMG:

• You define one or more picking areas for a particular warehouse and a particular storage type. You can also define a printer for each picking area.

• You determine for each warehouse whether transfer orders can be split for a delivery. You can also print separate picking lists.