Picking Area (SAP Library - Warehouse Management Guide)

Picking Area

Definition

A picking area is 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 viewpoint of picking strategies and is a counterpart to the storage section, which groups bins from the viewpoint of putaway strategies.

Use

In Warehouse Management (WM), all items of a delivery or several deliveries are printed out on a pick list. If you define separate picking areas, the system can automatically split up the pick list by picking areas. This enables you to execute parallel picking in these areas and thus accelerate the shipping process. The individual parts of the picking list form different transfer orders.

You define picking areas A, B and C and assigned each area to a different employee. You executing picking for a delivery whose materials are stored in all three picking areas.

The system automatically splits the pick list into the three areas: the list for section A contains only the materials that are stored in area A, and the same applies to areas B and C. The system creates a transfer order for each picking area, that is, there are three transfer orders for this delivery.

To be able to use picking areas, first define the following data in Customizing for Warehouse Management under the path Master data ® Define Picking Areas:

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