Vad orsakar plockfel? En kvantitativ analys av faktorer som påverkar förekomsten och omfattningen av plockfel : En studie av felorsaker i varulager med hänsyn till plockfel, dess förekomst och omfattning

Sammanfattning

Background: Order picking is the process of retrieving articles from storage locations to fulfill an order from a customer. When the warehouse fails to fulfill the customer’s order, it is referred to as a picking error. Most of the order picking is still done manually by operators. Manual order picking is the most cost-intensive operation of the warehouse. This is because picking errors result in expensive reclamations due to additional administrative work and picking to correct the order. However, the factors behind picking errors in order picking have received limited attention in previous research. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to generate new knowledge regarding which human, organizational, and technical factors influence the occurrence of picking errors in warehouse operations. Methods: This study is based on a quantitative research design centered on two different regression models, a Firth’s penalized logistic regression and a truncated negative binomial regression. The empirical data has been collected from a warehouse in Sweden for ten months with affiliated order reclamations. Results: The result indicated that picking errors are associated with factors linked to physical, mental, and organizational aspects. Amongst others, the results showed that the number of articles in an order, picking time, picking zones, and the number of operators working on an order all influence the probability of an order having a picking error. With respect to the quantity of picking errors per order, the result indicated that factors such as total weight, picking zones, the amount of time until the next break, the number of unique articles in an order, and the number of operators working on an order all influence the size of the picking error. Conclusions: The study concludes that both organizational, human, and technological factors influence the occurrence and the quantity of a picking error. More specifically, factors related to mental and physical fatigue can be linked to the reason why these types of errors occur.