Order picking zones
The basic decision as to the organisation of order picking is whether to pick
an order in one or several zones.
In the single zone system, the order picker’s field of work extends over the
entire picking area, whereas in the multi zone system each order picker is
assigned a specific picking area.

Order picking methods
Another basic decision concerns picking methods. In most companies, order
picking is done according to the one-by-one principle, i.e. orders are picked
individually and chronologically. Only if all items of an order have been
picked will the next order be processed. In the case of parallel order
picking the items of one and the same order will be picked by several order
pickers each working in his picking area. Practice shows that this method is
mostly applied in combination with two step order picking, as
this minimises the time required between the beginning of order picking and
sortation/packaging.