The Challenge
An Israeli textile store selling online and managing an independent warehouse with hundreds of items in various variations — sizes, colors, fabric types, and models. Approximately 200 orders per day, about 6,000 per month, a team of 3 warehouse workers, and a picking process entirely based on printed sheets.
The issue wasn't the volume of work but its accuracy. When a warehouse worker searches for a product by name on a printed sheet, without any verification mechanism — mistakes are inevitable.
Main Issues
- Manual picking without verification — the worker reads a product name from a printed sheet, searches on the shelf, and places it in a bag. There is no step to check that the product taken is indeed the product ordered
- Confusion between variations — a single-size sheet in cream looks almost identical to a double sheet in white. A towel 50x100 and 70x140 in the same color? Impossible to distinguish by eye
- Late discovery — the mistake is only discovered when the customer opens the package at home. By then, shipping fees have been paid, and the business needs to pay again for return shipping and reshipping the correct product
- High cost for each mistake — return shipping, reshipping, employee time to handle the complaint, repackaging, and sometimes a product that returns in a condition that cannot be resold. Average cost per mistake: ₪150-200
- Inaccurate inventory — without digital tracking of what was taken from the shelf, inventory counts always showed discrepancies. Products that the system showed as in stock were not on the shelf, and vice versa
₪19,000
Monthly cost of packaging errors
~120
Incorrect orders per month
Out of 6,000 orders per month, about 2% were sent with an error — approximately 120 orders. Each one was a disappointed customer, a return to handle, and a cost absorbed into the profit.
