Pick-to-Light
Definition
Pick-to-light is an order picking technology that uses light displays mounted at storage locations to show workers exactly where to pick and how many units to take, confirmed at the press of a button.
In Practice
When an order arrives at a pick zone, lights illuminate at the required locations with a digit display showing quantity. The picker grabs the items, presses the confirm button, and the light extinguishes — no paper list, no scanner aiming, minimal reading. Put-to-light reverses the idea, guiding workers sorting batch-picked items into order slots.
Pick-to-light suits high-density, fast-moving SKUs in a compact zone — think cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, or e-commerce forward-pick areas — where it delivers some of the highest pick rates and lowest error rates of any manual method. Its limits are cost per location and inflexibility, so slow movers rarely justify the hardware.
Example: a beauty products DC puts its 800 fastest SKUs in a pick-to-light zone; new temporary workers hit full productivity in under an hour, and mispicks drop below one per 10,000 lines.
Related Terms
Voice picking is a hands-free, eyes-free warehouse method where workers wear a headset that speaks pick instructions and listens for spoken confirmations, communicating with the WMS in real time.
Warehouse Management System (WMS)A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is software that directs and records all activity inside a warehouse — receiving, putaway, picking, packing, and shipping — down to the individual location and unit.
Warehouse AutomationWarehouse automation is the use of mechanized and robotic systems — conveyors, sorters, AS/RS, mobile robots, automated packing — to move, store, pick, and sort goods with less manual labor.
Barcode ScanningBarcode scanning is the use of optical scanners to read printed codes (UPC, Code 128, QR, GS1 labels) that identify items, cartons, locations, and shipments, confirming every physical move in the system.