{"id":61087,"date":"2024-12-25T14:18:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T19:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.flexpipeinc.com\/?post_type=structure&p=61087"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:12:14","slug":"warehouse-picking-cart","status":"publish","type":"structure","link":"https:\/\/www.flexpipeinc.com\/ca_en\/structure\/cart\/warehouse-picking-cart\/","title":{"rendered":"Warehouse Picking Carts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Picking carts are used in order fulfillment<\/a> centers by warehouse employees who pick products from shelves to complete customer orders. With today\u2019s constantly changing markets and the need to react to ever-changing customer preferences, a modular, scalable, and easily modified picking cart is best \u2013 one that can quickly adjust to changing order sizes, volumes, and requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efficient order fulfillment with a picking cart is a question of flexibility, availability, and cost control. Fixed or welded picking carts are expensive ($700 to $900). Modifying or changing the structure of a welded picking cart involves sending welded picking carts to the manufacturer or a third-party contractor for refurbishment, waiting days or weeks, and incurring significant rework costs that are often higher than the cart’s original sticker price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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This is why today\u2019s lean order fulfillment environments have embraced the modularity and scalability of steel tube and joint picking carts and material handling structures. Far less expensive upfront ($250 to $300), steel tube and joint picking carts can easily be modified or adjusted onsite within the warehouse \u2013 sometimes within mere minutes \u2013 saving warehouse operations considerable time, resources, and money while ensuring optimal material handling efficiency<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Understanding Picking Carts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An all-too-common mistake is assuming that all mobile carts are the same and serve the same purpose. They don\u2019t. Kitting carts transport a \u201ckit\u201d or \u201cpackage\u201d of materials, parts, and components to production so employees can assemble a product. WIP \u201cwork-in-process\u201d carts transport semi-finished products to different production workstations. Truck carts hold finished products for packaging or storage, and tugger carts move packaged goods, materials, and finished products to different warehouse locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A picking cart serves none of these purposes. Picking carts simplifies order fulfillment. Steel tubes and joint picking carts can be assembled within the warehouse. They can be made to include multiple levels and numerous customized bin locations. A modular, scalable picking cart made of steel tubes and joints means warehouse and order fulfillment centers can easily modify their picking carts to account for new products and changing customer orders.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warehouse employees use picking carts to pick various products and accessories from warehouse shelves. By identifying specific bin locations via a pick list or order fulfillment sheet, warehouse employees can move from one stock, storage, and racking area of the warehouse to the next, picking various products and accessories and placing them on the picking cart until an order is complete.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The above image is a perfect example of the customization that can be accomplished with steel tubes and joint picking carts. This warehouse picking cart has casters at the bottom with foot brakes, ensuring that warehouse employees can apply the brake to keep the picking cart stationary. The customized configuration includes two columns with eleven placement areas for sheet placements along with three customized bin locations on the far right and a flat-level storage area at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Benefits of Using Picking Carts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Modular and scalable steel tube and joint picking carts are the ultimate in warehouse order fulfillment efficiency<\/a>. They can be configured to act as a fail-safe, Poka-Yoke solution that dramatically reduces picking errors by ensuring only the right-sized products, accessories and add-ons fit into bins. They can be configured alongside Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) to include RFID barcode scanners to improve inventory counting and accuracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modular and scalable steel tubes and joint picking carts can be assembled to maximize available space between adjacent storage, shelving, and industrial racking structures. This provides warehouse employees with sufficient space on either side of the picking cart, allowing them to pick various items without interference or having to constantly walk around the picking cart.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An all-too-common occurrence for warehouses with fixed industrial storage racking is to purchase a welded picking cart whose dimensions are too wide, making picking various items for order fulfillment time-consuming, dangerous, and cumbersome.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With steel tubes and joint picking carts, the emphasis is on modularity and scalability, creating a tailor-made picking cart whose dimensions and bin storage areas are customized to your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Warehouses can also customize their steel tube and joint picking carts for single-pass order fulfillment, helping to reduce multiple trips to and from storage, packaging, and shipping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With conventional welded picking carts, there is an inherent limitation in how many products can be picked and placed onto the cart. That means wasted time spent picking parts and transporting them to packaging and shipping on multiple passes. Multiple trips due to storage limitations of welded carts have a direct impact on warehouse costs and efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With steel tubes and joint picking carts, all that movement waste is eliminated. Assembling a cart that allows for single-pass order fulfillment increases efficiencies and reduces costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With steel tubes and joint picking carts, flexibility, cost, ergonomics, safety, and functionality are always front and center.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Drawbacks of Welded, Fixed Picking Carts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With expensive conventional welded picking carts, there is no flexibility. These fixed, welded picking carts cannot be changed or modified without incurring significant rework costs and downtime. Welded carts are not customized to a warehouse\u2019s specific bin sizes or product dimensions. Having a \u201ccustomized\u201d welded cart serves no purpose as these always include high non-recurring engineering (NRE) design and assembly costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most often, welded picking carts have a maximum of two to three levels with no spacing on any level to account for different warehouse bins, boxes, products, or part sizes. Welded carts are generalized stand-alone designs. They\u2019re manufactured as standard product offerings, forcing warehouses to change their material handling, picking, and order fulfillment processes to accommodate the limited functionality of the welded carts.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A standard design configuration of welded picking carts is a flatbed cart with no means of safely securing parts and products. This is a serious safety concern for warehouse employees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Additional issues with welded carts include a lack of warehouse employee ergonomics and safety. In terms of order fulfillment, products are allowed to move freely on welded carts, often falling off and causing accidents, trips, slips, falls, or extensive product damage. In the worst cases, a flatbed cart with no means of safely securing finished goods means the warehouse employees moving the cart and anyone around are susceptible to accidents and injuries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their limited functionality and flexibility, incredibly high costs, ergonomic and safety issues coupled with the constant potential for increased product damage and order fulfillment errors, welded carts should be avoided entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Picking Cart Design Principles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first and most important part of designing any modular, scalable steel tube and joint picking cart for order fulfillment is to account for the picking cart\u2019s loading capacity. This ensures the picking cart can sufficiently support whatever weight it holds while ensuring warehouse employees can easily maneuver the picking cart without over-exerting or injuring themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While safety and ergonomics<\/a> should always be a priority, another is ensuring you\u2019ve designed a steel tube and joint picking cart that is customized for your product\u2019s dimensions and bin sizes. Simple solutions like kaizen foam can protect fragile finished products from damage. Incorporating ergonomic solutions like casters with foot brakes helps to keep picking carts stationary, helping to avoid roll-back accidents.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Creating structural reinforcements with extra steel tubes and durable steel corner, 4-way, 3-way, and angled cross joints to support each level of the picking cart is another important design element. Given the low cost per foot of steel tubes, adding a single three-foot steel support angle with two joints typically costs less than $10 \u2013 making reinforcements affordable, simple, and quick.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, using heavy-duty, high-strength 1 & 9\/16′ square steel tubes<\/a> for the base of picking carts creates a solid foundation for the entire structure where weight distribution is always optimized for safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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