Automating the Warehouse Floor
Cutting pick-to-ship time in half without adding headcount.
Overview
Brightline Industrial runs three regional distribution centers that were still coordinating picking, packing, and shipping through printed pick lists and radio callouts, even as order volume tripled over two years.
The Challenge
Manual, paper-based picking created bottlenecks and errors that got worse as order volume grew, with no real-time visibility into where an order actually was in the warehouse.
- ›Pick errors ran near 4%, each requiring manual reconciliation
- ›Supervisors had no live view of picker location or order progress
- ›Paper pick lists meant reprinting and re-routing whenever inventory shifted
- ›Onboarding a new picker took two weeks of shadowing before they were reliable
The Solution
We connected handheld scanners, conveyor sensors, and a new routing engine into a single automation layer that assigns and re-routes picks in real time.
- ›Built a dynamic pick-routing engine that reassigns tasks as inventory changes
- ›Connected conveyor and scale sensors over MQTT for real-time order tracking
- ›Replaced paper pick lists with handheld scanner workflows and guided picking
- ›Delivered a supervisor dashboard showing live throughput per zone and picker
Results
Pick-to-ship time was cut roughly in half across all three centers, and new pickers now reach full productivity in days instead of weeks.
-51%
Average pick-to-ship time
-89%
Pick error rate
3
Distribution centers automated
2 days
New picker ramp-up time
“Our supervisors used to walk the floor guessing where things stood. Now they just look at a screen.”
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