What is task interleaving?
Task interleaving gives a worker a mixed sequence of tasks, such as a putaway followed by a nearby pick, so fewer trips are made empty-handed.
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Fewer empty trips
A forklift driver who only does putaways drives loaded one way and empty the other. Interleaving fills the return trip with another task, such as bringing a pallet down for a pick or a refill.
It needs the system to direct work, because only the system can see every open task and where each one starts.
Worked example
In this example, a driver puts a pallet away in aisle 9. Instead of returning empty, the next task is a full pallet pick in aisle 10 headed for outbound staging.
Across a shift of 60 putaways, the driver makes about 40 fewer empty trips.
How Waresify handles it
Task interleaving is a module on the Enterprise plan. It works with system-directed assignment from the intelligent task assignment module.
Each worker receives a short ordered list of mixed tasks. They can deviate from the suggested order, and the list is rebuilt when a task becomes unavailable.
Questions
Is task interleaving worth it for a small warehouse?
Usually less so. The savings grow with travel distance and the number of forklift tasks per shift.
Do workers have to follow the sequence exactly?
Not in Waresify. Workers can deviate, and the sequence adjusts.