8 Questions to Ask Before Implementing a Goods-to-Person System

Oct 14

7 min read

Goods-to-person (GTP) tends to come up early when a company starts looking at warehouse automation, and it's easy to see why. Picking takes more labor than almost any other job in the building, and a big part of a picker's shift goes to walking between locations. GTP flips that around. The system brings inventory to a workstation, and the picker stays put.

When it's a good fit, GTP cuts travel, raises pick rates, fits more inventory into less space, and makes peak season easier to staff. But it's a large investment that you'll live with for a long time, and it isn't right for every operation. The projects that go well usually start with a clear picture of what the system needs to do before anyone compares equipment.

Here are eight questions we'd want answered before that comparison starts.

01 What Problem Should a Goods-to-Person System Solve in Your Warehouse?

Rising labor costs, a competitor's new robots, or a push to modernize are all fair reasons to start looking at automation. None of them tells you what the system needs to do.

Get specific. Are pickers spending most of their shift walking? Are labor shortages or high turnover making it hard to staff the building? Are you out of space with no option to build or move? Do orders back up at the same point every afternoon? Are mispicks costing you customers?

Most GTP projects are driven by one of three things: labor, space, or throughput. Most operations want all three, but one usually matters more, and that choice shapes the rest of the project:

Labor-driven projects are designed around picks per hour at each workstation.

Space-driven projects are designed around storage density and how much inventory fits in the footprint.

Throughput-driven projects are designed around how many workstations you need and how work gets released to them.

It can be the same category of equipment in each case, but the result is three different systems with three different ways of calculating ROI.

02 Is Your Order Profile a Good Fit for Goods-to-Person Picking?

GTP pays off when your product and order data line up with what the system does well. Before you talk equipment, pull at least a year of order history, including peak, and look at:

How many SKUs you carry, and how much of your pick volume comes from the fastest movers
Lines per order and units per line
Pick type. Do you mostly pick eaches, cases, or full pallets?
Size and weight. Will most of your SKUs fit in the system's totes or bins?
How often SKUs are added and retired
How much demand swings by season

A high-volume ecommerce operation with thousands of small, fast-moving SKUs is close to an ideal GTP candidate. A wholesale DC that ships mostly pallets and full cases usually isn't, though GTP might still make sense for its smaller, slower items.

Few operations run on a single picking method. Often the better question is which part of your inventory belongs in the system, and which belongs in shelving, flow rack, or pallet positions.

03 How Should You Size a GTP System for Growth and Peak Season?

A system sized for today's volume can run out of room sooner than you'd expect. GTP systems are meant to run for many years, so the design should reflect where the business is headed: more SKUs, more orders, new fulfillment channels, a shift toward direct-to-consumer, or new customers with different packaging requirements.

Peak matters just as much. Plenty of systems look great in March and struggle in November. Size the system to your peak day, not a peak month averaged out, and check whether it can keep up on:

Picks per hour across all workstations
Replenishment, meaning whether inventory can go into the system as fast as it comes out
Staffing, meaning how many people it takes to run every workstation at full rate
Order buffering, meaning where in-progress and finished orders wait
Inbound, meaning how the system handles the surge of receipts before peak

Then ask what expansion looks like. Can you add robots, storage, or workstations later without shutting down, and how much floor space should you hold for it?

04 Can Your Warehouse Building Support a Goods-to-Person System?

This question gets skipped more than it should. When it comes up late, it can add months and real cost to a project. Check early on:

The floor. Slab flatness, thickness, and load capacity. High-density storage grids and robots can have strict floor requirements.
Clear height and column spacing. These set how dense the storage can be.
Fire protection. Dense automated storage often needs sprinkler changes and sign-off from your local fire authority and insurer.
Power and network. Dedicated circuits, charging, and reliable Wi-Fi where the system needs it.
Flow. How product gets from receiving into the system, and from workstations to packing and shipping.

None of these has to rule GTP out, but each one affects what the system can look like and what it will cost. They're much easier to deal with before you request quotes than after.

Not sure what your building can handle? Zion's advisory team can walk your facility, review the floor, clear height, fire protection, and power, and tell you which GTP options will work in your space before you spend time on vendor quotes.

05 How Will a GTP System Integrate With Your WMS?

The robots get the attention, but software decides how smoothly the operation runs from day to day. A GTP system has to trade information constantly with your warehouse management system (WMS). Sometimes a warehouse control system (WCS) or warehouse execution system (WES) sits between the two.

Settle these early:

Which system owns inventory, and how do the systems stay in sync?
If you'll keep manual pick zones, what balances work between them and GTP?
Will your WMS need changes, and who will make them?
How will shorts, damaged items, and mispicks be handled?
What reports do you need, and which system will produce them?

Many GTP vendors include their own control software, so a separate WCS or WES isn't always needed. Either way, get a clear answer on where one system's job ends and the next one begins. Integration is where project timelines slip most often.

06 Are Your Warehouse Processes Ready for Automation?

Automation works best in a stable operation. If inventory counts are off, slotting hasn't been updated in years, and every shift picks a little differently, GTP won't fix that. It usually makes those problems show up faster, and they cost more.

Take an honest look at:

Inventory accuracy, and how you keep it accurate
Standard operating procedures, and whether people follow them
Replenishment: who does it, when, and what triggers it
Training: how new people learn the job and how long it takes
Ownership: who's responsible for the process, not just the equipment

Some of the best early returns on a GTP project come from cleaning these up before the system arrives.

07 What Does Goods-to-Person Really Cost, and How Do You Measure ROI?

The equipment quote is only part of the investment. A realistic budget also covers software and integration, building work, installation, training, spare parts, maintenance and support contracts, and the productivity dip most sites see during ramp-up.

Before anything gets approved, agree internally on:

Your baseline. What does it cost to pick an order today, all in?
What success looks like. Labor hours saved, space freed up, orders per hour, or accuracy. Decide who will measure it and how.
The payback period. What does leadership expect, and is it based on current volume or projected volume?
How you'll pay for it. A capital purchase, a lease, or a subscription model, which some vendors now offer.

Most companies that automate are glad they did. In a recent industry survey of warehouse and DC leaders, 65% said their automation met or exceeded ROI expectations, and only 10% said it fell short. The difference usually comes down to whether expectations were built on real data from the start.

08 What Support Does a GTP System Need After Go-Live?

A GTP system isn't a one-time purchase. It becomes part of how the building runs every day, and it needs care like any other critical system. Get clear answers on:

What preventive maintenance is required, how often, and who performs it?
What is your spare parts strategy?
Who on your team will own the system, and what training do they need?
How quickly will the vendor or integrator respond to a breakdown?
How will you keep orders moving if the system goes down?
When a problem involves more than one vendor, who is responsible for the fix?

That last one matters more than most buyers expect. On a multi-vendor project, a simple outage can turn into a round of finger-pointing unless support responsibilities are written into the contract.

Before You Call a GTP Vendor

GTP can be one of the best investments a distribution operation makes when it's chosen to solve a specific problem, sized for where the business is headed, and backed by solid processes and a real support plan. The companies that get the most out of it tend to spend more time on these eight questions than on comparing equipment.

Zion Solutions Group works with companies at every stage of the decision, from the first look at order data through design, installation, and long-term support. We partner with many of the leading GTP and automated storage vendors, so we aren't tied to one technology. We can compare options side by side and recommend the one that fits your order profile, your building, and your budget.

Whether you're just starting to look at GTP or you already have quotes and aren't sure how to compare them, we can help you work through these eight questions using your own data.

Considering goods-to-person? Zion helps distribution operations analyze order data, assess readiness, and design and integrate automation that fits.