How do you calculate monthly picking hours?

Pickers × picks per picker per day × working days per month × average seconds per pick, divided by 3,600. It is straightforward arithmetic on numbers you supply, which is why it is stated precisely — the accuracy of the result is exactly the accuracy of your inputs.

What is a realistic seconds-per-pick figure?

Dense, well-slotted picking runs around 20–30 seconds a line. Most mixed warehouses sit between 30 and 60. Long travel distances, heavy items or a search at the pick face push it past 90. If you have never timed it, the calculator assumes 45 seconds and says so on the result — timing twenty real picks is a better use of ten minutes than any estimate.

Why is the improvement shown as a range instead of a percentage?

Because only travel time is recoverable — the physical act of picking is not — and how much travel there is to recover depends entirely on your layout. Two warehouses with identical pick volumes can differ by a factor of three. A single confident percentage would be a guess dressed as a forecast, so the calculator gives a conservative planning range and says what it is based on.

Are these figures a guarantee?

No. They are conservative planning ranges used for scoping, deliberately set below the figures vendors publish, and they are not measured results from a named client. Some warehouses land outside them in both directions. A walkthrough replaces the range with numbers measured in your building.

What is a good picking error rate?

Under 1% is strong for a manual operation, 1–3% is common, and anything above 3% is usually a data or location-structure problem rather than a training one — pickers are generally right about what they were told. Scan-verified picking with location confirmation typically recovers 20–40% of the errors above that threshold.

Does Odoo do warehouse pick-path optimisation on its own?

Odoo sequences picks and supports wave and batch picking, but it works from your location hierarchy rather than from the physical building. It does not know the distance between two bins, that a forklift cannot turn in a particular aisle, or where a scanner loses signal. Spatial improvements need a spatial model, which is what the intelligent warehouse work adds on top.

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How many hours does your picking actually take?

Seven questions. Your monthly picking hours and mis-picks calculated exactly, a conservative range for what is recoverable, and three opportunities drawn from your own SKU, location and error numbers.

Question 1 of 70%

Your team

How many pickers work in the warehouse?

pickers

Why the second number is a range

Because a pick is two things stuck together, and only one of them is recoverable. Walking to the location can be shortened by slotting and sequencing. Reaching for the item, checking it and confirming it cannot — that time is the job. Warehouses with identical pick volumes differ by a factor of three in how much of the clock is travel, which is why a single confident percentage across all of them would be meaningless.

The ranges here are set below what vendors publish, on purpose. They are planning figures for scoping a conversation, not a forecast and not a guarantee. The way to replace them with real numbers is to measure the actual paths in the building — which is where the intelligent warehouse work starts, and why it starts there rather than with software.

One thing worth checking before any of it: whether the stock data behind your locations is accurate enough for a routing decision to be safe. The readiness score weighs that, and the eligibility checker covers which Odoo AI features your version can run at all.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate monthly picking hours?

Pickers × picks per picker per day × working days per month × average seconds per pick, divided by 3,600. It is straightforward arithmetic on numbers you supply, which is why it is stated precisely — the accuracy of the result is exactly the accuracy of your inputs.
What is a realistic seconds-per-pick figure?

Dense, well-slotted picking runs around 20–30 seconds a line. Most mixed warehouses sit between 30 and 60. Long travel distances, heavy items or a search at the pick face push it past 90. If you have never timed it, the calculator assumes 45 seconds and says so on the result — timing twenty real picks is a better use of ten minutes than any estimate.
Why is the improvement shown as a range instead of a percentage?

Because only travel time is recoverable — the physical act of picking is not — and how much travel there is to recover depends entirely on your layout. Two warehouses with identical pick volumes can differ by a factor of three. A single confident percentage would be a guess dressed as a forecast, so the calculator gives a conservative planning range and says what it is based on.
Are these figures a guarantee?

No. They are conservative planning ranges used for scoping, deliberately set below the figures vendors publish, and they are not measured results from a named client. Some warehouses land outside them in both directions. A walkthrough replaces the range with numbers measured in your building.
What is a good picking error rate?

Under 1% is strong for a manual operation, 1–3% is common, and anything above 3% is usually a data or location-structure problem rather than a training one — pickers are generally right about what they were told. Scan-verified picking with location confirmation typically recovers 20–40% of the errors above that threshold.
Does Odoo do warehouse pick-path optimisation on its own?

Odoo sequences picks and supports wave and batch picking, but it works from your location hierarchy rather than from the physical building. It does not know the distance between two bins, that a forklift cannot turn in a particular aisle, or where a scanner loses signal. Spatial improvements need a spatial model, which is what the intelligent warehouse work adds on top.

Calculator assumptions last reviewed 24 August 2026 .