You don’t need the mountains of industry research to tell you that one of the biggest pain points in your warehouse is the amount of time your pickers spend walking.
This variable often separates a profitable warehouse from one with razor-thin margins. The problem lies not on the receiving dock or shipping, it’s hidden in how much wasted travel time your warehouse management system bakes into the process before a picker gets the task.
As the math for warehouses changes, as order volumes become unpredictable and labor costs climb, automated routing can bring some relief.
Across your warehouse, a single shift involves thousands of pick paths across dozens of clients with different SLAs, packing rules and carrier requirements. Without routing logic, your warehouse management system might default to whatever sequence the system pulls orders in, perhaps ignored by experienced pickers taking memorized shortcuts.
That works… until it doesn’t. When order volumes spike, when a new client onboards, when seasonal SKUs shift, inefficiencies compound.
It’s a pattern that shows up in three distinct places in your warehouse.
Pickers cross the same zone twice in a wave because the warehouse management system batches orders without considering product location proximity.
Time-sensitive orders are queued behind lower-priority work because carrier cutoffs aren’t baked into the routing rules. The 3 PM UPS pickup leaves orders behind.
Multiply that across dozens of clients and a few hundred orders a day. The cost isn't dramatic on any single shift. Over a quarter, it adds up to real labor dollars and missed SLAs that put renewals at risk.
Automated routing is a set of rules and logic that a modern WMS applies before a pick task ever hits a picker's scanner. The system decides, in advance, the most efficient path to complete the work.
The rules can include physical layout (which bins are closest to which), order priority (which carriers cut off when), inventory state (which pick face has stock, which needs replenishment, which items may be expiring soon), and client-specific requirements (this client needs items grouped, that one ships individually, another has specific handling regulations to follow).
The result is a pick path that's already optimized when the picker starts the task. They don't have to figure it out. The system does it for them.
For 3PLs with complex, multi-product and multi-client warehouses, the impact of automated routing can be incredible. For example, a 200-order shift that previously took six pickers four hours can drop to three hours with the same headcount.
Two industry shifts are making automated routing more valuable than it was even a year ago.
The first is direct labor cost pressure. A C3 Solutions wage survey put warehouse workers at $18-20 per hour nationwide, $25 per hour in expensive markets. Wages are growing 3-4% annually. The Logistics Manager Index hit 80.9 in mid-2025, with labor cost a primary driver.
The second is volume volatility. Tariff-driven inventory swings, JIC stockpiling, and shifting client mixes mean a 3PL's warehouse layout in Q1 might not match its operating reality in Q3. Static pick paths can't keep up. Routing rules that adjust to current inventory placement and current order volume keep the warehouse productive even when the underlying operation is changing.
Most WMS platforms assume a single-tenant warehouse, and treat pick pack planning accordingly. However, a 3PL brings new complexity. Each client has different rules. Some need orders batched by carrier. Others need single-order picks. Some have specific packing requirements so pickers can’t combine one client’s products with another in a task.
Some demand FIFO, others need FEFO. Still others have client-specific SLAs that dictate which orders go first.
A traditional WMS built for a single-client warehouse won’t handle this. And when the rules engine breaks down, pickers start using spreadsheets and workarounds, which can lead to inefficiencies and errors.
A modern WMS has a flexible rules engine that is aware of the client, SLA, packaging requirements and inventory. It has to know that a wine order needs different handling than one with frozen food or t-shirts. A Walmart-bound order carries retail compliance requirements a DTC order doesn’t.
Bottom line, picking software built specifically for 3PLs treats client-specific rules as a first-class input to routing, not an afterthought.
If your current WMS doesn’t support automated routing, or if it does but no one uses it properly, uncovering your problem is easy. Walk the floor with a picker for an hour. Count the back and forth.
If you’re seeing pickers double back, skip zones or wait for the system to assign the next task, your routing logic is leaving labor on the table.
As you look for a solution, a WMS with integrated automated routing is a far better path than bolt-on solutions that are clunky and introduce new opportunities for error. Here are the functions you should prioritize in a new WMS.
Pick path optimization that considers physical floor location, not just order sequence.
Configurable rules that you can adjust as your operation changes.
Multi-client awareness, with flexibility to add clients and SLAs as you grow.
Real-time inventory integration, so a picker never arrives at an empty location.
Earlier this year, InfoPlus was ranked #6 in warehouse management systems by The Retail Exec. They singled out automated routing for 3PLs and complex fulfillment operations as best-in-class.
That’s because InfoPlus was built from the ground up to give warehouses like yours deeper visibility of the balance between inventory, routing and client SLAs. No other platform can match it.
See for yourself how automated routing can transform your 3PL warehouse. Schedule your InfoPlus demo.