When a warehouse automation vendor says “500 picks per hour,” there is a question worth asking:
How many of those picks succeed on the first pass?
A headline throughput number may not include:
- Re-grabs
- Re-scans
- Manual assists
- Micro-stoppages
- Damaged items
- Recovery time after an exception
The equipment may be fast in a demonstration and still deliver a very different result across a full shift.
That is why a serious pilot should measure more than peak PPH:
- First-pass success rate
- Uptime during the measured period
- Human assists per 100 picks
- Accuracy after handoff
- Completed orders per hour
The best number is not the fastest movement recorded once.
It is the number the operation can repeat without creating work behind the machine.
Throughput only counts when it survives contact with the real workflow.
Which KPI do you trust most when evaluating warehouse automation?