Warehouse labor management
- Pickers the shift needs, rounded up
- 3
- Pick hours a day
- 20
- Productive hours a shift
- 6.8
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. Pickpathly publishes no industry benchmark, no vendor price beyond the ones it cites and no rule: the standard, the utilisation and the fees are yours, and the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own figures.
Warehouse labor management is the discipline of knowing how many people a day of work takes before the day starts, and whether the people on the floor did the work the standard said they would. In a small 3PL it is the difference between a client account that makes money and one that quietly does not, because labour is the largest cost the operator controls and the one most often set by feel. The mechanism is a standard: lines a picker can pick in an hour in this building with this layout, applied to the lines the day will bring, corrected for the share of a shift that is actually productive, and turned into a headcount and a cost. This guide is about how that standard is set and used, and the free warehouse labor management system worksheet on this site works the headcount and the weekly cost from your own figures, with no account.
Try the free warehouse SOP template worksheet Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Set the standard: lines a picker hour, in your building
A standard is measured, not assumed: time the pick path for a representative order profile, count the lines, and take the hourly rate a trained picker sustains without cutting corners. The worked example uses 60 lines an hour to show the arithmetic and nothing more; your standard is yours, and the worksheet publishes no benchmark.
Apply it to the day: pick hours and pickers
Lines the day will bring over the standard is the pick hours the day needs, and pick hours over the productive hours in a shift is the pickers it takes, rounded up because a third of a person does not turn up. At 1,200 lines and 60 an hour that is 20 pick hours and three pickers on an eight-hour shift that is 85% productive.
Cost it and keep it: the week, the line and the trend
Pickers times shift hours times days times a loaded rate is the week's labour cost, and over the week's lines it is the cost per line the client account carries. The paid plan keeps the standard per process and the week's actual against it, so the day performance drifts is the day you see it.
Warehouse labor management: common questions
What is a warehouse labor management system?
The layer of a WMS that holds engineered standards per process, clocks the hours worked against the lines, orders and receipts they produced, and reports each shift and each person against the standard. The worksheet on this site works the standard's arithmetic, headcount and weekly cost, from your own figures; the record that keeps it per process is Pickpathly Pro.
How do I set a picking standard for my warehouse?
Time the work: a trained picker, a representative order profile, the real pick path, over enough orders that one slow pallet does not set the number. Lines over hours is the standard. Review it when the layout, the slotting or the order profile changes. The worksheet takes whatever standard you set and publishes none of its own.
What utilisation should I assume for a shift?
Your own measured figure: breaks, meetings, replenishment and waiting on the dock all come out of an eight-hour shift, and the worked example uses 85% to show the arithmetic and nothing more. Measure it in your building for a week and use that; the worksheet takes the figure as an input, not a rule.
Pickpathly Pro
Keeping what you make
The worksheets are free forever. Pro turns them into the record: every client account with its SOPs, reports and standards kept and dated, every cycle count and week's figures filed against the client, your logo on the paperwork, no watermark, and an export when the client or the auditor asks.
- Download as PDF
- No Pickpathly watermark
- Save every worksheet and reopen it later
- Your warehouse name and logo on the paperwork
- Export every SOP, report and standard in one go
- Review-due and count-due reminders emailed to your team
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
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Cite or embed this figure
On the worked example, 1,200 lines a day at a standard of 60 lines a picker hour is 20 pick hours, three pickers on an eight-hour shift at 85% utilisation, $2,640 a week at $22 an hour and 44 cents of labour on every line.
Warehouse labor management system (Pickers the shift needs, rounded up): 3, Pickpathly, worked example.
Cite as: "Warehouse labor management, Pickpathly", updated 2026-09-04, https://pickpathly.com/warehouse-labor-management/.