You can pick steadily and still see a lower rate after waiting for stock, changing equipment or staging a pallet. The useful questions are what happened during that time, how it was recorded, and which minutes the rate actually includes.
For a raw pick rate, the same completed work produces a lower number when more time is counted. Your employer decides how its own report treats each activity.
Separate required work from interruptions
Time without a new pick is not automatically wasted time. Getting labels, setting up equipment, wrapping a load and staging it can be necessary parts of completing an assignment. Meetings, training and a move to another work area also need context.
An interruption is a different observation: an empty pick location, waiting for replenishment, a blocked aisle, a scanner problem or equipment that needs attention. Record what prevented the next step. Ask your trainer which parts of a normal assignment are already allowed for in the standard and which events need a separate report.
Names such as downtime, indirect time, delay time or time off task do not establish the counting rule by themselves. Ask what the term means at your site and which event starts and ends that period.
How counted minutes change a raw rate
Imagine 600 completed cases over four hours, including one 30-minute interruption and no other excluded time. These are two personal calculation scenarios:
All four hours counted: 600 ÷ 4 = 150 cases/hour.
That 30 minutes excluded: 600 ÷ 3.5 ≈ 171.4 cases/hour.
The work count is unchanged. The second number only describes the assumption that those minutes are excluded; it does not establish that they should be removed from an official score. Keep both the original elapsed time and any proposed exclusion clearly labeled.
Use the cases-per-hour calculator to check raw work-and-time totals. For a break-specific comparison, use the break-rate calculator. Neither tool determines approved downtime or reproduces a private employer formula.
Keep a short, factual delay log
Use paper or personal notes, following your site's rules. Make one entry per event when it is safe to do so. A start time, end time and short description are more useful than a guess at the end of the week. If times are approximate, say so.
Example entry: 9:20–9:32 a.m. · 12 minutes · waiting for replenishment · assigned picking area · reported at 9:22 through the approved channel · time treatment not yet confirmed.
Keep required tasks and interruptions distinguishable in the notes. Count overlapping minutes only once: a scanner issue and a replenishment wait occurring during the same 12 minutes are not 24 minutes of elapsed delay. Keep breaks separate so the same minutes are not subtracted again.
What to include in each delay entry
Check off the fields you have captured in your own notes. This checklist does not save a delay log.
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Ask how the event appears in the report
Bring one specific entry to the person responsible for the numbers. For the example above, ask: “I was waiting for replenishment from 9:20 to 9:32. I reported it at 9:22. Is that included in my counted time, recorded separately, or still waiting for review?”
Ask which reporting method and activity code apply, whether approval is needed, and when a correction would appear. Use the approved code for what actually happened. A personal note or a reported issue does not by itself change the official result.
If the numbers still differ, compare the completed work, time window and score type using the rate-comparison guide. A percentage-to-standard score may already account for parts of an assignment differently from a raw cases/hour calculation.
Use the pattern to ask for specific help
Several entries can show whether you need practice with a complete assignment or help with a recurring interruption. For example, repeated setup difficulty is a useful topic for a trainer; repeated stock waits are useful context for a replenishment conversation. Compare similar work areas and assignments before judging a change.
Keep the handling, wrapping and equipment checks taught at your site. Required steps remain part of doing the job safely. Record observations during an appropriate pause, away from moving equipment, and follow device rules. The pick-rate improvement guide explains how to choose one approved change to practice.
Does My Pick Rate apply my warehouse's delay codes?
My Pick Rate is for your personal work and time record. It does not read your warehouse management system or apply private employer downtime codes. Keep the delay notes and confirmed company treatment alongside your own numbers when you compare them.
