Pick-to-Light, Conveyors and Cubiscan: The Warehouse Technology Behind Accurate Ecommerce Orders

A UK fulfilment centre with warehouse automation gets ecommerce orders right by controlling each point where a mistake can happen: Cubiscan measures and photographs every product at goods-in, pick-to-light confirms each pick at AutoStore ports and put walls, conveyors move work between zones, and a RedPrairie Dispatcher WMS directs and records every step. Fulfil with Synergy runs all of these in Northampton.

That combination matters more than any single machine. You can read the wider picture of technology and automation at Fulfil with Synergy; this article follows one order through the building and explains what each piece of equipment changes for your customers.

Where a wrong order is actually created

Most picking errors are set up long before anyone picks. A product received with the wrong weight on file, a lookalike shade stored next to its neighbour, a multi-item order assembled by memory, a parcel packed into whatever box is nearest: each is a small gap, and at a few thousand orders a week the gaps add up to refunds, reships and one-star reviews.

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Automation in a fulfilment centre is only useful if it closes those gaps in order. Fulfil with Synergy is a founder-led UK 3PL and growth partner for ambitious, fast-growing consumer brands, operating a technology-led fulfilment centre in Northampton for health, wellness, beauty, supplement and lifestyle brands across D2C, marketplace, retail and wholesale channels. The site runs multi-channel fulfilment from one stock pool, which means the same equipment protects a Shopify order, an Amazon order and a retailer shipment.

Goods-in: Cubiscan gives every SKU a measured identity

Cubiscan is a dimensioning and weighing system that records a product's exact length, width, height and weight, so the warehouse works from measured data rather than supplier spreadsheets. Fulfil with Synergy captures weight, dimensions and product imagery for every SKU at goods-in.

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CubiScan systems are made by Quantronix, and UK trade press has described their uses as slotting, storage-space selection, carton selection, repacking, checkweighing and shipment manifesting (Logistics Matters). In practice, that means three things for your orders.

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First, the WMS knows how big each item really is, so it can decide where the item should live and which carton it should go into. Second, the image captured at goods-in appears automatically at pack benches and on scanning devices, so a packer checking a serum against a toner can see what the right product looks like rather than relying on a SKU code alone. For beauty and supplement ranges, where twenty variants can share one bottle shape, that visual check is a real safeguard. Third, weight on file becomes a reference point: if a packed parcel is heavier or lighter than the items inside should make it, something is worth a second look.

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Brands rarely think about goods-in when they think about accuracy. They should. Every downstream decision draws on the data captured here.

AutoStore ports: the stock comes to a lit, single position

AutoStore brings the tote to the operator, and pick-to-light tells the operator exactly what to take from it. Fulfil with Synergy runs a 57,000-tote AutoStore grid on site, with an AutoStore pick accuracy of 99.99%.

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The grid itself is context here rather than the focus. What matters for accuracy is what happens at the port, the workstation where robots present totes to a person. Without guidance, a picker looking into a divided tote could reach into the wrong compartment. With pick-to-light, a light indicates the compartment and the quantity, and the operator confirms the pick before the tote goes back.

Pick-to-light: how a pick is confirmed, not just completed

Pick-to-light is a light-directed picking method in which a light shows the operator where to pick or place an item and how many, and the operator presses to confirm, sending that confirmation straight to the warehouse management system.

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At Fulfil with Synergy, pick-to-light directs operators visually at AutoStore ports and put walls, and each completion is confirmed in real time within the WMS. That changes two things for a brand.

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The first is the error rate. A light pointing at one position removes the search, and searching is where a picker grabs a lookalike. The second is the record. Because the confirmation goes into the WMS at the moment it happens, the stock figure your sales channels see reflects what has physically been picked, not what was due to be picked. When a customer service agent asks what happened to an order, there is a time-stamped answer.

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Pick-to-light also shortens training. New colleagues follow lights and a number rather than memorising a layout, which helps during peak when Fulfil with Synergy scales its team up to 80% above baseline headcount using a pool of around 300 trained agency colleagues.

Put walls: multi-item orders assembled without guesswork

A put wall is a rack of numbered slots, one per order, where picked items are sorted so that each customer's order is complete before it reaches packing. Fulfil with Synergy uses pick-to-light on its put walls.

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Here is how it works. Items for many orders are picked together for speed. At the put wall, an operator scans an item, a light shows which slot it belongs in, and the operator places it and confirms. When every item for an order is in its slot, the light signals that the order is ready to pack.

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This is where multi-item orders, gift bundles and kits stop going wrong. Without a put wall, someone has to remember which lip balm belongs with which moisturiser across dozens of open orders. With one, the system holds that memory, and the person only has to follow the light. Brands that sell regimens, sets or bundles see the benefit first, because their orders carry more items and more chances to mix them.

Conveyors: fewer hand-offs between zones

Conveyors link goods-in, pick zones and despatch at Fulfil with Synergy, so work moves between areas on a fixed path instead of being carried by hand or left on trolleys.

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Conveyors do not make a wrong order right, but they remove the moments where a right order can go wrong: a tote set down in the wrong area, a completed order left behind a pillar, a batch waiting for someone to fetch it. Fixed routes also mean the WMS knows where work is, and supervisors can see a queue building before it becomes a missed collection.

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This links directly to your delivery promise. Fulfil with Synergy operates from 6am to 10pm with a standard 9pm cut-off for next-day despatch, Sunday to Friday, and final courier collections at 9.30pm. Keeping orders flowing to despatch on a conveyor is part of what makes a late cut-off realistic rather than optimistic.

The pack bench: right-sized cartons from measured data

Right-sized cartons are chosen from the product's measured dimensions rather than a packer's estimate, and at Fulfil with Synergy the Cubiscan data captured at goods-in supports that carton selection at pack.

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For your customer, a right-sized carton means less movement in transit and less void fill to throw away. For your brand, it means a consistent unboxing, whether the order went out at 7am on a Tuesday or 8.55pm on Black Friday. It also supports the sustainability commitments many health and beauty brands make to their own customers: Fulfil with Synergy's cartons contain approximately 70% recycled content, FSC cartons are available, and the site sends zero waste to landfill through its waste partners.

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The product image appears at the pack bench here too, giving the packer a final visual match before the parcel is sealed.

RedPrairie Dispatcher WMS: the system telling every device what to do

RedPrairie Dispatcher WMS is the Tier 1 enterprise warehouse management system that ties the equipment together at Fulfil with Synergy, directing each task and recording every stock movement. We have a separate guide on what a Tier 1 warehouse management system does day to day; here the point is how it connects the hardware.

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Without a WMS in the middle, each machine is an island. With RedPrairie Dispatcher, the Cubiscan record decides the carton, the pick-to-light confirmation updates stock, and the conveyor route is known. The system tracks inventory to unit, SKU, batch and location, keeps a full time-stamped audit trail of stock movements, flags exceptions and applies FEFO or FIFO automatically, so a short-dated moisturiser leaves before a newer one.

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For you, the visible result is in the 24/7 client portal: live inventory, order status, tracking and returns data drawn from the same system that directs the floor. When something looks wrong, there is a record to check rather than a story to piece together.

What the technology will not do on its own

Automation reduces the opportunities for error, but it does not remove the need for trained people, good product data and sensible slotting decisions. Our earlier article on how warehouse automation is changing ecommerce fulfilment for UK brands makes the broader case; three practical limits are worth knowing.

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Not every product belongs in the grid. Oversized items, awkward packaging and brand-experience work such as hand-finished gifting suit manual handling, which is why Fulfil with Synergy keeps dedicated manual pick faces alongside AutoStore. One sleepwear brand moved 35% of its stock into AutoStore in 2025 and kept the rest in bulk storage, with 28 pack benches set up for peak: a hybrid, chosen by product profile.

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Lights only direct people to what the system believes is true. If a supplier ships a mislabelled carton, the error starts at goods-in, which is why discrepancies at Fulfil with Synergy are flagged in real time, photographed, logged and resolved with the brand.

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Equipment needs people who care about the result. Gary Rees puts it this way: "As a founder-led business, we make our decisions with the knowledge that every one of our clients also has a founder who loves their business as much as I do."

What brands have seen once the equipment is working for them

The clearest evidence is how brands describe the operation once it is live. Boody shortlisted four UK 3PLs and chose Fulfil with Synergy partly because its AutoStore system was already operating at scale. You can read how Boody moved its UK fulfilment; orders were picked almost immediately after go-live, and the brand kept on-time fulfilment through Black Friday with no delay messaging. Gab Drake, Global Fulfilment Manager at Boody, said: "Since moving to Fulfil with Synergy, it has become one of our top-performing markets operationally, and we're now fully equipped to scale with confidence!"

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Mark Tweed, Brand Director at Cyber Jammies, described the team as "Proactive, solutions-focused and always looking for smarter, more automated ways to fulfil our orders."

Five questions to ask any UK fulfilment centre about its automation

If you are comparing providers, these questions separate equipment that protects your orders from equipment that looks good on a tour. Pair them with our site tour checklist for ecommerce brands.

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1. Is every SKU measured and weighed at goods-in, or do you rely on the supplier's data?
2. When an operator confirms a pick, does the WMS update at that moment, and can I see it?
3. How are multi-item orders consolidated before packing?
4. How is carton size chosen at the pack bench?
5. Which of my products would go into automation, which would stay manual, and why?

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A provider who answers all five with specifics, and shows you the equipment doing it, is a provider whose accuracy is built in rather than promised.

FAQ

Does a UK fulfilment centre with warehouse automation still use people?

Yes. Automation in a fulfilment centre directs and checks people rather than replacing them. At Fulfil with Synergy, robots bring totes to AutoStore ports, but trained operators pick, place at put walls, pack and run quality checks, guided by lights and the WMS.

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The site employs approximately 250 permanent fulfilment specialists, with a pool of around 300 trained agency colleagues for peak. That mix lets the operation scale up to 80% above baseline headcount while keeping the same pick-to-light confirmation and WMS controls in place, which is how accuracy holds as volumes rise.

Is pick-to-light the same as put-to-light?

They use the same lights for opposite jobs. Pick-to-light shows an operator which location to take an item from and how many. Put-to-light, used on a put wall, shows which order slot to place an item into after it has been picked.

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Fulfil with Synergy uses lights in both places: at AutoStore ports to guide picking, and on put walls to sort items into individual orders. Both confirm each action into the RedPrairie Dispatcher WMS in real time, so stock and order records update as the work happens rather than at the end of a shift.

What does Cubiscan data change for my brand day to day?

Cubiscan data gives the warehouse measured weight, dimensions and an image for every one of your SKUs, which supports carton selection and visual checks at packing. You notice it as more consistent parcels and fewer wrong-variant mistakes.

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It also helps when you launch new products. Once a new SKU has been through Cubiscan at goods-in, the WMS can place it, pick it and pack it using real data from the first order. For ranges with many similar-looking variants, the image shown at the pack bench gives packers a final visual match before the parcel is sealed.

Will all my products go into AutoStore?

Not necessarily. Products go where they are handled most accurately. Small, regular items usually suit AutoStore; oversized items, fragile presentation pieces and hands-on gifting often suit manual pick faces.

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Fulfil with Synergy assesses your SKU profile during onboarding and keeps dedicated manual pick faces for products that suit them. Many brands run a hybrid, with fast-moving lines in the grid and bulk or awkward stock elsewhere. Pick confirmation, carton selection and the WMS audit trail apply to both, so your accuracy controls do not depend on where an item is stored.

How can I see whether the technology is working for my orders?

Through the 24/7 client portal and your regular reviews. The portal shows live inventory, order status, tracking and returns data drawn from RedPrairie Dispatcher, the same system that records every pick and stock movement.

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Every Fulfil with Synergy client has a named Client Manager, with weekly operational reviews and monthly business reviews to go through accuracy and service levels. If a query comes up about a specific order, the time-stamped audit trail shows who handled it, where and when, so issues are traced to a cause rather than argued about.

Accurate ecommerce orders come from a UK fulfilment centre with warehouse automation at every point an error can start: Cubiscan at goods-in, pick-to-light at AutoStore ports and put walls, conveyors between zones, right-sized cartons at pack and RedPrairie Dispatcher WMS recording all of it. Fulfil with Synergy runs that system in Northampton, with the people and founder-led attention to make it work for your brand.

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If you want to see how your products would move through it, talk to the Fulfil with Synergy team about your order accuracy.

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