How to separate multiple SKUs on a single pick face

If one pick face is holding more than one SKU, picking slows down and mispicks go up. There are four practical ways to split it, and which one fits depends on the SKUs you are storing, not on which product you already own.

Ways to separate SKUs on one pick face

1. Add a divider. A physical divider inside the pick face splits it into two or more sections. This is the cheapest and fastest fix, and works well when the SKUs are a similar size.
2. Add a shelf multiplier. A multiplier is an inner shelf that doubles the number of pick faces on a unit. Use this when you need more distinct locations across the whole unit, not just one shelf.
3. Add a drawer. A drawer sits inside the pick face and fully contains loose or small stock, rather than just splitting the space with a divider. This suits SKUs that would otherwise slide, tip, or spill into the next slot. K Bins Storage Drawers do this for flat shelved PIX units.
4. Improve labelling. Even without a physical split, clear labels or barcodes at the front of each section reduce mispicks, as long as pickers are trained to check them. This works as a supporting step alongside any of the three above, not as a replacement for them.

A closer look at each method

Dividers

Dividers are the default first move because they cost almost nothing and take minutes to fit. They work well when the SKUs sharing a pick face are close in size and shape, since the split only needs to stop them merging visually, not stop them moving around.

This is a common setup in fashion and ecommerce operations, where several colourways or sizes of the same style often sit on one shelf. The SKUs are similar enough in dimension that a simple divider keeps picking accurate without adding cost or rebuilding anything.

The limit is containment. A divider creates a boundary, it does not stop a loose or oddly shaped item working its way past that boundary over time.

Shelf multipliers

A multiplier is a bigger decision than a divider, since it changes the whole unit rather than one shelf. It makes sense once the number of distinct SKUs has outgrown the number of pick faces available, not just when one shelf feels crowded.

Warehouses tend to reach for this when a product range is expanding faster than the racking was originally sized for, rather than as a fix for one problem shelf.

Drawers

Drawers solve a different problem to dividers. Instead of splitting the space, they contain it, which matters when stock is loose, small, rounded, or otherwise prone to moving inside the pick face.

“Pallite designed a tailored picking solution for our bottled wines, replacing pallet storage that tied up valuable capacity with a compact system that greatly improved putaway, picking efficiency and overall use of in-bay space.”

Outbound Operations Manager

Bottled stock is a good illustration of where a divider alone would not be enough, bottles roll, they do not stay where a simple partition puts them, so full containment does the job a divider cannot. Component and spares warehouses run into a version of the same issue. Small nuts, bolts, connectors, or electronic parts are easily lost through the gaps around a divider, so a drawer that fully encloses the pick face solves it the same way it does for bottled goods.

PALLITE’s view: most warehouses over invest in solving a labelling problem with a racking problem. Start with the cheapest physical fix that actually solves it, then move up from there.

Labelling

Labelling is not a substitute for a physical fix, it is what makes any of the above actually work day to day. A divider or drawer sets the boundary, a clear label at the front of each section is what a picker actually reads under pressure. Skipping this step is a common reason an otherwise good physical split still produces mispicks.

Quick reference

Method	Cost	Effort to fit	Containment	Best for
Divider	Lowest	Minutes	Splits space, does not contain	Similar sized SKUs that stay in place
Multiplier	Medium	Under an hour, whole unit	Splits space across more faces	A SKU count outgrowing the unit
Drawer	Medium	Minutes per pick face	Fully contains loose stock	Loose, small, or rolling items
Labelling	Lowest	Minutes	None on its own	Supporting any of the above

How to tell it is actually a SKU separation problem

Before picking a fix, it helps to check what is actually going wrong. A few signs point specifically to a separation problem rather than a wider slotting or capacity issue.

• Pickers are grabbing the wrong SKU from a shared pick face, not just picking slowly
• Stock from one SKU visibly spills or slides into the space used by another
• Cycle counts on that pick face come back wrong more often than the rest of the aisle
• The usual fix is retraining pickers on the same shelf repeatedly, rather than changing the shelf itself

If what is actually happening is that the pick face is simply too small for the volume passing through it, no separation method fixes that on its own. The answer there is more pick faces or a different location, not a divider inside the same one.

Common mistakes when separating SKUs

• Splitting a pick face so far that each section becomes too small to access by hand, which slows picking down in a different way
• Using a divider for stock that actually needs containment, wine bottles or loose small parts being a common example, then wondering why the mispick rate did not improve
• Adding a physical split without updating the label or barcode at the front of it, so the system and the shelf floor stop matching
• Mixing methods inconsistently across a site with no clear rule, one aisle on dividers, another on drawers, which makes training new pickers harder than it needs to be

Which one should you use

• Similar sized SKUs, tight budget, and the stock stays roughly in place on its own: start with a divider. This is the common route for multi size or multi colour ranges in fashion and ecommerce.
• Growing SKU count across a whole unit, not just one crowded shelf: a multiplier.
• Loose, small, rounded, or easily displaced SKUs, bottled goods and small components both being clear examples: a drawer.
• Any of the above, paired with a picking process that relies on a visual check: better labelling on top, always.

These are not mutually exclusive. Many warehouses run dividers on some units, drawers on others, based on what is actually stored there rather than picking one method site wide.

FAQs

Do I need a new unit to separate SKUs, or can I fit this to what I already have? Dividers, multipliers, and drawers are all accessories that fit onto units you already own. None of them require replacing the shelving itself.

What’s the cheapest way to separate SKUs on a pick face? A divider, in most cases. It solves the space problem without adding containment, which is fine if the SKUs are not prone to sliding or spilling.

When is a divider not enough? When the SKU is loose, small, or likely to move around inside the pick face. A divider splits the space but does not contain the stock the way a drawer does, bottled or rounded items being the clearest case.

Can I combine more than one method on the same unit? Yes. It is common to run dividers on some shelves and drawers on others within the same unit, based on what each shelf actually holds.

How do I know if the problem is separation, not the location itself? Check whether the pick face is simply undersized for the volume passing through it. If mispicks are happening because two SKUs share a space that is otherwise big enough, that is a separation problem. If the space itself is too small regardless of how it is split, that is a slotting problem, and needs more locations, not a better divider.