Home » Blog » Productivity in the warehouse starts with fairness
Productivity in the warehouse starts with fairness
Measuring only units per hour in the warehouse is a blunt instrument that risks creating unfairness, undermining both engagement and culture. Workplaces that operate in a more data‑driven and fair way retain their employees longer, build stronger teams, and become better at attracting talent.
There is an underestimated factor in warehouse operations that affects everything from motivation to results. We like to talk about pace, staffing, cost per order, and process flows. But in the middle of all these KPIs, there is something more fundamental: how fairly we follow up on the work our employees perform every day.
In the Nordics, we have long had a tradition of not measuring at the individual level. Instead, many warehouses work with group incentives, team averages, or team-based quality metrics. It’s a model built on trust and collaboration, and it works well for many. But this model also has its challenges, since group metrics are often too coarse to reflect the reality behind them.
Whether you follow up on teams or individuals, the same principle applies: a blunt metric says nothing about the conditions behind the performance.
Units per hour is all well and good, but it’s also a blunt instrument.
Picks per hour serves as an overall productivity measure for the warehouse.
That doesn’t mean it’s a fair or comprehensive measure when trying to understand what actually drives performance. Two teams can have the same average yet completely different realities behind the numbers. Two individuals can deliver different results for reasons that have nothing to do with competence.
Look at any picking environment and you’ll see the same pattern:
One team gets orders with long walking distances and high SKU variability
Another gets more homogeneous batches and shorter distances
A third gets stuck with waiting times or malfunctioning equipment
A warehouse productivity system doesn’t just increase productivity — it modernizes the culture.
Fairness as a competitive advantage
Yet all of this ends up in the same Excel column, treated as comparable — at least on paper.
It’s not necessarily unfair out of malice, but it becomes unfair because the measure doesn’t reflect reality. These blunt metrics risk undermining both engagement and culture.
This is where the difference between good and poor performance follow‑up becomes clear. Fairness isn’t about being nice — it’s about being professional. When measurement becomes more accurate, conflicts, misunderstandings, and comparison stress decrease. Teams feel they are evaluated based on reasonable conditions. Managers can coach with credibility, and transparency becomes a competitive advantage in its own right.
Workplaces that operate in a more data‑driven and fair way retain their people longer, build stronger teams, and become better at attracting talent.
So how do you create a fair warehouse in practice?
The key is to move beyond coarse averages and simplified KPIs. Fairness emerges when you can distinguish between:
what is the actual contribution of the individual and the team
what is the effect of processes, layout, and working conditions
This is where data quality becomes critical.
For us at IMI, it’s about letting go of assumptions and truly understanding everyday life in the warehouse. That’s where IMI’s warehouse productivity system comes in — as a concrete path toward both fairer performance follow‑up and smarter operations.
The system does what neither units per hour nor group averages can do: it shows why.
Clear, measurable, and fair components
Instead of fixating on a single, generic metric, the system breaks the work down into clear, measurable, and fair components—whether you’re following up on teams, individuals, or entire processes.
This can include:
walking distances
SKU mix and order complexity
waiting times and layout-related obstacles
equipment condition
process variations between shifts, zones, sales channels, or even different warehouses
When all of this becomes visible, it’s possible to understand why a team performs the way it does—or why two groups can’t be compared straight off. This creates follow-up that holds both culturally and operationally. The impact is clear:
Teams know they are evaluated based on their actual conditions.
Managers gain better, more respectful foundations for coaching.
The organization uncovers systemic issues that were previously hidden by averages.
That’s why we at IMI believe a warehouse productivity system doesn’t just increase productivity—it modernizes the culture. It creates a workplace where fairness and performance can coexist. In an industry where competition for talent is fierce, that may well be the greatest return of all. Not more numbers on a dashboard, but more people who feel: “I’m assessed fairly here. This is where I want to stay and do a great job.”
