An automated order fulfillment system, comprising: a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines (22, 24) each having one of said donor receptacle buffers (23, 25); a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer; an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator; said vision system having a field of view encompassing portions of said at least two donor conveying lines (22, 24) having the said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25); a control causing said vision system to perform a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based upon the pick list; said control causing said manipulator to perform another process of picking at least one item from another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) under guidance of said vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data from the pick list of items in that donor receptacle and said control causing said vision system to perform the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) overlapping in time with said control causing said manipulator to perform the another process of picking at least one item from the another receptacle at the another of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) under guidance of said vision system, wherein said vision system comprises a three-dimensional camera, and items are scanned in a donor receptacle in order to create a three-dimensional image of items in the donor receptacle to provide co-ordinate data of pick-able objects in the receptacle to populate the pick list, wherein the pick list includes the height of items that are visible to the vision system and the manipulator picks items from the pick list in sequence according to the height of the items. a donor-receptacle handling system having at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) wherein said donor receptacle handling system comprises at least two donor conveying lines (22, 24) each having one of said donor receptacle buffers (23, 25); a recipient-receptacle handling system having at least one recipient buffer; an item-handling system comprising a vision system and an item manipulator; said vision system having a field of view encompassing portions of said at least two donor conveying lines (22, 24) having the said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25); a control causing said vision system to perform a process of scanning items in a donor receptacle at one of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) to obtain a pick list of location data of items in the scanned donor receptacle that are to be picked based upon the pick list; said control causing said manipulator to perform another process of picking at least one item from another donor receptacle at the other of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) under guidance of said vision system and place the picked item to a recipient receptacle at the at least one recipient buffer using the location data from the pick list of items in that donor receptacle and said control causing said vision system to perform the process of scanning items in the donor receptacle at said one of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) overlapping in time with said control causing said manipulator to perform the another process of picking at least one item from the another receptacle at the another of said at least two donor receptacle buffers (23, 25) under guidance of said vision system, wherein said vision system comprises a three-dimensional camera, and items are scanned in a donor receptacle in order to create a three-dimensional image of items in the donor receptacle to provide co-ordinate data of pick-able objects in the receptacle to populate the pick list, wherein the pick list includes the height of items that are visible to the vision system and the manipulator picks items from the pick list in sequence according to the height of the items.