Patent ID: 8195326

Claim:
An order-picking station for manually picking articles from storage containers into order containers by a picking person, comprising: an order container buffer for buffering said order containers into which said articles are to be picked, said order container buffer including several buffer spaces, arranged side-by-side, for respectively receiving one order container; a field of beams directly above openings of said order containers in said order container buffer for monitoring the picking of said articles and whether the order picker still has at least one of his hands in the order container into which the articles are to be picked, in order to avoid automated retrieval of the order container from said order container buffer via an order-container conveyor system; and a controlling device for controlling said automated conveyance of said order containers according to whether the order picker has at least one of his hands in the order container as indicated by interruption of the field of beams, and the order has been picked completely as indicated by an end of interruption of the field of beams and by a first enabling signal that indicates that the order has been processed; wherein, the control of said automated conveyance of said order containers from the order container buffer increases the picking efficiency of the order-picking station; and wherein the controller transports, to the picking station, a new storage container containing further articles that belong to the picking order in response to a second enabling signal that indicates that the order is not completely picked.