A materials handling system for processing packaged tobacco products is disclosed. The system includes a picking area where individual packages of tobacco products are picked and placed onto a transport mechanism. The system also includes a picking support software component that manages activity in the picking area. The picking support software component provides picking instruction output indicative of a sequence in which the individual packages of tobacco products should be picked and placed onto the transport mechanism. In one embodiment, the sequence blends the individual components of multiple tobacco product orders together such that the tobacco product orders are not completely picked consecutively from one order to the next.