Application Technology

Efficient and accurate receipt of goods is a task every business that handles stock needs to manage and getting the received stock into the right location within the warehouse for picking is often where the most time is taken.

With this in mind, many companies will look to keep the booking in of stock as streamlined as possibly by operating a put away process. They will use a specific location or bins to initially book stock into, enabling them to quickly receive the goods. This gets goods registered onto their system before then moving the stock from this holding location into the correct bins within the warehouse.

In large warehouse operations where bin space is often used for storing whole pallets of stock, having additional detail relating to sizes of available bins can generate greater efficiency when putting away stock. By having a system in place to automatically direct staff to a suitably sized bin, occasions where staff arrive at bins to find that the pallet is too large can be easily prevented. Additionally, in environments where fork lifts are used to place stock on high up racking, knowing in advance the size and weight these storage spaces can support can also help to streamline operations.

OrderWise already provides functionality for handling goods in, warehouse management and stock control operations. This includes existing functionality on its OrderWise Mobile WMS devices, which enable staff to be directed to the next available bin of the right size when putting away stock. Users can create their own bin sizes by supplying width, depth and height measurements, which can then be applied to stock locations, with bins then assigned to items as required.

While also taking into account the most efficient walk routes, OrderWise intuitively uses the bin size information to guide the user during stock put away, suggesting on-screen the nearest empty bin based upon the size of the item. If Wi-Fi is available while stock is scanned into the destination bin, information will be updated on the main system to ensure real time data synchronisation is achieved.

With the functionality to record bin sizes, businesses using OrderWise could benefit from greater efficiency when putting away stock arriving from suppliers and higher levels of warehouse productivity. 

New ‘Pick and Drop’ functionality
Now extending these features, the latest OrderWise release sees further structured functionality added to enhance warehouse operations from the point of goods in.

‘Pick and Drop’ functionality enables efficient handling of stock that has been booked into a goods in area and needs to be moved first to an intermediate location then to a final destination within the warehouse.

The process ensures that stock is promptly entered onto the system and that goods in areas are free for further receipt of goods. To achieve this, a new tab has been added to the Container Goods In (CGI) module and a new module has been added to the Mobile OrderWise application.

Stock booked into a goods in area is placed into a Container Goods In (CGI) bin where it is now showing on the system. The stock can then be moved onto Pick and Drop (P+D) bins on the aisle ends within the warehouse.

Stock is moved onto the P+D bins at the ends of the aisles via the ‘Move to P+D bin’ tab in the CGI module, which is made in real time. Finally, stock can then be moved from an aisle end P+D bin into a final destination picking bin. 

When moving stock from P+D bins to their destination bins, the OrderWise Mobile WMS devices will suggest which bin to move the stock into by automatically analysing the bin size. If the picker arrives at the destination bin to find there isn’t space available, their Mobile WMS device will then suggest the next suitable bin in the closest proximity to the originally recommended location. Additionally, goods in discrepancy reasons can be added when skipping these bins in the pick and drop process. As normal, these reasons can then be reviewed and marked as checked from within the goods in module.

Thanks to this intuitive new functionality, OrderWise users could save time and improve efficiency by ensuring staff are always directed to a bin capable of taking the stock being moved. Although particularly beneficial for businesses handling large volumes of palletised stock with forklifts, any company looking to add efficiency to stock put away – where intermediate locations are used – can utilise this new mobile module for
a more intuitive and streamlined process.