New Pick And Drop Functionality Streamlines Warehouse Management

Stream lining warehouse efficiencies

Efficient and accurate goods receipt 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 well streamlined by operating a put away process. They will use a specific location or bin/s to initially book stock into, enabling them to quickly receive the goods. This gets goods booked onto their system before then moving the stock from this holding location into the correct bins within the warehouse.

However, during peak seasons and on receipt of full container and lorry loads where businesses will have larger volumes of items arriving, it is vitally important that stock put away is conducted both quickly and effectively. With these large loads coming from suppliers needing to be distributed around the warehouse, there can be challenges and issues in optimising operations here.

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 for the bin to which they have been sent 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 massively streamline operations.

Streamlined Stock Put Away Through Setting Bin Sizes

OrderWise already provides a wealth of functionality for handling goods in, warehouse management system and stock control operations. This includes existing functionality on our OrderWise Mobile WMS Devices which enable staff to be directed to the next available bin of the right size when putting away stock. This is facilitated by the ability for users to create their own bin sizes, simply choosing a name and specifying the width, depth and height of the bin size. These bin sizes can then be applied to stock locations, with bins then assigned to items as required.

With the relevant security setting active, these bin sizes are utilised within put away when OrderWise Mobile WMS Devices are being used. 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 WiFi is available as 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 can benefit from greater efficiency when putting away stock arriving from suppliers. Through automation of this put away process and allowing businesses to carefully avoid instances where staff mistakenly arrive at the wrong size bin, companies using OrderWise can benefit from 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 to an intermediate location before then being moved to its 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.

When stock is booked into a Goods In area it is placed into a Container Goods In (CGI) bin. 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 elsewhere in the warehouse. This is achieved via the “Pick and Drop” module located within the Mobile OrderWise application.

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 can 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.

For more information on OrderWise, download our brochures or watch our videos.

To discuss your requirements in more detail contact us on 01522 704083.