Warehouse¶
5 screens.
Storage Overview¶
Warehouse → Storage Overview
The whole warehouse on one screen: how full it is, what is in it, and the condition of the stock. Nothing here writes.
What you see¶
Five figures across the top: capacity used as a percentage with a fill bar, free positions, units stored, stock value at moving average, and — only when there is any — units not put away, in amber.
Then two panels: positions used by area, and what is stored by brand or category. Hovering an area gives its units and value, and warns where positions hold more than one item.
Every pallet position is drawn as a heat map, level 4 at the top and level 1 on the floor. Colour says the state — holding stock, held, expiring, empty — and held and expiring positions also carry a diagonal hatch, so the picture still reads in black and white or to a colour-blind reader.
A line chart of units on hand over the last few months, from the stock ledger; where the ledger starts later than the window, it says how many earlier days are not shown.
Condition is four tiles, and each shows a number only when something is wrong and a reassuring sentence otherwise: expiring within the window, held and unpickable, waiting for putaway, and negative balances.
At the foot, a shaded card of caveats — what these figures do and do not say.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Expiring within | 30, 60, 90 or 180 days. Ninety by default. It drives both the heat map and the Condition tile. |
| Measure | Stock value, Units, or Positions used. Re-ranks the right-hand chart only. |
| Break down by | Brand or Category. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Show figures as a table | Always. Reads Hide figures as a table once open. | Turns the charts into numbers you can read off or copy — areas, and brands or categories, with positions, units and value. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- Capacity is counted in pallet positions, not volume or weight. A position holds one pallet, so it is never half full.
- A negative balance is always a counting or receiving error, never a real state. The tile exists so it is noticed.
Inbound — Pre-advice, Arrivals, Put Away, Returns¶
Warehouse → Pre-advice (ASN) · Expected Arrivals · Put Away · Returns
Everything before the goods are on the rack: what the supplier says is coming, when it is due, where it goes, and what to do with what customers send back.
What you see¶
Pre-advice lists what the supplier says is on each container — order, supplier, container, expected date, lines, units — recorded before it lands, so receiving confirms lines instead of typing them at the door. Lines that could not be matched to one of our items are shown in red and counted separately, on purpose: the dock needs to see that before the container is opened.
Expected Arrivals lists every purchase order still to land, sorted by the date it is expected rather than the date it was ordered. The line at the top counts what is overdue, what is due this week and what has no expected date at all. Overdue rows are red.
Put Away lists stock that is booked in but has no pallet position. Everything brought over from the old system starts here.
Returns lists goods a customer has sent back. They are in the building and on the balance sheet, but held — nothing picks them until somebody decides they are sellable.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Expected (Arrivals) | A date box on every row. There is no save button — it saves when you click away, and only if you changed it. Clearing it removes the date. |
| Qty (Put Away) | Pre-filled with everything on hand. Reduce it to put part of a pallet in one place and the rest in another. |
| To bin (Put Away) | Required. Often pre-filled with a suggestion, and the word suggested appears beside it when it was. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Open | On any pre-advice. | Opens its detail below the list. |
| Cancel pre-advice | On a pre-advice that has not been received. | Asks first, naming the pre-advice, the supplier and the container, and warning that receiving goes back to typing the lines at the door. |
| Disposition | On a pending return. | Opens its lines below. |
| Sellable | On a return line still on hold. | Asks first, then releases the goods back into sellable stock. |
| Write off | On a return line still on hold, and on any hold. | Asks why, in a box you must fill in. Cancelling the question abandons the write-off. On confirming it scraps the stock and posts an adjustment. |
| Who sends them back, and why | On the Returns tab. Reads Hide analysis once open. | Opens an analysis by reason and by customer. |
| Put away | On every unaddressed line. | Moves that quantity into that position. Refuses with Give a bin — e.g. A-7-1 if the bin box is empty. This is one of the six that deliberately does not ask — it runs once per pallet, all day. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- Working the Put Away list down to zero is what makes the pick path, first-expiry-first-out picking and cycle counting mean anything. Stock with no position cannot be walked to.
- A return is held on arrival and skipped by the allocator until somebody dispositions it.
- The returns analysis is worth reading monthly: a reason concentrated on one customer is a delivery or ordering problem with that customer; the same reason spread across many is a product or packaging problem.
When there is nothing to show¶
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Pre-advice | No pre-advice recorded yet. |
| Returns | Nothing waiting. |
| Put Away | Nothing unaddressed — every unit has a bin. |
Outbound — Queue, Pick, Pack, Ship¶
Warehouse → Fulfilment Queue · Pick Waves & Tasks · Pack Cartons · Shipments
Getting orders out, in the order the work happens: release to a wave, pick, pack, ship, then track.
What you see¶
Fulfilment Queue lists the approved sales orders waiting to go, with a tick box on each, and shows whether each is already on a wave.
Pick Waves & Tasks works one wave. The dropdown at the top shows each wave with how many of its tasks are picked and how many came up short. The column headed Go to (FEFO) is the position holding the batch that expires soonest — that is the one to take.
Pack Cartons sits between picking and shipping: pick, then pack, then ship. It shows, per item, how much was picked, how much is already in a carton, and how much is left; every remaining quantity is already filled in.
Shipments lists every despatch with its tracking number and the full chain of statuses it has been through.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Order on a wave (Pack) | Required. Only orders already released to a wave are listed. |
| Carton weight (kg) | Optional. Clears after each carton. |
| Into this carton | One per item line, pre-filled with the whole remainder — packing the lot into one carton is the common case, and retyping it is where transcription errors come from. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Release selected → Pick Wave | Always, but it now tells you Tick the orders to release first rather than doing nothing when none are ticked. | Asks first, saying how many orders are going. On confirming it creates a wave and sequences the tasks along the walking route. |
| Ship picked | On an order that is on a wave. | Asks first. On confirming it ships what was actually picked, issues the stock and posts the cost of sale. |
| Ship all | On an order that is not on a wave. | Asks first, warning that it ships without reference to what was picked. The confirm button is red. |
| Scan pick | On a task that is open or being picked. | Records the whole outstanding quantity as picked from that task's own bin and batch. Deliberately does not ask — it runs once per line of every wave. |
| Short | On a task that is open or being picked. | Asks why, offering Not found in bin as the usual answer, then marks the task short. |
| Build carton | Once at least one quantity is above zero, and until the order is fully packed. | Builds the carton and reloads the order. Deliberately does not ask — once per carton. |
| → | On a shipment that has a next step. The arrow is labelled with it — → picked up, → in transit, → out for delivery, → delivered. | Advances the shipment one step and logs the event. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- A pick is refused if the item is not in the bin that was scanned, and the refusal is shown with the reason. That is the check that stops the wrong batch going out.
- A carton cannot claim more of an item than was picked for that order and not already packed. The refusal shows the numbers. Catching a miscount at the bench costs a minute; catching it at the customer costs a delivery.
- Shipping issues the stock and posts the cost of sale immediately. The carrier is recorded as Own Fleet.
- The shipment chain is fixed and single-step: pending → picked up → in transit → out for delivery → delivered. Steps cannot be skipped or reversed here, and a delivered shipment has no button.
When there is nothing to show¶
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Fulfilment Queue | Nothing waiting to fulfil |
| Pick tasks | No tasks in this wave |
| Pack, nothing picked | Nothing has been picked for this order yet. |
| Cartons | No cartons built yet. |
Stock control — Bins, Holds, Expiry, Counts, Adjustments, Traceability¶
Warehouse → Stock by Bin · Bin Layout · Holds · Expiry & Quality · Count Sheets · Adjustments · Batch Traceability
Where everything is, what cannot be picked, whether the dates can be trusted, and — when it matters most — where a batch went.
What you see¶
Stock by Bin answers "what is in A-7-1?" and "where is this item?", filtered by area.
Bin Layout is the shape of the racking: areas, bays, levels, and how full each area is. Above 90% full is drawn in red.
Holds lists stock that is here and owned but cannot be picked, with the reason and the date it was placed, and a badge per reason across the top.
Expiry & Quality reports how many batches carry a date read off the goods, as against derived from an assumed shelf life or missing altogether, then lists the problems: no date, already expired, or a date that cannot be true.
Count Sheets lists the counts taken, and opens one for counting.
Adjustments is one card for writing stock on or off by hand.
Batch Traceability answers a recall: type a batch number and press Enter.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Area | Filters Stock by Bin, and chooses the scope of a new count. |
| Counted | One box per count line. It saves when you click away, and only when it is not empty. |
| Item id, Qty (±), Bin, Reason, Memo | The adjustment form. The quantity is signed: −5 writes five off, +5 writes five on. |
| Lot / batch id | The batch to trace. Pressing Enter runs it. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Release | On any hold. | Asks first, then puts the stock back into sellable stock. |
| Write off | On any hold. | Asks why, then scraps it and posts an adjustment. |
| Open blind count | Always. | Creates a count sheet over the chosen area and opens it straight away. It does not ask — opening a sheet writes nothing to stock; it is posting one that does. |
| Open | On any existing count. | Loads that sheet below. |
| Post count → adjustment | While the sheet is being counted or reviewed. | Asks first. On confirming, differences become a stock adjustment — unless stock moved since the count, in which case it is refused and the lines to recount are named. |
| Post, accepting drift | While the sheet is being counted or reviewed. | Asks first, warning that stock which moved will be recorded as a variance that never happened. The confirm button is red. |
| Post adjustment | Always. | Asks first, spelling out the direction — Write OFF 5 units? or Write ON 5 units? — because "−5" and "5" are one keystroke apart and mean opposite things. |
| Trace | On every problem row on Expiry, and on the Traceability tab. | Traces that batch: where it is now, who it went to, and every movement. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- A hold is a state on the stock, not a place. Held goods stay in the position they are in and the allocator steps over them.
- Counts opened here are always blind — the system quantity is hidden from the counter and shown as a dash. A count that shows the expected figure is a confirmation, not a count.
- Drift blocks a clean post. Accepting it is a deliberately separate button, so the override is a decision somebody took rather than a default they did not notice.
- An adjustment is valued at the item's moving average and posted against inventory variance. Prefer a count sheet where you can: an adjustment records that a number changed, a count records what was on the shelf.
- Every item is lot and expiry managed, and every allocation is ordered by expiry — so a batch with a wrong or missing date quietly changes what gets picked, and nothing else will tell you.
- On Traceability, Shipped to is the recall list: everyone holding goods from that batch.
When there is nothing to show¶
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Holds | Nothing on hold. |
| Expiry | Every batch holding stock has a plausible date. |
| Counts | No counts yet |
| Traceability, none left | None of this batch is left in stock. |
| Traceability, none shipped | This batch has not gone out to anyone. |
Scanning and labels¶
Warehouse → Scanner · Scan Log · Rack Labels
The same interface the handheld terminals use, on a desk; the record of every scan; and the rack labels themselves.
What you see¶
Scanner is two panels: the console on the left, the session log on the right. It states its own rule at the top — a bare bin code (A-7-1) scans as a location. A pick scan is rejected if the item is not in the bin you scanned.
Scan Log keeps every scan ever taken, including the refused ones, and opens showing refusals only.
Rack Labels shows the label specification as badges — size, barcode symbology, site code, symbol width — and turns the width badge red if the symbol does not fit the label.
Fields¶
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Type | receive, putaway, pick, pack, ship, count or return. Starts at pick. |
| Barcode / SKU | Required. Focused when the tab opens; pressing Enter submits. |
| Bin, Lot, Qty, Ref | Optional context. They are not cleared between scans, so a run into one bin needs the bin typed once. |
| Area / …or specific positions | On Rack Labels. Typing codes wins over the area filter. |
Buttons¶
| Button | When you can use it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Scan | Always. | Submits the scan. On success the barcode box clears ready for the next one; on refusal it is left as typed so it can be corrected. Every attempt, accepted or refused, goes to the top of the session log. |
| Once at least one position is selected. The count is in the label — Print 40 label(s). | Opens the label sheet in a new window, ready to print. | |
| Reprint | On every position in the list. | Opens a single replacement label. |
Rules this screen enforces¶
- In the print dialog set scaling to 100% or Actual size. Anything else changes the width of the barcode and the scanners will struggle with it.
- Sheets come out in pick-path order, so labelling runs aisle by aisle.
- If the browser blocks the print window you are told so plainly, rather than nothing happening.
- A bin that rejects picks all week has a label problem, and Scan Log is where that shows up. That is why refused scans are kept.
When there is nothing to show¶
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Scan Log | Nothing to show |