Warehousing setup

Before a location can receive, store and pick goods, it needs bin locations (the physical places where inventory is stored) and, for most picking processes, totes (the crates pickers collect orders in). Both are set up by admins in the Admin › Warehousing menu:

Menu item	What you maintain there
Locations	The warehouses themselves, see Locations
Bin-locations	Bin locations of the current location
Totes	Totes of the current location
Packing materials	Boxes, pallets and other materials, see Packing materials

Bin locations and totes always belong to one location. The screens show and create them for the current location (the location selected at the top of the screen). Switch location first when you want to set up another warehouse.

How bin locations and totes are used day to day is explained in Bin locations and Totes. This page covers the setup.

Bin locations

The bin locations list

Admin › Warehousing › Bin-locations lists the bin locations of the current location with the columns Name, Purpose, Zone, Walkway, Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Section, Bin, Inventory (whether the bin currently holds inventory) and Default bin for products (products that have this bin as their standard bin location). The Inventory action opens the inventory of that bin location in a new tab.

From the card menu you can Create a single bin location or Import many at once.

Creating a bin location

1. Select the right location at the top of the screen.
2. Go to Admin › Warehousing › Bin-locations and click Create.
3. Fill in the Attributes tab:
   • Name: unique within the location. Names are converted to upper case and may only contain letters, digits, spaces, - and _, so they can be scanned. Print the name as a barcode on the shelf label.
   • Purpose: what the bin location is used for (see below).
   • Zone, Walkway, Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Section, Bin: whole numbers that describe where the bin is (see Coordinates and pick routes).
4. Optionally add Notes and Metadata on the Meta Data tab.
5. Click Save.

Purposes

Purpose	Typical use
Picking	Regular storage that orders are picked from. Inventory here can be allocated.
Bulk	Bulk or overstock storage. Inventory here can also be allocated.
Receiving	Where goods are put when received. Only receiving bin locations are offered on the receive screen.
Problem	Where goods with a problem are put, for example when unpicking. Only problem bin locations are offered when unpicking.
Packing	Packing stations. Offered as the user's default packing bin location and on the pack screen.
Kitting	Where kits are built
Shipping	Staging area for outgoing shipments
Replenishment	Replenishment areas
Returns	Returned goods
Defective	Defective goods
Hold	Goods on hold

Only inventory in Picking and Bulk bin locations is used for allocation. Inventory in any other bin location is on hand but not available for orders until it is moved.

Each location gets a picking, problem, receiving and kitting bin location automatically when it is created. Their names come from the Warehousing settings; the bin locations with those names are used as the defaults on the receive, unpick and kit build screens.

Changes when a bin location holds inventory

To keep inventory consistent, Boxture limits changes to bin locations that are in use:

• The purpose of a bin location that holds inventory cannot be changed, except between Picking and Bulk.
• The name and the coordinates cannot be changed while inventory in the bin location is being picked.
• A bin location cannot be moved to another location.

The message "change not allowed when there is inventory" (or "... in picking") explains why a save was refused.

Coordinates and pick routes

When a picker opens a pick list in the mobile app (and again when a line is skipped), Boxture orders the pick list lines into a walking route. It calculates a "travel cost" between bin locations from their coordinates, in this order of importance:

1. Zone: moving between zones is the most expensive.
2. Walkway: moving to another walkway.
3. Rack: distance between racks. Within the same walkway it is the difference in rack number; between walkways the picker is assumed to walk around the nearest end of the aisle.
4. Shelf: difference in shelf height.
5. Section: crossing to the other side of the walkway (two sections are supported).
6. Bin: difference in bin number.

The route starts at the picker's current bin location when the app knows it or, if not, at the location's Pick start bin location (see Locations). For good routes:

• number zones, walkways, racks and bins in the order a picker walks them;
• use the same numbering logic in every aisle;
• give every pickable bin location coordinates of 1 or higher, so it also shows up on the warehouse layout map.

All coordinates default to 0.

Importing bin locations

For a new warehouse, importing is much faster than creating bin locations one by one. Click Import on the bin locations list. The import has the columns Record ID, Location (ID or name of an accessible location), Name, Purpose (the purpose code in lower case, for example picking, bulk, receiving), Zone, Walkway, Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Section and Bin. Fill in Record ID to update an existing bin location. Exporting the current data gives the bin locations of the current location. See Imports for the import process.

Totes

A tote is a crate or bin a picker carries. During picking, items are put in a tote; the tote is linked to the order line items it contains until the order is packed. A tote can only hold items of one order and one pick list at a time.

The totes list

Admin › Warehousing › Totes lists the totes of the current location with Name, State and Orders (the orders whose items are in the tote right now). Use Create or Import in the card menu.

Creating a tote

1. Select the right location at the top of the screen.
2. Go to Admin › Warehousing › Totes and click Create.
3. Enter the Name (unique within the location, converted to upper case). Label the physical tote with this name as a barcode.
4. Optionally enter the Weight and Weight unit of the empty tote.
5. Click Save, then Activate in the card menu.

Tote states

State	Meaning
concept	New tote, not yet usable
active	Can be used. An active tote without items is available for picking.
disabled	Taken out of use

Deactivate is only possible when the tote is empty (no order line items linked). A tote screen also has a Papers tab when papers (such as a tote label) have been printed for it.

Importing totes

The tote import has the columns Record ID, Location (location ID), Name, Weight, Weight unit and State event (use activate to activate the totes right away). See Imports.

Related pages

• Bin locations
• Totes
• Pick lists
• Warehousing settings