Bin locations

A bin location is a named storage place inside a location (warehouse): a shelf position, a floor spot, a receiving dock, a packing table. Every unit of inventory that is in the warehouse has a bin location. A container and everything in it always share one bin location.

This page explains what bin locations mean for your day-to-day work. Creating and maintaining them (by hand or by import) is done by an administrator. See Warehousing setup.

Purpose

Every bin location has a purpose. The purpose decides what Boxture does with the inventory stored there.

Purpose	Used for	Allocatable	Counted as on hand
Picking	Pick faces that pickers pick from.	Yes	Yes
Bulk	Overstock or reserve storage. Can be allocated and is used to replenish picking bins.	Yes	Yes
Replenishment	Stock staged for replenishing picking bins.	No	Yes
Receiving	Where inbound goods land when they are received.	No	Yes
Packing	Packing stations. Users can have a default packing bin location.	No	Yes
Kitting	Where kits are built. Containers used for building kits must be in a Kitting bin.	No	Yes
Shipping	Outbound staging.	No	No
Problem	Units with a problem. For example, when you unpick, the units can be put on a Problem bin.	No	No
Defective	Damaged units.	No	No
Returns	Returned goods waiting to be handled.	No	No
Hold	Units set aside.	No	No

Allocatable means allocation can reserve available units in that bin for orders. Inventory in any other bin is in stock, but won't be promised to orders until you move it to a Picking or Bulk bin. Counted as on hand refers to the on-hand figure that is reported to some integrations (see Inventory overview screens).

Getting received stock sellable

Received goods sit in a Receiving bin and can't be allocated yet. Move them to a Picking or Bulk bin to make them allocatable. When you move units into a Picking bin from a non-picking bin, Boxture immediately tries to allocate backordered and pending orders for those products. See Moving inventory.

Special bin locations

When a new location is created, Boxture creates four bin locations for it automatically:

Default name	Purpose	Used as
RECEIVING	Receiving	The default bin location when receiving.
PICKING	Picking	A first picking bin.
PROBLEM	Problem	The default bin location suggested when unpicking units.
KITTING	Kitting	The default bin location when building kits.

The names come from the warehousing settings Receiving bin location name, Picking bin location name, Problem bin location name and Kitting bin location name. These can be set per location. If you change a name in the settings, Boxture looks for a bin location with the new name and the matching purpose when picking a default.

Coordinates and walking order

Besides its name, a bin location has numeric coordinates: Zone, Walkway, Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Section and Bin. Zone is the largest area and Bin the smallest. Boxture uses these numbers to work out the distance between bin locations, and from that the order in which pick list lines are presented, so pickers walk an efficient route. In order of weight:

1. Zone
2. Walkway
3. Rack, taking into account whether racks are on the same walkway
4. Shelf
5. Section
6. Bin

Bin locations with well-maintained coordinates give better pick routes. See Pick lists.

Standard bin location for a product

A product can have a standard bin location per location: the bin location where that product normally lives (see Product details). The list of bin locations shows it in the Default bin for products column. A bin location can be the standard bin of one product only, and Boxture enforces that:

• You can't move or adjust another product into a bin location that is the standard bin of a different product.
• The message reads like A-01-01 is standard bin location for product ABC123.

The report Inventory on non-standard binlocations lists units that are not on their product's standard bin. See Reporting.

Looking at what is in a bin location

• In Admin › Warehousing › Bin locations, the Inventory column shows whether a bin location holds any (non-retired) inventory. The shelves icon opens the inventory overview filtered on that bin location.
• On the Inventory overview, filter on Bin Location or Bin Location Purpose.
• On a mobile device, scan the bin location's label with Information scan.

Changing a bin location that is in use

To protect inventory records, Boxture limits changes to bin locations that hold inventory:

• The purpose can only be changed between Picking and Bulk while the bin location holds inventory.
• The name and coordinates can't be changed while units in the bin location are being picked.
• A bin location can't be moved to a different location.

Who can do what

Everyone with access to a location can choose its bin locations in forms. Only Admins can create and edit bin locations, under Admin › Warehousing › Bin locations or by import. See Warehousing setup and Imports.