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Pick list plans
A pick list plan is a saved selection of orders plus a picking strategy. The plan's rules select allocated orders (for example "all B2C orders of account X shipping with carrier Y"), and releasing the plan puts all matching orders on pick lists in one go, using the plan's pick list type: bulk, batch or wave.
Plans are the way to organise picking for larger volumes: instead of picking order by order, you group orders so that pickers walk to each bin location once for many orders.
Find them under Pick lists › Plans. The overview shows the plans of the location you have selected.
Who can manage plans
Creating, editing, activating, deactivating and releasing plans requires the role Admin, Warehouse associate or Pick list planner.
Pick list types
| Type | What a release creates | How it is picked |
|---|---|---|
| Bulk | One pick list, named after the plan, with all matching orders. | The picker collects the total quantity per bin location, in one or more totes, without sorting per order. The orders are separated afterwards at packing, for example with Bulk pack and ship. |
| Batch | One pick list, named after the plan, with all matching orders. | Products for several orders are picked in one walk, but per order into its own tote: at each bin location the picker is told which order to pick for next and scans that order's tote. The totes go to packing already sorted. |
| Wave | A wave containing one pick list per order. | Each order is picked into its own tote, pick list after pick list. When a picker completes one, the next pick list of the same wave nearest to them is opened automatically. |
Bulk picking works best for many orders with the same single product (webshop promotions); batch picking for many small orders with overlapping products; wave picking when orders must stay strictly separate but should be released and followed up as one group.
Creating a plan
- Go to Pick lists › Plans and choose Create in the card menu.
- Fill in the plan:
- Name: shown on the pick list (bulk and batch) and used in the wave name.
- Pick list type: Bulk, Batch or Wave.
- Release policy: Exclusive, Isolate or Complete (see Release policy).
- Only fully allocated: when on, only orders without any pending, backordered or expected items are selected, so you do not start picking orders that cannot be shipped completely.
- Under Groups, add rules (see Rules).
- Click Save (or Continue to stay on the form).
The plan belongs to the location you are working in and starts in state concept. After saving, the card Applicable Orders at the bottom of the plan shows which orders currently match the rules. Use it to check your rules before releasing.
Plan states
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Concept | New plan; can be edited, but not released. |
| Active | Can be released. |
| Disabled | Switched off; hidden from the plans overview unless you filter on state. |
Use Activate in the plan's menu to make a concept or disabled plan active, and Deactivate to disable an active plan.
Rules and groups
A plan has one or more groups. Each group has a condition, AND or OR, and a set of rules. A rule consists of a field, an operator and a value.
| Field | Operators | Selects orders (or items) where |
|---|---|---|
| Account | = | the order belongs to the account. |
| Business model | = | the order's business model matches (for example B2C or B2B). |
| Channel | = | the order came in through the channel. |
| Product | = | the order contains the product (see also the release policy). |
| Product packaging | = | the product has a product packaging set up for this location with the chosen packing material. |
| Quantity | =, >=, <= | the total ordered quantity of the order matches. Useful to separate single-unit orders. |
| Shipping method | = | the order has the shipping method. |
| Ship at | =, >=, <= | the order's ship at compares to the chosen date and time. |
| Ship at time | =, >=, <= | the order's ship at compares to the chosen time. |
| Product category | = | the item's product is in the category. |
| Order type | = | the order is of that type. |
How rules combine:
- In an AND group every rule must match. When you add several rules for the same field, they are combined as "any of these values" (for example two channels selects orders from either channel). Product is the exception: several product rules in an AND group select orders that contain all of these products.
- In an OR group an order matches if any of the rules matches.
- Several groups are applied one after the other, so an order must match every group.
Regardless of the rules, a plan only selects:
- items that are allocated from the plan's location and have an inventory item on a bin location,
- of orders that are not on hold,
- and, with Only fully allocated, only orders that are completely allocated.
Example
To pick all single-unit B2C orders of one webshop in bulk: Pick list type Bulk, one AND group with Channel = Webshop, Business model = B2C and Quantity = 1.
Release policy
The release policy decides how much of a matching order is put on the pick list. The help text in the form summarises it:
| Policy | Effect |
|---|---|
| Exclusive | Release only whole orders for which all order lines match the rule(s). For product rules this means the order may only contain the selected products. |
| Isolate | Release only the order lines (items) that match the rule(s). Other items of the same order stay allocated and can be picked separately. |
| Complete | Release the whole order when one or more order lines match the rule(s). |
With Exclusive and Complete all allocated items of the order in the plan's location are put on the pick list.
Releasing a plan
A plan can be released when it is active and has at least one applicable order:
- in the plans overview, click the Release wave action on the plan's row, or
- open the plan and choose Release in its menu.
You see "Releasing pick list(s) for ... in ..." straight away and are returned to the plans overview; the release itself runs in the background. When it is done you get a notification:
- bulk and batch: "Bulk pick list released for ... in ...";
- wave: "Wave release for ... in ...".
What the release does:
- Finds the matching orders (as shown under Applicable Orders) at that moment.
- Bulk and batch: creates one pick list named after the plan and puts every matching order (or, with Isolate, every matching item) on it. Wave: creates a wave named after the plan with the date and time of the release, and a pick list per order (named "Order" and the order number) within it.
- Runs reallocation for the new pick lists, so the best inventory is picked and lines that need replenishment are marked.
- Sets the pick list's ship at to the earliest ship at of its orders.
Orders that were released are no longer allocated (their items are picking), so they disappear from Applicable Orders. Releasing the same plan later picks up orders that have been allocated since. You can release a plan as often as you like.
WARNING
If a release fails, for example because no bin location can be determined for a product, you receive an error notification "Error while releasing ..." with the reason, and nothing is released.
The plans overview
The table shows Name, State, Pick list type, # Applicable orders, # Waves, # Pick Lists and Created at, plus the Release wave action. Counting applicable orders runs the plan's rules, so a large number of plans with complex rules can make the overview slower to load.
From a pick list or wave you can always go back to the plan it came from: the pick list page shows the Plan and Pick list type, and the pick lists table has a Pick list plan column.
Related pages
- Pick lists: states, assignment and the pick route.
- Pick list waves: following up waves.
- Mobile picking: how bulk, batch and wave pick lists are picked on the scanner.