Replenishment

Replenishment keeps pick locations stocked. Products are picked fastest from their standard bin location, a pick location close to the packing area. Larger quantities are stored in containers on bulk bin locations. When a pick list needs stock that is only in bulk storage, Boxture does not send the picker to the bulk location; instead it asks for the container to be brought to the standard bin location first. That move is replenishment.

Concepts

Term	Meaning
Standard bin location	The product's fixed pick location in a warehouse location, set in the product's storage settings. See Product details.
Picking bin location	A bin location with purpose picking.
Bulk bin location	A bin location with purpose bulk, used for reserve stock, usually in containers.
Replenish line	A pick list line with state replenish: it must be replenished before it can be picked.

See Bin locations for bin location purposes and Containers for containers.

When does a line need replenishment

Right after a pick list is created, Boxture reallocates it: it looks for inventory first on the product's standard bin location, then on other picking bin locations, and finally on bulk bin locations, following FIFO.

When the inventory chosen for a line is in a container outside the standard bin location, and that container also holds other stock (inventory that is not being picked for this line, or items for several orders), the line gets the state replenish. Picking only part of a bulk container on the bulk location would leave a half-empty container in reserve storage; moving it to the pick location keeps the stock where pickers expect it.

If only part of a line's quantity comes from such a container, the line is split: the part from that container becomes a separate replenish line, the rest can be picked normally.

This only happens for products that have a standard bin location in the location.

Effect on picking

• The mobile picking app lists pick lists with replenish lines separately, under Need replenishment, apart from the Fully pickable pick lists.
• Pickers can pick all other lines of a pick list. The replenish lines are skipped.
• When everything else is done, the picker sees "Pick completed, revisit picklist once inventory is replenished", and the app moves on to the next pick list. The pick list is completed once the replenish lines are replenished and picked.

On the web pick list page, replenish lines show state replenish in the Lines table.

Replenishing

Replenishment is done with the scanner by a user with the role Replenisher (or Admin or Warehouse associate). The steps are described in Mobile replenishment. In short:

1. Open Replenishments in the mobile app. It lists what needs to be moved, oldest first: per bin location and container, the product and how many pick list lines are waiting for it.
2. Go to the bulk bin location and scan the container.
3. Bring it to the product's standard bin location and scan that bin location.
4. Confirm.

The container is put away on the scanned bin location. The bin location you put it on may not be the standard bin location of another product; Boxture refuses with a message if it is.

What happens when a container is put away

Whenever a container (or loose items) is put away on a bin location, Boxture checks whether any of its items are being picked on a replenish line. For every such line:

1. The line's bin location is changed to the bin location the stock was put away on.
2. The line goes from replenish back to pending, and can now be picked from the new location.

This also works when the container is moved with a normal inventory move on the web or with moving inventory on the scanner, not only from the Replenishments screen.

In addition, when stock is moved from a non-picking bin location onto a picking bin location, Boxture automatically tries to allocate pending and backordered orders for those products. See Backorders.

Tips

• Give every fast-moving product a standard bin location in each warehouse location; without one, Boxture does not reallocate or ask for replenishment and picks from wherever the stock was allocated.
• Keep bulk stock in containers. Replenishment moves whole containers, which is quick to scan.
• Check the Inventory on non-standard bin locations report to see which stock is not on its standard bin location.