Projects:Warehouse picking/User Guide
![]() | Important Note: Warehouse picking functionality is discontinued and unsupported. All supported Warehouse functionality is included now in Advanced Warehouse Operations modules. |
Contents |
Introduction
This project implements and enhances the management of the picking operations within a warehouse. To manage and deliver the picking lists the module make intensive use of 2 core features that must be enabled:
- Stock reservations: When picking lists are created the products included in them are reserved. This means that no other picking list or any other process can use those products.
- Document status project: With this feature the user can easily know whether a sales order is pending to be delivered or not.
Since version 1.4 of the module there are 2 types of picking lists available.
- Existing ones are called Direct Picking List to Customer. These picking lists generates the Goods Shipments from the locations where the items are stored. The Goods Shipments are created in Draft status when the Picking List is created. Picking List is completed once "Goods Shipments" are processed..
- The other type are Outbound Picking Lists. These ones consist on moving all the items included in the Picking List to a defined Outbound location. When the Picking List is created Goods Movements are created in draft status for all the included items. These good movements are processed with the picking list. When the picking list is confirmed it is possible to automatically generate the corresponding good shipment.
Configuration
In order to generate a picking list, some configuration is needed.
Document type
The Picking list document type must be defined for each organization.
The module provides a dataset with basic document types that can be applied. Go to enterprise module management and apply the 'Warehouse Picking List' dataset for each organization using Picking Lists.
Once it is applied, the document types are created.
The dataset adds 3 new document types, with their own "Document Sequences", on each organization is applied:
- Picking List. Used for "Direct Picking List to Customer" picking list type. Picking List using this document type creates the shipments from the picking location. When they are completed the Goods Shipment is completed.
- Picking List outbound. Used for "Outbound Picking List", therefore "Use Outbound location" flag is set as "Yes" by default. This means that a "Goods Movement" needs to be created to move the goods from goods' storage bin to outbound storage bin. In this case, a storage bin of the warehouse needs to be defined as "Outbound".
- Generate Shipment on PL Completion flag if check generates "Goods Shipments" if Picking List is completed. A Goods Shipment document type needs to be selected in the field "Shipment for Picking".
- Grouping Pick List: Using Outbound location and the Is Grouping Picking List flag checked. This document type is used when grouping different picking list in one list
These document types can be modified or new ones created manually. For example if it is not desired to generate the Goods Shipment when they are completed or to modify the document sequences format.
Reservations Preference
A preference needs to be configured in order to enable stock reservations feature.
As "Client Admin", go to "Preference" window and create a new one as shown in the screenshot below:
Warehouse Outbound location
When using Outbound Picking List it is needed to configure the outbound locations on each warehouse that ships goods to customers.
In Warehouse and Storage Bins window. Select the warehouse and in the Storage Bin tab create or select the storage bin that represents the outbound location of that warehouse. Fill the type field selecting Outbound.
Picking List Auto Close Preference
When using Outbound Picking List. In order to set automatically Picking List status from All Confirmed to Closed a preference Picking List Auto Close with default value N is available. Users could enable this preference to automatically close picking when all lines are confirmed.
Picking List generation
Picking Lists can be generated by the Generate Picking List button available in the Sales Order window. Or they can be created manually from the Warehouse Picking List window.
In both cases the user has to select the Sales Orders to be included in the Picking List. The sales order need to be Booked and pending to be shipped. This is, the delivery status must be below 100%.
The module adds a new flag In Picking List in the Sales Order Header. This is checked when one of the lines of the sales order is present in a Picking List that is not closed. Using this flag and the Delivery Status and Delivery Date fields it is possible to filter the Sales Order window to identify the Sales Orders needed to be included in a Picking List.
The module does not support the creation of Picking List for the same Sales Order for multiple Warehouses. Since the Sales Order has already a Warehouse assigned in the header, the Picking List will be created against this Warehouse only.
From Sales Order window
The Generate Picking List button supports multiple selection and is visible when all selected orders are booked and they are not completely shipped. Using this process both type of Picking Lists can be created.
When the button is clicked a new window is opened. The first field to be filled is the Picking List type. Based on the selected type additional fields need to be set.
When a Sales Order line is included in a Picking List it must have a related reservation. The stock reserved is the used in the Picking List. The processes that generate the Picking Lists automatically create the reservations if the Sales Order Line does not have one.
Direct Picking List to Customer
When Direct Picking List to Customer type is selected the process generates a Good Shipment in Draft status for each selected Sales Order. The Picking Lists are generated also in Draft status using a Document Type that have the Use Outbound Location flag unchecked.
The generated Picking Lists can be grouped using the Grouping Criteria field on Generate Picking List process window. The available options are:
- Not Group (default option)
- A Picking List is generated for each Sales Order selected.
- Group by Business partner
- The picking lists are grouped by Sales Order's Business Partner and Organization. One Picking List is created for each customer and organization.
- Group by Organization
- The picking lists are grouped by Sales Order's Organization. One Picking List is created for each organization.
The default Grouping Criteria can be configured using a preference:
- Name of the preference: Group Picking List
- Values:
- Not Group: NG
- Group by Business partner: GBP
- Group by Organization: GO
If there is no stock for at least one of the products:
- A message is shown telling that a partial Picking List is created.
- Reservation, picking list and good shipment are created with the available stock.
And if none of the products has stock:
- No picking list, no good shipment and no reservation is created.
- An error message is shown.
Outbound Picking List
When Outbound Picking List type is selected the process generates a Picking List for each Sales Order selected. The Document Type of these Picking Lists have the Use Outbound Location checked.
As the Outbound Location is a mandatory field on these type of Picking Lists the Generate Picking List window shows fields to select them. There is a field for each Warehouse present on the selected Sales Orders.
Once the Outbound Locations are set the Process Generates a Picking List for each selected Sales Order and a Goods Movement for each Sales Order Line.
From Warehouse Picking List window
From this window it is possible to create Outbound Picking Lists. Once the header is manually created click on the Select Sales Orders button. This opens a window with a grid containing all the Sales Orders pending to be delivered that are not on an open Picking List. The sales orders that are shown are filtered by the warehouse of the outbound bin defined in the header of the picking list.
It could happen that a sales order has items reserved in a warehouse different than the warehouse defined in its header (due to definition of "qty on hand" per organization and priorities). In that case the picking list will try to re-allocated items from that warehouse to the warehouse of the outbound bin. If there is no way to perform this action the system will throw an error
The system assumes that picking bins (from where you get the items) and the outbound bin must belong to the same warehouse. That's the reason why the system always try to reallocated items in the above scenario and also filters sales orders based on the warehouse of the outbound bin
The available information is:
- Name with the Document Number.
- Business Partner (customer).
- Partner Address (delivery address).
- Order Date
- Scheduled Delivery Date
- Lines, on the grid only the firs line is visible, but putting the mouse over it a box with all the lines appears
When all the Sales Orders to be included in the Picking List are selected the Done button needs to be pressed. This will create the reservations if the sales order do not have one and all the goods movements
It could happen that a sales order has items reserved in a warehouse different than the warehouse defined in its header (due to definition of "qty on hand" per organization and priorities). In that case the picking list will try to re-allocated items from that warehouse to the warehouse of the outbound bin. If there is no way to perform this action the system will throw an error
Note that this method can group different Sales Orders in a single Picking List. Using the Generate From Sales Order method it is always creates a picking list for each Sales Order that can be grouped later when the Picking Lists are assigned.
Direct Picking List to Customer management
Picking lists of this type can't be manually created. They are generated from sales order window as it is explained previously.
The flow to verify and process a picking list is:
- The picking list is in status draft.
- The warehouse manager prints the document. The date printed field is updated.
- The warehouse worker picks the items.
- If there are issues (not enough stock, items in different locators, etc.) prior to validate the picking list the warehouse manager edits/updates the corresponding lines.
- The warehouse manager validates the document and process it.
Header
- Organization
- An organization is a unit of your client or legal entity - examples are store, department. You can share data between organizations.
- Document no
- The document number is usually automatically generated by the system and determined by the document type of the document.
- Document type
- The Document Type determines document sequence and processing rules.
- Document date
- The date when the document was created.
- Description
- A description is limited to 255 characters.
- Date printed
- Indicates the Date that a document was printed.
- Status
- There are different status: Completed, draft and cancelled.
- Process
- when the document is in Draft status.
- Validate
- when the document is in Draft status.
- Cancel
- when the document is in Draft status.
Process button
The selected picking list and its associated good shipment are processed.
Validate button
When the warehouse worker has picked all the items the manager can verify them using this process.
The button opens a window showing all the items, for each one it has to be set the Qty Verified field. There are several ways to do it:
- Using a bar-code reader scanner. If a product with that bar-code exists in the grid it increases the quantity by 1 unit.
- Manually changing the quantity in the line.
- Typing the bar-code and pressing Validate Barcode. If a product with that bar-code exists, it increases the Qty Verified by the quantity set in the Quantity field.
When the Qty Verified is the Quantity, the Qty Pending is zero and the line is marked as verified (green color). When all the lines are verified, the picking list can be processed. It also processes the related Good Shipments.
Cancel button
The associated goods shipment and the picking list header are deleted. Except the lines is in a good shipment that is processed. Those lines, its processed goods shipment and picking list header are not deleted. In that case, the status of the picking list is set as Canceled.
Print Picking List
In order to be able to print the picking list, a commercial module needs to be installed: Print and send.
This module needs some configuration that is explained here.
Lines
- Line No
- Indicates the unique line for a document. It also sets the display order of the lines within a document.
- Product
- Identifies an item which has been ordered.
- Movement Quantity
- The Movement Quantity indicates the quantity of a product that has been moved.
- UOM
- The UOM defines a unique non monetary unit of measure.
- Storage Bin
- The Locator ID indicates where in a Warehouse a product is located.
- Sales Order Line
- A unique identifier and a reference to a sales order line (product).
- Goods Shipment
- The associated shipment ID.
- Edit Lines
- A window is opened in order to be able to update the movement quantity.
Lines can only be edited pressing Edit Lines button. There you can select different storage bins and modify the quantity that is going to move from each of storage bins. When updating the movement quantity there are some conditions to fulfill:
- The sum of Quantity can't be higher than ordered quantity.
- The Quantity can't be higher than Available Quantity in the storage bin.
Once the quantities are modified, Done button needs to be pressed in order to save the changes and update the reservation quantities of each storage bin.
This button is used to cover this scenarios:
Story 1:
- Allan, a warehouse worker, picks all the items and carries the products to the checkpoint. He mentions to Jonathan that there is not enough stock for one product
- Jonathan selects the corresponding picking list and select the line that is not correct. He press the button Edit line
- The system shows that line and others that matches with the attributes of the line. He edits the quantity and press OK
- Finally he needs to do an inventory adjustment. He opens the Physical Inventory window and adjusts the difference
Story 2:
- Allan, a warehouse worker, picks all the items and carries the products to the checkpoint. He mentions to Jonathan that he has taken one product from two different storage bins
- Jonathan selects the corresponding picking list and select the line that needs to be modified. He press the button Edit line
- The system shows that line and others that matches with the attributes of the line:
- He edits quantity of the first line and select another line that matches with the storage bin where Allan got the product
- Now Jonathan starts verifying the picking list using a scanner barcode
- Once everything is correct he processes the picking list and the goods shipment gets completed
Outbound Picking List management
This type of picking lists are created in draft status. And the flow until the picking list is done is the following:
- In Draft status it is possible to add new Sales Orders using the Sales Orders button
- After selecting the orders and pressing Done the system creates the lines of the picking list. These lines are movement lines not processed yet. Lines status is "Pending".
- The picking list needs to be Assigned to a warehouse worker by using the "Assign" button, it can be grouped with others creating a new Grouping Picking List.
- When a picking list is Assigned the worker can mark as confirmed each of the lines individually by using the process button "Confirm". This sets the picking list as In Progress, as it confirms related Goods Movement from storage bin to "outbound" storage bin.
- When lines are in status Confirmed these movement lines are still not processed meaning that the movement to the outbound bin has not been performed yet, "Goods Movement" related needs to be processed.
- When all the lines are Completed the status of the warehouse picking list changes to All Confirmed.
- Picking Lists in All Confirmed status are reviewed by warehouse manager:
- If everything is correct he pressed Closed and the picking list is Done. If document type is set to create the shipment, those are created.
- Even physically the movement has been done the warehouse manager might not agree with some of them so he has the chance to change what he desires
Header
The header is the same than direct pickings. New fields visible:
- Outbound Storage Bin
- the storage bin where goods need to be moved to be packaged and shipped from.
- Assign
- only in Draft status.
- Re Assign
- only in Assigned status.
- Close
- only in All Confirmed status.
Assign button
This button allows:
- assigns the selected picking list to the warehouse agent chosen in the popup window
- having selected several picking list assigns a warehouse agent
- having selected several picking list not only assign a warehouse agent but group them
When the picking list are grouped a new picking list is created using a document type that has the Is Grouping Picking List flag checked.
- If the process cannot find a suitable document type it throws an error
- The new picking list (Grouped Picking list) is created in status Assigned
- The original picking lists are updated to Grouped status. These picking list are blocked and cannot do anything with them but the system will update them. How?:
- While the Grouped picking list is updated, for example lines status change from Pending to Confirmed, status lines from the original picking list also changes the status automatically
- When all lines from original picking list are in status, for example confirmed, the status of the document also changes
Re Assign button
This button allows the user to change the worker assigned to a Picking List by a new one. Only when the status of the document is Assigned
Close button
This button completes all the good movements of the picking list that are in confirmed status and updates the status of the Picking List to Done. In case the picking list's document type has the Generate Shipment flag enabled the required good shipments are created in Draft status.
Movement Line
Outbound picking lists grouped included, shows a new tab Movement Line. This includes all the good movements related to the Picking List. Some relevant fields are:
- Stock Reservation
- The reservation related to the movement, that links with the sales order line.
- Incidence Reason
- In case the line is in Incidence status can show a description of the incidence.
- Group Picking List and Warehouse Picking List
- In case a picking list is grouped shows the link to the original or the grouping picking list.
- Confirm
- button when the picking is in Assigned or In Progress and the line in Pending status.
- Reject
- button when the picking is in Assigned or In Progress and the line in Confirmed status.
- Edit Item
- button when the picking is in Draft, Assigned or In Progress status and the line in Pending status.
- Manage Incidence
- button when the picking is in Assigned or In Progress and the line in Pending or Incidence status.
Confirm button
Sets the line in Confirmed status. It updates the picking list status:
- If there is a line in Incidence status the status is kept in Incidence.
- If all the lines are in Confirmed status All Confirmed status is set.
- In any other case In Progress is set.
Reject button
Sets the line in Pending status. This is necessary in case the warehouse agent wants to change anything of the line. To do so he needs to click the Edit button
It updates the picking list status:
- If there is a line in Incidence status the status is kept in Incidence.
- In any other case In Progress is set.
Edit Item button
Edits the lines to change the attributes of the product to be picked. It is possible to select different attributes and storage bins. The total quantity must be equal or lower than the movement quantity of the related Stock Reservation. The process updates the reserved stock and the goods movements, deleting or creating new ones if necessary.
Manage Incidence button
- In case there is a problem with the line an incidence can be raised
- When the incidence is raised it is possible to set a description of the problem
- When a line is in Incidence status the status of the document changes to Incidence
- When the line is already in status Incidence and the incidence has been solved pressing the button again changes the status of the line to Pending. Then the status of the document is also reset to the corresponding value depending on the status of all the lines.