To increase picking efficiency, your company can use a staging bin during the picking process. By using staging bins, you can avoid picking products off the warehouse shelves for each individual pick demand. Order staging is often most effective when picking a small number of products for a large number of orders.
Example If you have ten orders for ten cases of product A and product B, and you print ten pick demands for the orders, you would pick the same two products ten times, wasting time walking back and forth in the warehouse. To save time, you can simply move 100 cases of product A and 100 cases of product B to a staging bin, and then perform picking from the staging bin.
NOTE You can use the order staging process for fixed kit products too. However, you can create order staging demands only for the components, not for the fixed kit product. The components can be a part of the same or multiple order staging demands.
The staged picking process allows you to record movement of products to the staging bin. Staged picking is a two-step process. In the first step, the software generates an order staging demand indicating that products are bulk moved from permanent storage to the staging bin. When the physical movement of the products is complete, the order staging demand is confirmed. In the second step of the process, the software generates actual pick demands and the product is picked from the staging bin and packed. Since the staging bin is often very close to the packing stations, it is common for packers to process the pick demands. From this point, the standard pick demand process resumes, with the next step being to confirm the pick demands.
Order staging uses standard zone picking functionality. There is no firm allocation on inventory during the period between when an order is staged and when the pick demand is created. When processing pick demands for staged orders, you are printing pick demands for the staging zone, and have any inventory in that zone available to you. Normally, you only process staged orders against the staging zone; however, if priorities change throughout the day, any staged inventory can be made available to sales order pick demands, even if it has not been staged yet, by running pick demands against the staging zone.
Staged picking can be done on paper using only the software, or via handheld devices using Apprise Wireless Warehouse.
The following setup is required for staged picking:
In Zone Maintenance, set up one or more warehouse zones for staging areas. You can set up different rules for each staging zone, so that you can vary the picking process for each zone.
In Bin Maintenance, create one or more staging bins. For each staging bin, select the Staging Bin check box and assign a staging zone you set up in step 1.
After you have set up a staging zone and bin, the staged picking process flow is as follows:
In Pick Demand Create and Print, on the Print Options tab, select Order Staging Demands for the Selected Print Options field. If you want to allow the warehouse user to select the Stage Orders to Bin when performing the staging demand in the warehouse, then leave this field blank. If you want to sort order staging demands by bin, select the Create Order Staging By Bin check box.
Use the Selection and Preview tabs to select the orders for which you are performing staged picking. If you are only staging single-single orders, select the Single-single Orders radio button on the Selection tab.
Click the Print or Print Selected button in the ribbon to print the Order Staging Demand Report, which lists the products that should be moved to the staging bin and the order staging demand number. The products should now be physically moved to the staging bin. You can also now view staged order information by clicking the Staged Order Inquiry button in the ribbon in Order Entry.
Note Smaller U/M Picking Recommendations is not allowed. The system does not allow a larger unit of measure to be assembled from smaller units of measure to fulfill a stage demand.
In Inventory Bin Move Confirm and Cancel, enter the order staging demand number from the Order Staging Demand Report in the Demand # field.
Note If you are using Wireless Warehouse, confirm the bin move using your handheld device. Then, if pick demands are not set up to be automatically created for order staging in Zone Task Options, skip to step 9. If pick demands are set up to be automatically created, skip the steps below, and use the handheld device to pick the ordered products. If picking for single-single orders for the same product, you can use a single-single picking task. For more information, see Wireless Warehouse - Single-Single Picking.
If you want to automatically create pick demands after confirming the order staging demand, select the Create Pick Demands on Putdown for Fulfilled Orders check box. You can also select the Pre Build Cartons check box to automatically perform cartonization for the pick demands.
Click the Confirm button in the ribbon. The Putaway Ticket Confirmation window appears.
Click the As Is button in the ribbon (or click the Update button in the ribbon and make any quantity/bin adjustments in Inventory Bin Move).
Click the OK button in the ribbon.
Click the Exit button in the ribbon. If you selected the Create Pick Demands on Putdown for Fulfilled Orders check box in step 5, skip the steps below, and instead pick the ordered products from the staging bin, confirming pick demands as usual.
In Pick Demand Create and Print, on the Print Options tab, select Pick Staged Order Demands for the Selected Print Options field.
Use the Selection and Preview tabs to select the orders for which you are performing staged picking.
Click the Print or Print Selected button in the ribbon to output the pick demands for the orders. You can now pick the ordered products from the staging bin, and confirm pick demands as usual.
Apprise Software has a process that will automatically create pick demands for order staging demands based on selected criteria. Please discuss this process with your Apprise project manager to see if it can be tailored to your exact needs.