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 pwrocess 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.
To perform the process, use the following steps:
Set up zone options for Wireless Warehouse order staging and putdown. When a Wireless Warehouse user performs order staging they must perform both an order staging and a putdown task.
In Zone Maintenance, select a zone in which order staging will occur, and click the Update button in the ribbon.
Click the Task Options button in the ribbon.
In Zone Task Options, verify that Order Staging and Putdown are selected as task types for the zone.
Set up options for the Order Staging task type.
Double-click Order Staging in the Task Types grid to display order staging task options.
Click the Update button in the ribbon.
Select Handheld or Both in the Task Option field to allow Wireless Warehouse users to perform order staging tasks.
If you want order staging tasks to be automatically assigned to Wireless Warehouse users, select the Allow Auto Assign of Task Type check box.
Enter a default priority for order staging tasks in the Default Priority field. Zero is the highest priority and 999 is the lowest priority. Usually, you should not use zero as a priority, so that there is at least one higher priority number available.
Select whether Wireless Warehouse users must scan each unit of products, or can enter a quantity when performing a task.
Select whether Wireless Warehouse users must scan the bin and/or product when performing a task.
Select the Auto Print on Create check box if you want to automatically print the order staging demand when the task is created.
Select an option in the Pick Bin Option radio set to indicate what to do when a user is not putting a product into the product's primary pick bin.
If you want to automatically create pick demands after inventory is put down for order staging tasks, select the Create Pick Demands on Putdown for Fulfilled Orders check box. If you also want to perform cartonization for pick demands automatically created after inventory is put down for order staging tasks, select the Pre Build Cartons check box.
If you want to allow users to merge multiple order staging tasks from a handheld device (typically, when performing order staging for small direct-to-consumer orders), select the Allow WW Device Task Merge check box.
Click the OK button in the ribbon to save options for the order staging task type.
Set up options for the Putdown task type.
Double-click Putdown in the Task Types grid to display putdown task options.
Click the Update button in the ribbon.
Select Handheld or Both in the Task Option field to allow Wireless Warehouse users to perform putdown tasks.
If you want putdown tasks to be automatically assigned to Wireless Warehouse users, select the Allow Auto Assign of Task Type check box.
Enter a default priority for putdown tasks in the Default Priority field. Zero is the highest priority and 999 is the lowest priority. Usually, you should not use zero as a priority, so that there is at least one higher priority number available.
Select whether Wireless Warehouse users must scan each unit of products, or can enter a quantity when performing a task.
Select whether Wireless Warehouse users must scan the bin and/or product when performing a task.
Select whether products are put down in the same order the products were picked up, in the reverse order, or in order by bin sequence number.
Select the Allow Override Putdown Order check box if you want to allow users to put products down in the bin in an order other than the recommended order.
Select the Allow All Product Putdown check box if you want to allow users to put down all products into bins without scanning each one.
Select the Allow As Is check box if you want to allows users to put down all products in the recommended putaway bins without performing any scanning.
Click the OK button in the ribbon to save options for the putdown task type.
Click the Exit button in the ribbon.
Repeat substeps a to f for all zones that will be used for Wireless Warehouse order staging.
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.
Create order staging demands and order staging Wireless Warehouse tasks.
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.
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 demands, which list the products that should be moved to the staging bin and the order staging demand number. Wireless Warehouse order staging tasks are created. 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.
Physically move products to the staging area using a handheld device. This is performed by the warehouse employee.
At the Wireless Warehouse Handheld Menu, enter Get Next Task. The order staging task screen appears, as shown above. The bin displays at the top of the handheld screen to direct you to go to a specific bin.
If the bin from which you are moving a product is not automatically entered in the From Bin field, scan the bin, or enter it in the field. The Transit Bin field displays your user bin to indicate that you are picking up the product. The product code, quantity to pick up, and unit of measure for the bin move display at the top of the handheld screen.
Scan the product you are transferring, or enter the product code, UPC, or GTIN in the SKU field.
If the unit of measure is not automatically entered, enter the unit of measure for the product in the U/M field.
If the product is tracked by lot or serial number, scan the lot or serial number, or enter it in the Lot or Serial field.
If you are not required to scan each unit of the product, enter the quantity you are transferring in the Qty field. If you are required to scan each unit, repeat substeps c to e for all units.
Repeat substeps c to f for each product you are moving to the staging bin. When you are finished entering information for the products you are moving, you are asked whether you want to proceed to put down products. If you want to perform other order staging tasks, answer No, and repeat substeps c to f. Otherwise, answer Yes. The order staging task closes, and a putdown task is created, which immediately appears on the handheld device. For more information on putdown tasks, see Wireless Warehouse - Putdown. Go to the order staging bin.
If the staging bin is not automatically entered in the To Bin field, scan the bin, or enter it in the field. The product code, quantity to put down, and unit of measure display at the top of the handheld screen.
Scan the product you are putting in the staging area, or enter the product code, UPC, or GTIN in the SKU field. The unit of measure displays at the top of the handheld screen. If you are required to scan each unit of the product, scan all units until you have completed the task, and skip to substep l.
If the unit of measure is not automatically entered, enter the unit of measure for the product in the U/M field. The expected quantity displays at the top of the handheld screen.
Enter the quantity you are putting down in the Qty field.
Repeat substeps h to k for all products. When you finish entering the last product, you have completed the task and the main menu appears.
If pick demands are not automatically created (you did not select the Create Pick Demands on Putdown for Fulfilled Orders check box in step 1dx), create pick demands for the staged orders.
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. For more information, see Wireless Warehouse Picking Process Flow. 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.