Re: WMS wave picking

I worked on a home grown system where the big problem was that lots were known by their location in the warehouse. It was a bad scheme since every time an item was moved or picked it became a different thing (the key changed). The big thing is to make sure you have a license plate that is granular enough, or holds enough information to track the smallest part you need to track. Each traceable lot, be it a pallet, a case, or an individual piece (based on your requirements) needs to have a record in the database that contains the necessary information. Then as that lot moves through your warehouse you can track it in a transaction file that contains the necessary information.

In the wave picking scenario you can scan an item to the cart, which logs a wave pick transaction including the license plate, the location, the wave, the cart, and the quantity for instance. As the cart is separated into orders, each item is scanned from the cart to the order, which logs a pick with the license plate, the cart, the order, and the quantity. Maybe the big issue you are having, that I just thought of, is that with wave picking, you are not really picking to an order, but to a wave. Then at your staging area, you are picking again from the wave to the order. The wave may be generated from a set of orders, but picking to those orders is a second step. Think of it as a warehouse move. It would be similar to replenishing pick lines if you do that, but instead of triggering replenishment on some quantity threshold, you are triggering the move on an order.

Mark Murphy
STAR BASE Consulting, Inc.
mmurphy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: -----
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: 03/24/2016 12:59PM
Subject: Re: WMS wave picking


It is a home grown system that we add onto as new requirements come up.
They want to pick and pack more efficiently and I kind of jumped in with a
solution that really does not work. Now that I think about it more I think
I see the disconnect. Once you pick multiple orders onto a cart you lose
the connection between individual orders and the pick from locations.

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 12:29 PM, Brian May <bmay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

What WMS are you using?

Basically, if you need to track to that level, your items need to be
barcoded and you scan from the pallets to the cart. Then you scan the
items as you pack the boxes. Otherwise, the best you can do is guess.

Brian May
Solutions Architect
Profound Logic Software
http://www.profoundlogic.com
937-439-7925 Phone
877-224-7768 Toll Free


The IBM i Modernization Experts
www.profoundlogic.com



-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Steve Richter
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 11:20 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: WMS wave picking

how do shops handle wave picking in a WMS?

When an order is packed and shipped I want to retain info about the
pallets that items were picked from to fulfill that order. Especially I
want to know the lot number of the items that were shipped.

When a wave of orders are picked, how to retain the pick from information?
As I understand wave picking, multiple orders are picked to a cart. Then
the orders are packed from the cart. You can retain the pallet IDs and
quantities picked to the cart. But only as summary totals.

thanks,
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe,
unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a
moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.
--
This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list
To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.

Please contact support@xxxxxxxxxxxx for any subscription related
questions.