WMS Feature Request - Replenishment
The WMS is missing an important task for a warehouse, which is Replenishment.
Most warehouses will have “Pick” bins, that hold a small quantity of stock for fulfilling Sale Orders, with the excess stock stored in 'storage bins / pallets / storage shelving' (all stock is still located in a single warehouse)
What needs to be added to the WMS main menu (or as a sub-menu?) is Replenishment
1. It would basically be nearly identical to what you already have, for WMS > Recieve > Bin Transfer.
The only difference for “Pick” Bin Replenishment, is the first bit, which is the Scan Out part;
- With Bin Transfer -> The user decides what SKUs to collect / move
- With Replenishment -> The user is provided a list of SKUs to collect / move out of a storage location (still following FIFO rules), to transfer into any “Pick" bins. The quantity to move can still be decided by the user (or the system can provide a suggestion).
How Cin7 could create the replenishment list
- This list will be created by Cin7 (when the replenishment button is clicked). It is a list of all SKU items from unfulfilled (ordered) Sale Orders and the quantities.
- It would then compare this list of items and quantities, against the items and quantities in the “Pick" bins group (Locations > Bins - Cin7 could add a new column such as “Bin group” so we could select what bin location group it belongs to (pick vs storage etc) or would have to turn on Directed pick to enable the current Bin Group tab (so long as we can still pick from all bin group locations)
Example
- There are 5 unfufllied (ordered) Sales Orders, for SKU001, with 1 unit per order (total of 5 units)
- There is only 1x unit of SKU001 in a "Pick" Bin
- There is another 800 units of stock in the warehouse, in a different bin location (storage bins / pallets / shelving etc)
- The system would then put this SKU on the “replenishment” list and the user can decide how much to transfer (we let the user decide, because it depends on the size of the item and how many pieces can fit into a pick bin).
- The system should probably also “inform” the WMS the “minimum units” they need to transfer in order to be able to fulfill the unfulfilled sale orders - in this example it would say 4.
- Also, if there is 0 units for an SKU in the “Pick Bins”, but there are more units in a different bin location (storage bins / pallets / shelving etc), then this SKU will also be on the replenishment list (even if there is not a Sales Order with that item).
Summary
- Currently, picking orders is interrupted
- This is because, when you schedule sales orders and start the PICK task, only to find there is not enough stock inside the “pick” bins, you need to either;
a) Exit the PICK task, go to the storage area/storage bins, transfer the stock from storage bin to pick bins, then go back into the PICK task.
b) Continue the PICK task, and go to the storage area/storage bins, as directed on the WMS. Later on, you would still need to transfer the stock to a ‘Pick’ bin.
Doing this on an individual SO, is time consuming. For us, bulk storage is located downstairs, and pick stock is upstairs.
- The way to elivate this issue, is once orders have been scheduled, at the start of the day, before staff begin the PICK task, they would click the Replenishment button. This provides a list of items to transfer from storage bins to pick bins, so that all Sales Orders are able to be fulfilled. Once stock has been transferred, then staff can start the PICK task without interruption.
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Comments
3 comments
The option to pull off replenishment lists would be very useful instead of going round visually checking, if you could have a replen point for each locations similar to minimum before reorder and it told you where to pick based on costing method.
Correct Dawn, that's what we currently do - visually have to check each isle daily, to see which pick bins (starting with A) are empty. We then scan the product barcode (we've been attaching them to the pick bins), so that it allows us to at least use the stock lookup on the WMS, to know if there is more stock available in our flow locations (bins starting with F and P) following FIFO-Batch rules.
But this issue should be looked into, perhaps there's an even better way than I've suggested, hopefully the team at Cin7 considers this issue thoroughly.
This feature is an urgent requirement, we follow the exact same process (as do many other businesses), with pick locations and overflow stock elsewhere. Having a replenishment automation (as is available for between different “warehouses”) is vital, to speed process.
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