E-WMS

E-WMS - Pick & Pack

WMS documentation

This document describes the E-WMS order picking process of bulk Pick & Pack.

E-WMS Pick and Pack is two-stage order picking where order packing is done at a central warehouse location like a packing table, which means this packing location has to be replenished first with the items to pick. In this process, each item is scanned twice: first while picking in the warehouse, and again while packing on the central packing location.

From release 411, E-WMS supports two varieties of Pick&Pack, and a 'transfer to dock' method:

Bulk Pick&Pack: the original Pick&Pack method, using E-WMS Replenishment and E-WMS Order fulfilment
Order Pick&Pack: using E-WMS Order fulfilment only
Transfer (to dock): transfer the picked stock in status Validated to a temporary holding location

This document describes 'bulk' Pick&Pack, for the other varieties please see above linked documents.

Requirements

To be able to use Pick&Pack (all varieties), following is required:

E-WMS II (SE1381) or older equivalent license modules
E-warehouse locations (SE1312) + usage of locations enabled
'Picking advice' enabled for Sales order fulfilment (for Pick&Pack types 'Bulk' and 'Order')
- from releases 416, 415SP1 and 414SP8, 'Picking advice' is no longer required for Pick&Pack type 'Transfer'
Usage of E-WMS communication type 'ASP'

Bulk Pick & Pack

The first 'picking' stage is actually E-WMS Replenishment: a guided transfer, but with a fixed target location. This stage offers features like serial/batch end date advice, or location optimization.
The second 'packing' stage is E-WMS order picking, but logically applying the 'packing' method: random scanning of items per sales order. This stage offers features like SSCC registration.

'Order packing' is just another menu selection on the ASP hand terminal, as opposite to menu 'Order picking'. Order picking will guide you through the picking list, in most cases while using a picking route. In order packing you only select the sales order, after which any item within that order can be scanned randomly.

Enabling and general settings

Pick & Pack is enabled by general setting 'Replenishment order', in menu System, General, Settings, WMS Sales order Fulfilment , section 'Fulfilment : pick and pack'.

The 'packing location' needs to be filled with a valid warehouse location code. This setting does not offer a master data browser, because this location could be used in more than one order packing warehouse.

After enabling 'Replenishment order', the Control Center Sales order Fulfilment will show the button 'Replenishment' and hide the button 'Advice', the statuses 'Replenishment' and 'Replenished' are added and status 'Advice' is removed from the 'status' dropdown list.

When using Pick & Pack, the picking advice is generated according to the 'Picking advice' settings as configured for Sales Order Fulfilment, so the advice settings for Replenishment are not used, unless you would rollback replenishment orders and generate a new advice in Control Center Replenishment. The picked transactions are validated twice using the validation settings for that specific process: in control center Replenishment after reading back the replenishment lines, and in control center Sales order fulfilment after reading back the 'packed' fulfilment lines.

Hand terminal settings

Following hand terminal settings are used for the Pick&Pack process.

menu: System, E-WMS, Scanners, Replenishment settings: all settings apply to stage 1 (Replenishment) of the Pick&Pack process
menu: System, E-WMS, Scanners, Sales order fulfilment settings: all settings apply to stage 2 (Order picking) of the Pick&Pack process, but for random packing following settings apply specifically:
- Browse order lines: when enabled, you still have to select a specific item, which make the (start of the) packing process not random. Advice for random picking: disable this setting.
- Order packing/Pack flow setting: set to 'random scan' or to 'random scan manual differences'. For more details, please refer to section Order packing of document E-WMS hand terminal settings - sales order Fulfilment .
- Order packing/Focus to setting: depending on your procedure, either returning to 'item code' or to 'serial/batch number' after each scan, may be more efficient.
- Order packing/Location settings: set 'display which value' to 'Advice + skip', then a location does not have to be scanned during order packing.

Bulk Pick&Pack process (back office)

This chapter describes the global process of Bulk Pick&Pack. For the Order Pick&Pack process, see this document.

Bulk Pick&Pack requires the usage of two E-WMS control centers at the different process steps:

(1) Control Center Sales Order Fulfilment ('CC SOF' below, with additional buttons to support replenishment) and
(2) Control Center Replenishment ('CC RPL' below):

CC SOF: advice: select order(s) to be picked by selecting 'Replenishment' button, these lines are send to status 'advice' in CC RPL. Applies 'picking advice' settings from SOF. Lines visible in status 'Replenishment' during replenishment.
CC RPL: send to scanner: select status 'advice' and send these line picking (features: select specific scanner or scanner group, line filtering options)
Scanner ASP: actual picking of replenishment orders
CC RPL (or Replenishment RF service): read back replenishment order
CC RPL (or Replenishment RF service): validation
CC RPL (or Replenishment RF service): processing = transfer of picked items to packing location becomes shelf stock
CC SOF: send to scanner: processed replenishment orders are visible in status 'Replenished' - and can be send picking (features: select specific scanner or scanner group, line filtering options)
Scanner ASP: actual picking (packing) of order lines
CC SOF (or Fulfilment RF service): read back sales orders
CC SOF (or Fulfilment RF service): validation
CC SOF (or Fulfilment RF service): processing = delivery note

The actions indicated in bold are actions which always require manual interaction. All other steps can be automated and done in the background by using the WMS RF services.

Rollback

Because two control centers are used, rolling back a Pick&Pack order also requires actions in both control centers (depending on the stage of the order):

CC RPL: rollback from 'picking' and delete the order in status 'new'
CC SOF: rollback the order from status 'replenishment' or 'replenished'

If rollback is done in control center Sales Order Fulfilment only, after the replenishment picking already has been processed, then the items are already transferred to (shelf stock on) the packing location. Since release 403, all stock already present on the packing location is ignored when generating a new picking advice.

Services

To automate the bulk Pick&pack process, you can use the WMS Replenishment service (to read back and process replenishment orders from stage 1) and the WMS Fulfilment service (to read back and optionally process picked orders from stage 2).

The Autoqueue service does not support bulk pick&pack. Autoqueue should be disabled for Sales order fulfilment and for Replenishment when working with bulk pick&pack.

Points of attention

Bulk Pick&Pack does not support order-specific stock; like batches in order lines, customer specific SKU types, customer specific shelf life factor. Order Pick&Pack does not have this limitation.
When in Bulk Pick&Pack diverting from the picking advice or picking less in stage 1 (replenishment), these changes are not replicated to stage 2 (packing). Order Pick&Pack does not have this limitation.
See this document section 'Points of attention' for Pick&Pack types Order and Transfer