Storage bays are for marking the physical place inside a stock location (warehouse) where are particular item is stored. Often this might be referred to as a Shelf Location, but physical spaces might take many forms apart from shelves such as a container in a yard. Storage bays are important on the pick lists so that a warehouse operator knows where to go to find the materials.
Important: The system has two kinds of bay handling:
- Static bays - an item can be marked as to one bay per location. It is set on the item card for materials.
- Dynamic bays - an item can be stored in one or more bays that change depending on the operations.
- Dynamic bays are only available when licensed with Enterprise Edition
- Dynamic bays are only available for lot tracked items. (Serial numbered items will be in a future release)
Setting up storage bays
Before using storage bays, create the list of bays that exist in each stock location. You will need to define the numbering system for bays to suit your own use (think about an Ikea warehouse). Each account when opened has a single bay called "Default". A single bay in each locatoin will be marked as default and this is used for receipting materials.
Creating bays is from Factory Set up - Storage Bays
Tip: If you have a lot of storage bays, make the list in Excel and set a column equal to this but formatted as a barcode font. Print out the list and then you can barcode them into this screen. Note your barcode reader needs to be programed to enter a Return character after each scan. People often use the Free3of9 font which needs a * mark before and after the text.
If you wish to have work cells set with bays, go to Factory Set up, open the cell and set cell for transfer in and cell for transfer out. When using Dynamic Storage Bays, any lot tracked material created by a work order at the final cell will be place in this storage bay ready to be transferred else where.
Marking the static storage bay of an item
Go to the item card an pick the bay on the technical tab. You can create only one per location. If the item is lot tracked and dynamic storage bays are in use then this control is disabled because the bay is set when materials are received or manufactured, or then moved using the bay transfer screen.
Creating items with the Excel data transfer or the API
When an item is updated or created with these tools, the static storage bay will be set only for the first stock location (ordered by partner id).
Storage bays on reports
Picklists for dispatch and work orders show the storage bay for the materials.
Dynamic Storage Bays (License required)
For more advanced warehousing, many companies need to put materials into a storage bay only when the materials is received or created, they need to find which bay the materials are in and they need to move materials to different storage bays. These actions also neeed to be controlled by barcode readers. These are the basic features of a Warehaouse Management System. For larger companies, the WMS is typically a separate software package connected to the ERP system. In Manu Online, these features are available as an optional Extension in the Enterprise Edition.
Note:
- Dynamic Storage Bays require a license which is only available for the Enterprise Edition
- Materials that need Dynamic StorageBays must have lot tracking enabled. Storage bays are set by lot.
- Screens are designed to be barcode reader friendly.Good connectivity is needed in the warehouse or yard.
Using Dynamic Storage Bays
- Set up the list of bays in the warehouse as described above.
- Ensure that lot tracking is in use for all relevant materials.
- Decide the policy on allowing lots to be split across different bays. This can be set by individual item.
- Consider labeling policy. It is good practice to label goods at receipt or manufacture.
- Consider labeling the storage locations with barcodes.
- Inventory values need to be correct to avoid confusion.
When using lot tracked materials, the available lots will be shown divided by bay. For instance in a production work order, adding an item that has lot tracking will popup a dialogue to select the correct lot/bay. This screen can use barcoding.
Preventing spliting lots between bays
On the item card- technical tab, select the check box "Prevent lot splitting by bay". This will ensure that a certain lot of this material can only exist physically in one bay. This is usefull if your process for instance works as one pallet = one lot.
Transferring lots between bays
In the Warehouse menu, use the "Transfer between bays" screen.
Press retrieve to list all lots at the location or filter by bay or by lot or item id. Enter the correct quantities and target locations and press Update.
Note that if you type or barcode data to the lot/item id field, then it will enter a popup to optionally enter the quantity and confirm the transfer. In this way, making repetitive move operations can be done using a barcode reader.
Bay transfer log
Warehouse - Transfer bay log. Here you can see a history of transfers and filter by various parameters.