Pick
For now, our app is developed for the Android system only. The Backoffice is web-based and can be used within a browser on a normal computer environment. For both components, the following characteristics are applicable:
Multi client ready: The app and the backoffice can be used by several clients without getting in each other’s way.
Login / Logout functionality: A user can login and logout to avoid abuse of the system.
Selecting / changing a facility: Depending on the users role, he/she can choose the facility in which actions are performed respectively monitored.
Our Pick solution is based on two components:
An app to pick an order within a facility
A Backoffice to get an overview about all tasks (see Task Overview)
Functionalities within Picking:
Both Backoffice and App introduce the user with showing a list of all tasks and their states, primarily grouped by status. Within each group, tasks are secondarily sorted based on order date, oldest order date date first. Using this sorting creates a to do list-like approach, since the oldest entries will be shown first.
Order Date vs Order Create Date
The order date is the date when the customer placed the order within the shop of our tenant - it is not to be confused with the order create date, which is the date when we create the order in our platform.
Clicking on a task shows all articles of that task including the amount of the ordered pieces. Within the screen that shows all articles as well as the one that shows the picking summary, a subtitle will be generated based on available attributes for each article if no dedicated subtitle is present.
It is possible to configure scanning rules, like the validation of barcodes or usage of manual input picker. More can be found here Scanning configuration.
It is possible to sort the picklines in a picking sequence (number from 1 to n), which represent the physical location of the ordered item in the picking area. This enhances the picking speed of the picker since the items are presented to him/her in the correct running order. This can be done via the API-call of setting the listing information on facility level. If no listing information with a picking sequence is set, the user can also submit the picking sequence within the order. If this is the case the picking sequence is on tenant level.
If more than one Listing/Orderline has the same picking sequence, the listings which have the same sequence-number are sorted by the tenant article ID.
How can a dedicated subtitle for an article be specified?
Each attribute has a “key” parameter. In order to define a dedicated subtitle, the “key” parameter has to be set to “%%subtitle%%”.
When are further attributes shown in the article view?
Apart from the “%%subtitle%%” key, only attributes which are delivered with they key “category” and the value “descriptive” are displayed in the article view.
If no such attributes are delivered (and no subtitle is provided either), the view remains empty.
When are further attributes shown in the article view?
Apart from the “%%subtitle%%” key, only attributes which are delivered with they key “category” and the value “descriptive” are displayed in the article view.
If no such attributes are delivered (and no subtitle is provided either), the view remains empty.
Why is the reserved stock not set to 0 like the actual stock?
The reserved stock cannot be set to 0 because it is there for a reason: there are other tasks created for this facility for which this article should be picked as well. If we would set the reserved stock to 0, DOMS would assume that there is no other task that needs this article, although that is not true. As long as other open tasks are not being rerouted (which is part of another concept), the reserved stock cannot be set to 0.
If the tenant decides not to use stock information but relies on listings without stock, in case of an incomplete pick the affected listings will be deactivated for a certain amount of time, see Infinite Stock Mode
Within the picking process itself, the user is able to pause picking a task. This is important to be flexible if an offline customer needs attention. Additionally, he is of course also able to resume a previously paused task so that he can continue picking from the point when the task was stopped.
In case so-called LoadUnits (containers in which the picked items will be put, e.g. Bags, Boxes, Parcels, …) were defined within the tenant system via API, the amount of such LoadUnits that were used during the picking process can be specified before end of pick.
Observing & supporting pickers via the Backoffice
While the picking on the App takes place, a supervisor or an admin can use the task overview in the backoffice to monitor all ongoing tasks. To do so, the backoffice is able to show a list of all tasks per facility including:
Status
customer name
customer address
Order-Date
Amount of picked items / amount of ordered items
short identifier
About the short identifier
In order to identify a task more easily, a so-called short identifier is added as well. This identifier is generated based on the first letter of the customers first & lastname as well as an incrementing number for each other occurrence of such a customer. This number can have a maximum of two digits (e.g. 99). As soon as this number has been reached, it will start with 1 again. The generated identifier is facility-specified, e.g. it is not unique tenant-wide like an order id.
Example: The identifier for a task that belongs to an order of Jane Doe would be called JD1, assuming that no other customer in this facility that has a firstname starting with a J as well as a lastname starting with a D exists.
This identifier is also available within the labeling as well as the handover section. An exemplary use case would be that a fulfiller uses this identifier to locate a chosen parcel that belongs to a task by writing this identifier on that parcel using a pen.
For certain special characters, a mapping exists. For now, the following characters will be mapped:
Ą -> A
Ć -> C
Ę -> E
Ł -> L
Ń -> N
Ó -> O
Ś -> S
Ż -> Z
Ź -> Z
Note: in case either the first or the lastname starts with a character that is not convertable (e.g. an emoticon), the letter X is used instead.
Additionally, each task entry in the task overview in the backoffice can be expanded to see a list of all ordered articles including:
Picture of an article
Title of an article
Tenant article ID of the article
Status of the pickline. A pickline can have the following states:
“offen” - open: zero from x ordered items have been picked.
“unvollständig” - incomplete: the ordered items were partly picked.
“vollständig” - complete: all ordered items have been picked.
Good to know
If something went wrong and the task has the status “in picking” but there is no way to finish this task (e.g. if the fulfiller did not finish the task and lost his/her device or the app crashes) one has the possibility to reset the task within the task overview within the backoffice. Resetting a task means that merely its status is set back to open, so that within our app, any user is able to open it again. The picklines are not affected by this reset, e.g. if some lines have been picked, they will stay picked after performing the reset.
Notifications in the Android App
When a new pickjob is incoming the user gets a notification so that the app must not be checked within certain timespans.
The notification is related to the chosen facility the user has currently chosen in the app. If no facility is chosen, no notification will be sent. Furthermore the user must be logged in into our app to receive a notification. The mobile phone however can be screenlocked. Clicking on the notification leads the user to the list of pickjobs.
With this we make sure, that one gets not flooded by notification.
The notification feature is configurable within the App-Settings. The sound notification as well as the banner notification can be turned on and off. The settings are saved on the device for now.
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