Picking
This page is outdated. Please go to our new documentation under https://docs.fulfillmenttools.com/documentation.
Introduction
The picking 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)
Description
Functionalities within Picking:
The App shows 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.
Order date vs order created 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 ordered items of that task including the respective amount. Within the screen that shows all items as well as the one that shows the picking summary, a subtitle is generated based on available attributes for each item 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 pick lines 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 / order line has the same picking sequence, the listings which have the same sequence number are sorted by their tenant article ID.
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.
Short-pick Setting
Current stock
Ordered Quantity
Picked Quantity
New Stock
ENABLED
10
5
3
0
DISABLED
10
5
3
7
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.
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 & last name 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 first name starting with a J as well as a last name 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 last name starts with a character that is not convertable (e.g., an emoticon), the letter X is used instead.
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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