Inventory Traits

Traits are a way to configure how certain storage locations and stocks should behave. This page describes the key concepts and how to work with them.

This page is outdated. Please go to our new documentation under https://docs.fulfillmenttools.com/documentation.

Introduction

Traits provide information on how storage locations and stocks are to be handled in operational processes. Traits are assigned to storage locations, but can affect the handling of both locations and the stock located on them. Each stock placed on a location (by assigning it a locationRef) will inherit the traits of its storage location.

Traits can, for example, be used to mark locations and its stock as pickable or to lock locations along with their stock.

Available traits

By default, each storage location has the traits PICKABLE and ACCESSIBLE, unless otherwise specified.

Trait	Default	Description
PICKABLE		Stock on these locations can be picked for fulfilling orders. Only stock marked as PICKABLE can be considered for incoming orders.
ACCESSIBLE		The ACCESSIBLE trait indicates that stock can be removed from and new stock can be put on this location. Removing the ACCESSIBLE trait from a location locks it for picking and triggers a notification during stowing processes. Only stock marked as ACCESSIBLE can be considered for incoming orders.
KEEP_ON_ZERO		Normally stocks are deleted when they reach 0 through operations like picking or stock movements. To change this behaviour, add the KEEP_ON_ZERO trait to the location. See stock entities with amount 0.
OUTBOUND		The OUTBOUND trait marks storage locations for items that have already been picked and are ready for being handed over to a shipping provider. When configured in the outbound inventory tracking, stocks and reservations are automatically booked to the defined outbound location after picking has been completed.

Interacting with traits

Each trait has a default value. When nothing else is specified, the enabled traits are processed on both the storage location itself and the stocks on it. The default value (whether it is enabled or not) can be overwritten individually for each trait by setting it in the traitsConfig field on the storage location. All unspecified traits keep their defaults. This means that if a trait is enabled via the trait config, PICKABLE and ACCESSIBLE are set by default unless explicitly set to false.

The traitConfig should be used to write to traits. Do NOT use the trait array for that purpose.

Creating a storage location with traits

Create a new storage location

post

Creates a new storage location in this facility.

Path parameters

facilityIdstringRequired

ID of facility from whom you want to create the storage location

Body

namestring · max: 15Required

The name of this storage location

tenantLocationIdstringOptional

The internal tenant id for this location

typestring · enumRequired

Describes the kind of a storage location:

• SINGLE_STORAGE- it is only allowed to store stock with the same tenantArticleId here
• BULK_STORAGE- stocks belonging to different tenantArticleIds can be stored here

Available options:

traitsstring · enum[]Optional

The traits of this storage location, includes both local config and and defaults. Do not use to write to traits, use traitConfig instead.

traitConfigobject[]Optional

The configuration of the traits of this storage location

scannableCodesstring[] · max: 5Required

Barcodes representing this storage location

runningSequencesobject[] · max: 10Required

The Sequence item/s of this location

zoneRefstringOptional

The id of the Zone to which this storage location belongs

Example: Esb20gpHBL94X5NdMp3C

zoneNamestringOptional

The name of the Zone to which this storage location belongs

informationstring · max: 1024Optional

A free text information about this storage location, max length 1024

Responses

application/json

all ofOptional

application/json

application/json

application/json

post

HTTPcURLJavaScriptPython

POST /api/facilities/{facilityId}/storagelocations HTTP/1.1
Host: 
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: */*
Content-Length: 376

{
  "name": "text",
  "tenantLocationId": "text",
  "type": "SINGLE_STORAGE",
  "traits": [
    "PICKABLE"
  ],
  "traitConfig": [
    {
      "trait": "PICKABLE",
      "enabled": true
    }
  ],
  "scannableCodes": [
    "text"
  ],
  "runningSequences": [
    {
      "type": "PICKING_SEQUENCE",
      "previousStorageLocationRef": "text",
      "nextStorageLocationRef": "text"
    }
  ],
  "zoneRef": "Esb20gpHBL94X5NdMp3C",
  "zoneName": "text",
  "information": "text",
  "customAttributes": {}
}

{
  "id": "text",
  "facilityRef": "Esb20gpHBL94X5NdMp3C",
  "traits": [
    "PICKABLE"
  ],
  "traitConfig": [
    {
      "trait": "PICKABLE",
      "enabled": true
    }
  ],
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "version": 42,
  "name": "text",
  "tenantLocationId": "text",
  "type": "SINGLE_STORAGE",
  "scannableCodes": [
    "text"
  ],
  "runningSequences": [
    {
      "type": "PICKING_SEQUENCE",
      "previousStorageLocationRef": "text",
      "nextStorageLocationRef": "text"
    }
  ],
  "zoneRef": "Esb20gpHBL94X5NdMp3C",
  "zoneName": "text",
  "information": "text",
  "customAttributes": {},
  "created": "2020-02-03T08:45:51.525Z",
  "lastModified": "2020-02-03T09:45:51.525Z"
}

In the following example we create a storage location without the ACCESSIBLE trait. This means that stock on this location will not be considered for incoming orders and cannot be picked.

curl -sSL -X POST 'https://your.api.fulfillmenttools.com/api/facilities/facility id>/storagelocations' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>' \
--data-raw '{
    "tenantLocationId": "qa-location-01",
    "name": "QA on Hold 01",
    "type": "SINGLE_STORAGE",
    "runningSequences": [],
    "scannableCodes": [],
    "traitConfig": [
        {
            "trait": "ACCESSIBLE",
            "enabled": false
        }
    ]
}'

Traits in stock summaries and distribution

Both stock summaries and stock distributions allow fetching a high level overview on stock quantities per location for the respective trait(s).

curl -sSL 'https://your.api.fulfillmenttools.com/api/stocks/summaries' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <TOKEN>' 

{
    "total": 249,
    "stockSummaries": [
        {
            "_id": "...",
            "details": {
                "safetyStock": 0,
                "totalAmount": 665,
                "available": 665,
                "reserved": 0,
                "expectedStocks": [],
                "byTrait": {
                    "PICKABLE": 665,
                    "ACCESSIBLE": 86
                }
            },
            "article": {
                "tenantArticleId": "...",
                "title": "",
                "imageUrl": null
            }
        },
        /* ... */
    ]
}    

Use Cases

Locking Storage Locations

To lock a storage location including the items placed on it, the ACCESSIBLE trait must be removed. As a consequence, the items on the location are not considered for incoming orders (i.e. picking). It is still possible to remove items from the location or put new items on it. Additionally, users are notified about the locked status when moving items from the location via App or Backoffice.

To unlock the storage location, the ACCESSIBLE trait must be set (again).

Traits in Order Routing and Fulfillment

Storage locations and stock with the traits PICKABLE and ACCESSIBLEOR with no traits are considered for fences, ratings, and calculating stock availabilities.

The following storage locations and stocks are ignored in order routing and fulfillment:

• with an empty array of traits

• with only the trait PICKABLE

• with only the trait ACCESSIBLE