Stow jobs

This feature is only supported in the back end and usable via our APIs.

Introduction

Stow jobs represent the intention or instruction to change the storage location and/or the amount of stock in a facility. They support employees in a store or warehouse to execute one or several of the below tasks:

• relocate items within a warehouse

• stow items from a goods receipt

• discard expired or broken items

• create stock for items that are not registered yet

Description

Stow line items

A stow job can have 0 to n stow line items. While the stow job itself holds general information such as the facility or priority of the job, the stow line item contains information on the items to be moved, their quantity, location, and more. Stow line items cannot exist without a stow job.

The individual stow line items of a stow job can be started and completed in any order. Multiple line items can be in progress at the same time.

The documentation on the endpoint for creating a new stow job can be found here. The documentation for changing general information on a stow job can be found here.

Instructive and operational data

Instructive data in the stow line item contains all information that an admin might want to write into a job so that her employees have all necessary information for performing the task. This covers data on the item to be moved such as scannable codes and information on the items, quantity, and locations that should be changed. The instructive data is divided into:

• takeFrom, covering everything relevant for taking items at the start of the job and

• stowTo, covering everything relevant for stowing the items or discarding them.

Operational data in the stow line item contains all information that is updated during the execution of the job. The operational data is divided into:

• taken, containing information on where (which stock or location) the item was taken from and how much was taken and

• stowed, containing information on where (which stock or location) the item was stowed and how much was stowed.

taken must always be provided either before or at the same time as stowed. If taken is provided separately from stowed a transfer stock is created internally representing the amount of goods which is currently in transit. The purpose of this stock is to keep the facility wide stock levels to change during the movement of goods.

Stowing types

Depending on the type of action that should be performed during the stow job, different types can be defined in the takeFrom and stowTo objects of the stow line item. The following types are available:

• LOCATION: Should be used if items should be taken from or stowed to a specific location but the exact stock that is chosen does not matter.

• STOCK: Should be used if items should be taken from or stowed to a specific location and the exact stock that is chosen matters. This could, for example, be the case if there are multiple expiry dates for the same item on one location. Can also be used if storage locations are not active on a tenant.

• UNREGISTERED: Should be used if new stock should be created for an item. This could, for example, be the case if items are found in a store that have not yet been booked into the systems. Can only be set as type for takeFrom. No stock or storage location can be set in the takeFrom object when using this type since a new stock will be created.

• DISCARD: Should be used if stock should be booked out of the systems and be discarded. This could, for example, be the case if items are broken or damaged. Can only be set as type for stowTo. No stock or storage location can be set in the stowTo object when using this type since the stock will be deleted.

Stow line items can be updated using the ModifyStowLineItemsAction. The documentation for can be found here.

Stowing status

A stow job can have one of the following status: OPEN, IN_PROGRESS, CANCELED, CLOSED, PAUSED. Status can be set externally via action (no status is set implicitly).

The stow job can only be set to a finalised state (CLOSED, CANCELED) if all stow line items are in a "coherent" state: Either nothing was taken or stowed, or the the same amount was taken and stowed. This is done to prevent losing track of in-transit stock.

A stow job must be in status IN_PROGRESS for items to be taken or stowed.

The following state transfers are allowed:

from ⬇️ / to ➡️	open	in progress	canceled	closed	paused
open	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
in progress	allowed if nothing was stowed already	yes	yes	yes	yes
canceled	no	no	yes	no	no
closed	no	no	no	yes	no
paused	allowed if nothing was stowed already	yes	yes	yes	yes

The status can be updated using actions. The documentation can be found here.

Stock updates via stow jobs

• Stock is updated after a stow line item was taken.

The target stock or location will not be updated until the items were stowed.

• Stock that has been already taken but has not been stowed or discarded yet is referenced in the heldItems object of the stow line item. In addition, the stock gets the "IN_MOTION" trait which makes it identifiable as a stock that is currently being moved and should not be updated.

• An internet connection is needed for starting and closing the job. However, stowing actions can also be performed without an internet connection. Results will be synched as soon as a connection is available.

External stock change reasons

There are reasons why stock is moved within a facility. Especially when goods are found, lost, or expire it is important to know why stock quantity changed or why stock was moved. Therefore, stow line items can optionally contain information on why the action was performed. It is possible to configure multiple reasons per stow line item, e.g., "expired" and "broken". Reasons are solely defined by the user. The fulfillmenttools platform does not react on stock change reasons.

Reasons must be configured via API before they can be used in stow jobs. The technical documentation for external stock change reasons can be found in the Developer Docs.