Overview

The Warehouse ships a hypermarket's full range to private customers: groceries, household goods, clothing, garden supplies and electronics. Customers order online, the ERP passes each order on, the Warehouse stores the goods in high racks, picks and packs them, and a carrier brings the parcel to the front door.

The screens are the real tools, and every number on them comes from a real booking. Because there is no real building behind it, a demo mode keeps the Warehouse busy: virtual customers order, a virtual crew works the floor, and virtual partners ship and deliver.

The Warehouse is called Eldermoor and stands in a small fairy-tale land. That is why customers, suppliers and the crew have names like Lark Swiftwell or Bram Ironside. All of them are made up.

New here? Read The flow, then follow an existing order by its order number across the ERP and WMS. Ready to work? Start with the handheld chapter and the workflow you want to try. If something is waiting, Troubleshooting tells you what to check next.

Three systems share the work, the same way they would in a real company. The ERP and the WMS each keep their own records and exchange messages; the handheld is how people work in the WMS.

ERP

The business side. It owns articles, customers and suppliers, takes customer orders and buys from suppliers.

WMS

The control room. It knows every location and pallet, decides what happens next and shows the whole floor at a glance.

Handheld

The scanner in the worker's hand. It shows one task at a time and confirms every step with a scan.

Two more windows sit on top. The Shop is where customers order, and it takes its articles and stock from the ERP. The Floor shows the Warehouse in 3D: racks, pallets and the crew at work.

From the click to the doorstep, an order passes six stations. An order placed on a weekday before 14:00 is planned to leave the same day and arrive the next weekday. Until the Warehouse starts work on it, the ERP can still change or cancel the order. The flow explains the exact timing.

Picked trolleys go to packing stations, or wait in the buffer while those are taken. The packer closes and labels the shipping units, then brings them from the station to an outbound gate. The loader scans them into a pickup and closes it when the truck leaves.

If a pick location runs empty on the way, the forklift driver first brings a pallet down from above. If an order line cannot be covered at release, that line is cancelled and the ERP is told right away, long before the truck leaves.

What goes out must come in. The ERP watches how much each article sells and orders new pallets before it runs out. A late supplier or a short delivery can still leave an article out of stock.

A pallet at the gate is already in the Warehouse, and the ERP already counts it as stock. But no order can claim it until it is put away in the rack.

The demo keeps work moving in the background. Orders arrive around the clock, the crew works on weekdays from 6:00 to 22:00, and the virtual loader starts one carrier pickup from 17:00 on weekdays when ready packages are waiting.

The virtual crew uses exactly the same steps as a person with a handheld, at a realistic pace. The live simulation explains how they decide what to do next.

You can browse the documentation, ERP and WMS overviews, and the live Floor as a guest. With an account you can also pick up a handheld and work alongside the crew: pick, pack, ship, receive, put away and replenish. Master data and stock corrections stay with the administrator.

Floor shows the racks, pallets, crew, packing stations, and gate staging areas in 3D. Select a pallet to inspect its stock and location. Walk the aisles switches to a view from the floor; use the on-screen controls to move around. The Floor only shows the work; the work itself is done on the handheld.

Demo customers and crew are fictional and visible to everyone. Another real customer appears as Shop customer with personal details hidden, and another real worker appears as Warehouse helper. You see your own details; administrators can see the full records.

Open the WMS to see what is happening right now.

Batch

The production lot a supplier gives a pallet. Articles with a best-before date need a batch, so goods can be traced back to the lot.

Best-before date

The date until which a product keeps its quality. Articles with date tracking require it together with a batch; receiving requires at least 14 days remaining.

Buffer

Where picked trolleys wait while every packing station is taken. The longest-waiting trolley moves up as soon as a station is free.

Clarification

A case for the control room, for example when a picker finds less on a pallet than the system expects.

Despatch advice

The message a supplier sends before a delivery: which pallets come, with which articles, quantities and dates.

EAN

The barcode number printed on a product. Pickers and packers scan it; articles without one use their article number.

FEFO

First expired, first out. Orders reserve the pallets with the earliest best-before dates first, so less stock expires in the rack.

Inbound gate

Where received pallets wait for putaway, with codes such as IB-01. A gate holds several pallets, but no order can claim them there.

Location code

The name of a rack place, such as A-03-2-1: aisle A, bay 03, level 2, position 1. Level 1 is the floor.

Outbound gate

Where closed shipping units wait for the carrier, with codes such as OB-01. Units at a packing station must be brought here first.

Packing station

A place where a picked trolley parks and its order is packed, with codes such as PK-01. If every station is taken, the trolley waits in the buffer.

Pick list

All picks for one order. A picker takes the whole list and collects the goods on a trolley.

Pick location

A place on the lowest rack level that pickers can reach by hand. The levels above hold reserve pallets.

Pickup

The packages handed to the carrier together. The loader scans them in and closes the pickup when the truck leaves.

Putaway

Moving a received pallet from the inbound gate to a free reserve location. Only then can orders claim it.

Release

The moment the WMS reserves concrete pallets for an order. From then on the ERP can no longer change it.

Replenishment

Bringing a reserve pallet down to a pick location so pickers find goods where they look for them.

Reserve location

A rack place above the lowest level. Pallets wait here until the forklift driver brings them down for picking.

Roll container

The wheeled container that gathers closed parcels at a packing station and carries them together to an outbound gate. Shipping pallets stand alongside it.

Shipping unit

One package that leaves the Warehouse: a parcel carton, a pallet, or an article in its own packaging. Each gets its own SSCC and carrier label.

Shortfall

Fewer pieces on a pallet than the system expects. The picker reports the actual count, and the control room clarifies it.

SSCC

Serial Shipping Container Code, the 18-digit number on every pallet and package label. Scanning it tells the system exactly which one it is.

Tracking number

The carrier’s number for a package. It follows the package from handover to the front door.

Trolley

The pick trolley that carries one order from the aisles to packing, with codes such as T-001.