Stock & locations

Every rack place has a code such as A-03-2-1: aisle A, bay 03, level 2, position 1. Bays count along the aisle, levels count from the floor up, and positions count the pallet places side by side on one level. Inbound gates are named IB-01, packing stations PK-01, and outbound gates OB-01. Trolleys carry codes such as T-001. Each code is unique within its Warehouse.

Picking locations are reachable by hand. In the default rack layout, level 1 is picking and higher levels are reserve. Reserve locations hold pallets until a forklift brings them down. Each rack location holds one pallet.

Inbound gates are staging areas for received pallets. They can hold several pallets, but stock there is excluded from reservation. A blocked rack location is also excluded, even if its pallet still has a positive quantity.

Packing stations hold picked trolleys and closed shipping units waiting in roll containers. Outbound gates hold those shipping units before carrier pickup. Neither is a place for booking or moving stock pallets. These are separate from the inbound gates used for supplier deliveries.

WMS on-hand stock includes pieces on active pallets and pieces already picked for orders that have not shipped. Picking changes where goods are held; it does not make them leave the Warehouse. The stock report decreases when the whole order becomes Shipped, after its last unit is handed over. If packages leave in separate pickups, the order’s picked quantities remain in reported stock until that final handover.

Reservation assigns quantities on concrete pallets to open picks. A pallet’s free quantity is its recorded quantity minus those reservations. The release planner only considers stock in the rack, on unblocked locations, for an unblocked article.

The ERP’s available-to-sell quantity is its reported on-hand quantity minus quantities held for open, released, picked, and packed orders, adjusted for shortages and shortened lines. Because the ERP and WMS exchange messages, check message processing when their views do not appear to agree.

An article number identifies a product; an SSCC identifies a specific pallet or shipping unit. A pallet also carries its current location, quantity, batch, and best-before date where applicable. Two pallets of the same article can therefore have different dates and different reservations.

Reservations follow FEFO: earliest best-before dates first, then older pallets, with pallets without a date after dated ones. FEFO determines which pallet supplies an order; replenishment makes that pallet reachable for picking.

Stock movements explain how a pallet reached its current state: receipt, putaway, replenishment, pick, move, or correction. Inspect the pallet history and Stock movements before treating an unexpected number as an error. Location changes can leave total stock unchanged.

Administrative bookings, moves, and corrections belong to administrators. Corrections require a reason and can affect existing reservations. For a discrepancy found during picking, use the shortfall workflow so the control room can correct the count and review the affected picks together.