Overview of warehouse productivity

Q:

How does the system collect statistics for product picking and order verification?

A:

Steps 1 through 6 outline the product picking process; steps 7 through 10 outline the order verification process:

1. The hard copy of the picker is printed to the designated printer.

2. A warehouse picker employee retrieves the picker from the printer and grabs a tote for the order.

3. If the order includes products that are located in the first warehouse zone, the picker employee places the appropriate products in the tote. Then he or she signs the physical picker with his or her initials, name, or employee number. Next, the employee sends the physical picker and tote down the conveyor to the next warehouse zone.

If the order does not include products that are located in the first warehouse zone, the physical picker and tote are sent down the conveyor to the next warehouse zone.

Note: When warehouse picker employees sign physical pickers, they are indicating that they should linked to the order.

4. At the next warehouse zone, the picker employee retrieves the tote and picker. He or she determines if the order includes products that are located in that warehouse zone. If so, the picker employee places the appropriate products in the tote. Then he or she signs the physical picker with his or her initials, name, or employee number. Next, the employee sends the physical picker and tote down the conveyor to the next warehouse zone.

If the order does not include products that are located in that warehouse zone, the physical picker and tote are sent down the conveyor to the next warehouse zone.

5. The process continues through all zones as required.

6. The tote is moved to the order verification station of the warehouse.

7. The warehouse verification employee logs on to Vision through the RF display scanner. For details about order verification with an RF display scanner, refer to Using your RF display scanner for order verification and purchase order receiving.

8. As the warehouse verification employee scans products, the system keeps track of the following:

• The release number, the product number, the order quantity, the person logged on, and the scan quantity are tracked.

• If a scanned product is not on the particular release, the system notes the release number, the product number, the order quantity, the person logged on, and the scanned quantity. In this case, the order quantity is 0, and the scan quantity represents what was pulled. The difference between the order quantity and the scan quantity is used to determine product pulling errors. The sound the scanner makes is an “error scan” tone, alerting the warehouse employee so that he or she does not put the product in the shipping cage.

9. When the warehouse verification employee has addressed every line item on the release (i.e., each line item is either complete or short), the system prompts the employee for the zone pickers. Each unique zone that has products listed on this release triggers a prompt for a warehouse employee. The warehouse verification employee refers to the physical picker and

10. At each zone picker prompt, the warehouse verification employee identifies the appropriate warehouse picker employee who signed the physical picker for the corresponding zone.

As soon as the warehouse verification employee has completed verification of the release, the system updates the warehouse productivity statistics:

• To determine the warehouse picker employee who is responsible for pulling a product, the system first refers to the location from where the product was pulled. Then the system notes the warehouse zone for this location The warehouse picker employee identified as the picker for that zone receives credit for pulling that product. The quantity is added to the Pulled column on the Warehouse Productivity Report and to the Qty Pulled field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance.

• The system identifies a product as a mis-picked product if the scan quantity is greater than the order quantity.

• Mis-picked products do not include shortages. If a product is shorted, a manager investigates to determine the cause. For example, if the system on-hand/available quantity is incorrect, the manager adjusts the quantity through the Inventory Adjustment Entry in Vision Back Office.

If the on-hand/available quantity is correct and the manager determines that the warehouse picker employee did not pull all of the ordered quantity, the manager manually adjusts the Qty Mis-Picked field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance for that employee and the appropriate date.

• To determine the warehouse verification employee who is responsible for verifying a product, the system refers to the user who logged on to the Vision system on the RF display scanner. This is the employee who receives credit for verifying that product. The quantity is added to the Verified column on the Warehouse Productivity Report and to the Qty Verified field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance.

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Q:

What happens if more than one employee is needed to pull a large or heavy product?

A:

The warehouse employee who is assigned to the order for that zone is the one who receives credit for pulling the product.

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Q:

What happens if an employee cannot complete a significantly large order in one day?

A:

The statistics for a warehouse employee working on orders that cannot be completed one day

The daily statistics for those warehouse employees will be light; however, over the course of the month, the statistics will average out.

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Q:

How does the system collect statistics for purchase order receiving?

A:

For the purchase order receiving process, the warehouse receiving employee logs on to Vision through the RF display scanner. For details about purchase order receiving with an RF display scanner, refer to Using your RF display scanner for order verification and purchase order receiving.

As the warehouse receiving employee scans products for open line items on a purchase order that is linked to an active receiver, the system keeps track of the received quantity.

To determine the warehouse receiving employee who is responsible for receiving a product, the system refers to the user who logged on to the Vision system on the RF display scanner. This is the employee who receives credit for receiving that product. The quantity is added to the Received column on the Warehouse Productivity Report and to the Qty Received field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance.

Receiving errors are included on the Receive by Shipment Errors Report. For more information, refer to Receive by Shipment Errors Report. This report also shows any manual receiving adjustments that management has made.

If the system finds an overage (that is, if the quantity received is greater than the quantity on the purchase order), the overage is noted on the Receive by Shipment Errors Report, and the system increments the received quantity for the warehouse receiving employee who scanned that product accordingly. Any errors on the Receive by Shipment Errors Report must be resolved:

• If the overage is the result of the vendor shipping more of a product than what was ordered, the buyer determines whether to send it back to the vendor, update the existing purchase order for the additional receipt, or generate a new purchase order to receive the product in the warehouse.

In this case, the warehouse receiving employee who scanned the product receives credit for receiving the product initially in overage. This employee should also receive credit for receiving the product if the purchase order is updated or a new one is generated.

• If the overage resulted because a warehouse receiving employee mistakenly scanned the product more than once, use the Receiving Errors Maintenance to delete the receiving error. For more information, refer to Receiving Errors Maintenance. Deleting the error using this maintenance reduces the quantity of products received and updates the warehouse productivity statistics accordingly.

• If it is determined that the vendor sent products that are not identified on any of the purchase orders linked to the receiver, the buyer needs to decide what should be done with the products, and the warehouse receiving employee who scanned the products receives credit for receiving them.

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Q:

How does the system collect statistics for the purchase order putaway process?

A:

When a purchase order receiving session has been completed, the products are ready to be put away. The warehouse employee can generate the Putaway Labels Report with Barcodes. This report identifies where to put inventory that is received from a vendor or returned from a customer. You can generate this report instead of printing individual putaway labels for every product that needs to be put away. For more information, refer to Putaway Labels Report with Barcodes.

The warehouse employee who logs on to the system (either manually or via the scanner) is the one who receives credit for performing all of the putaway processing entered during that session. This employee can either manually enter the products that were put away or scan the putaway barcode. Then the employee acknowledges the location and the product number. The employee receives credit for the quantity of product put away. The quantity is added to the Put Away column on the Warehouse Productivity Report and to the Qty Put-Away field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance. For more information on putaway processing, refer to Confirm Putaway Labels.

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Q:

How does the system collect statistics for credit memo returns?

A:

When a credit memo return is entered in Vision on the Customer Service tab, the appropriate reason why the product is being returned must be selected. The system does not update a warehouse employee's productivity records upon entry of a credit memo. However, if the reason for the credit memo is due to an error of a warehouse employee, you can use the Warehouse Statistics Maintenance to manually adjust the employee's statistics.

The credit memo receipt verification process follows the same process as the order verification process identified above. The warehouse verification employee who verifies the receiving of the credit memo returns is the person who receives credit for processing the quantity of products returned. The quantity is added to the Verified column on the Warehouse Productivity Report and to the Qty Verified field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance.

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Q:

How does the system collect statistics for the credit memo putaway process?

A:

The credit memo putaway process follows the same process as the purchase order putaway process. In fact, the credit memo putaway process and the purchase order putaway process update the same quantity statistics fields on the Warehouse Productivity Report and in the Warehouse Statistics Maintenance because the work being performed is identical, regardless of the reason the product is being relocated into the warehouse.

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Q:

How does the system collect statistics for inventory adjustments in which products are moved from one warehouse location to another?

A:

If a warehouse employee moves a product from one warehouse location to another, the new location must be identified on the Locations screen of the Product Management tab. When this new location is identified, the warehouse employee who moved the product must also be selected on the Location screen. For more information, refer to Specify the product's primary location in the warehouse or Specify the product's primary full case location in the warehouse.

When the warehouse employee who moved the product is identified on the Locations screen, that employee receives credit for the move. The quantity is added to the Moved column on the Warehouse Productivity Report and to the Qty Moved field in Warehouse Statistics Maintenance.

You can use the Inventory Audit Inquiry in Vision Back Office to view an audit trail that shows changes made to product inventory or locations.

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Q:

How long are warehouse productivity statistics stored in Vision?

A:

Warehouse statistics that are a set number of days old are purged automatically during End-of-Day processing. The number of days is specified for your organization in the Days to hold Warehouse Statistics field on the Dealer Settings screen, which is available from the Dealer Information folder on the System Configuration screen of the Vision Configuration tab.

This Days to hold Warehouse Statistics field indicates how many days warehouse statistics should remain in the system for your organization. The minimum number of days is 1, and the maximum is 500; the default is 400. Warehouse statistics that this number of days old are purged automatically during End-of-Day processing.

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