soft allocation/advanced distribution

[wwwedward]

Will macola allow the o/e billing process to take a bin to negative quantity. We would like to use soft allocation with mutli-bin, however, we do not bar code nor can we actually pull from every bin due to equipment limitations.. So we would like to just have all allocations be made to a single bin, and then the actual bin movements made by warehouse staff would be recorded and catch the bin back to the proper quantity?

We use confirm bill. Sql 7.5103f.

 

[kscheeler]

Items / locations coded as bins and serial/lot items cannot go negative.

You would first have to transfer the inventory into that bin in order to ship/bill from it.

Kevin Scheeler

 

[dgillz]

Soft allocation is not related to what you want to do. As Kevin suggested, you cannot go negative on bin controlled items.

Are you truly in a multibin environment? I tell people to use picking sequence instead of bins. You are limited to a single picking sequence per item location record, but you can go negative and you do not have the overhead associated with bins.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.trianglepartners.com

 

[wwwedward]

Picking seq is what we use now, we are trying to make macola act like a bin replenishment system. Ex. We have 2000 cases of red blocks on hand on 20 pallets. We assign to a picking seq of A020 which is actually a floor level bin in a distribution warehouse. These are the only bins we pull case quantities from, “floor level”. We want to be able to know when we need to re-stock the picking seq bin " floor level" ( we have physical bins five high about 2000 bins). We use a sql table now to enter all the over stock information, I.E. bin location and pallet quantity so we know where all pallets are located. However, because all inventory quantity is in picking sequence A020 , we cannot tell when this bin would need to be replenished?? We cannot pull from every bin, which is why I have not turned on mulit bins at this point. But the pressure is mounting for something that resembles bin replenishment.

 

[maccrystal]

You can consider using a modified Kanban system in conjunction with the Pick sequence. Kanban approach uses a printed card (high visibility color) that contains specific information such as part name, description, quantity, location, etc. The card is located in the bin with the parts. When the material picker pulls the last item from the bin, he/she also pulls the kanban card. Parts are move to packing areas and the card in turned in or placed in a designate area. The turn-in of the card signals the warehouse personnal to replenish the primary bin. The card is replaced with the replenishment inventory. The approach is simple and works.

http://www.appstratinc.com

 

[wwwedward]

I have been looking at a card system great advice.

here is the goal? This would be to allow a tow motor driver to do the following:

1. at 3:00 pm run a report that tells him the demand he will need for the next day and what overstock has to be set down to floor level to accommodate this demand. The over-stock would then be moved to a central location and then be moved to the pulling bin by pickers on pallet jacks, at the time the bin is seen as empty by physical observance. The plus is this all requires the same piece of equipment for the pullers who know the bin is out because it is empty. Our volume on this process does not justify a person dedicated, our tow motors are too busy during pulling time to perform the function and if a report could be generated we could do this in about one hour and allow order pullers to pull straight through without begging for equipment to get their job done. The computer guy could then go to a coffee shop and read about the third wave.


2. And here are the variables:

Total quantity shipped past: 80
Total quantity on hand : 40
Total quantity per pallet: 30
Number of pallets perhaps ? 20
Total cases needed for next day : 36

All the above could be kept in a sql table linked by item number..

It seems we could do some math and use crystal reports to generate a flag that says for tomorrow what needed to be restocked? Perhaps at every fraction it indicates a pallet move?

I never hesitate to ask the question.

 

[MacolaHelp]

Here is what works at one of my sites:

Picking location (flowracks & shelves) are in a non-binned location & pick sequence is used to print picking tickets in sequential order so the fulfiller/picker can walk the aisles & pick efficiently. Pick tickets go to billing & inventory is relieved @ invoice posting. Reorder advice report is used to determine what requires replenishment in the picking area. Since the primary item location is not multibin, we no longer have to choose a bin at billing time. For 500-1000 orders per day, this was a great help.

The pallets/cartons area is multi bin, so they can store receipts wherever they need. They look up where the overstock is located & pull the replenishments. You could create an oe order for the multibin location if you wanted to generate a pick ticket in sequential order. You could also use another database in between. Peak Best of OE can handle transfer orders, where you put an order in an outside warehouse, trade show, etc., generate the pick ticket for central stores & then allow the receiving warehouse/location, whether another physical location or not, to verify and post receipts from central stores. Can be very helpful if you have a chain of national warehouses with several days between replenishment from the main warehouse to the satellite.

There have been several previous threads here about SAS/now Macola WMS. It sounds like most of the clients who have used it are happy, but it can be pretty expensive if you use lots of features & functions.

 

[MacolaHelp]

Do you own MRP? You could probably generate CP orders in the picking location & use the vendor supplier info in the item location to generate a PO to the multibin replenishment warehouse. Might require some additional manipulation, but I try to keep as much inside macola as I can to avoid duplicate data entry and maintenance of external programs.

 

[abaldwin]

Here is the simple approach that I have implemented in the past that bypasses all the calculations and crystal math.

Create a VB application (or access DB if you do not have the ability to create simple vb apps)

The application would reside on several workstations throughout the area where parts are kept.

The application would need to have a keyboard wedge bar code scanner.

The cards in the bin would have barcoded the Macola part number and location and also printed for human consumption as well.

As the cards are pulled as described above the users could scann the card into the VB application that would write the contents to the SQL table.

One report could be generated from there linked by Item and location to the reorder level to show the items that need to be ordered and the qty to order.

Then the manually orders could be created.

You could take it further and create the orders in vb if you wanted to but this would take some time to insure all the proper entries are made.

The first application I did this way was an Access db and linked the Btrieve macola tables. When the client upgraded to SQL the app still worked because the linking was ODBC based and simply changed and continues to work to this day.

Andy

Andy Baldwin

 

[wwwedward]

Thanks for the great suggestions..