Leader-Krasnodar automated warehouse processes based on InStock WMS

2023: Warehouse Automation

Leader-Krasnodar has automated warehouse processes based on InStock WMS. InStock Technologies (In-Stock Technologies) announced this on December 8, 2023.

Leadership Company -Krasnodar deals distribution with food and provides responsible storage services.

Since food products are stored in the warehouse, there are special requirements for the accuracy of accounting and storage conditions of goods in the warehouse.

• automation of warehouse processes taking into account the peculiarities of the products,
• storage optimization,
• acceleration of the processes of collection of orders and their shipment,
• setting up billing for customers.
• Another of the important tasks of automation was to prepare dairy products subject to mandatory labeling for sample accounting.

The warehouse consists of three separate tasks: Cold Warehouse, Freezer and Warm Warehouse. Each task has its own topology and areas of acceptance, storage and shipment. The cold warehouse has two floors, on the first floor - floor storage, on the second floor - areas of acceptance, shipment, floor and rack storage. The freezer is equipped with front racks, has an acceptance and expedition area. To optimize work with goods, all goods are listed in directories, and for each controller there is a different product directory. The exchange between InStock WMS and 1C is carried out according to the unique identifier of each controller.

This project uses the method Acceptance in Assortment. The warehouse stores products from the Rennes company and products of the aggressors. Information about the incoming delivery comes to wms from 1C and the operator allows acceptance. It is important to enter the maximum item information in the wms system in order to speed up processing in the warehouse. The employee scans the cell where the item will be received and then scans the item code according to the delivery. The system retrieves expiration date and production date information from the scanned barcodes, if necessary, enter this information into the system by the employee.

After acceptance, the operator checks the discrepancies and closes the inbound delivery document in the WEB interface.

The system automatically creates a pallet placement task from acceptance. The system determines the storage cell in accordance with the placement rules. For goods with short, long shelf life, frozen products of different types, different storage rules have been created.

In acceptance, a situation arises when the goods immediately move to the shipping gate, bypassing placement - this is crossdocking. The system at acceptance will determine that this item is needed for the cross-docking order and the required quantity will be taken from the consumption order.

The receiver will be told to accept the goods for a specific consumption order first and for individual pallets. After acceptance, the cross-docking product will immediately be assigned to this expenditure order.

For each of the three zones (cold warehouse, freeze, grocery), individual orders from 1C are unloaded. Orders are then combined into a flight. The priority of the order is determined by the InStock WMS system by the date and time of shipment of the flight, as well as the number of priority of the order. Before loading flights, the operator places individual orders in the selection, and after loading - flights in their entirety.

Goods in different zones are selected by different methods. The general rule for all zones is that first the system plans to select with pallets, then with boxes and most recently with pieces.

In a cold warehouse, the selection of goods is planned by the "Total Selection" method. The selector is given tasks for the total order, and he collects the total wave for several orders in one pass through the warehouse for the total pallet. The pallet is then sorted by order.

In the freezing zone, the selection of goods takes place according to the "Selection for order" method with division into selection zones: Ice cream, Meat, Fish. The selection is performed according to the FEFO principle, taking into account shelf life restrictions for customers. The selector selects the goods of one order in his zone in one task and forms a pallet with the goods of one order of one zone. When an employee receives a selection task, he/she follows the instructions of the system and scans the cells along a single route for the order/all orders. The employee scans the item code and confirms the quantity by stacking the selected item on a pallet. The process is repeated until the entire product in the wave is selected.

In order for the selection area to always have the necessary goods, replenishment is necessary. Refills can be proactive and hot.

In WMS, you can set the minimum replenishment threshold and define the quantity to be replenished. Replenishment can be for a certain number of sales days or in certain units, rounding to an entire pallet. You can use whole pallets or boxes. Replenishment thresholds can be different for different product groups. Hot refills are generated if there are not enough items to order.

The route consolidation activity is used to collect pallets of different orders in the same expedition cell. The operator creates pallet consolidation tasks that include the following steps: approach the item cell, scan the container code, go to the next cell, and so on until F3 is finished or pressed. After the pallets are placed in the shipping cell, the packing list is printed on them.

The InStock WMS system manages the shipment. The storekeeper selects a flight to the shipping documentation the system indicates the pallet and the loading cell. The storekeeper can scan other pallets, but only the same flight. During loading, all pallets of the flight are scanned.

Inventory jobs can be created by the operator or automatically as a result of certain events or conditions during warehouse work. Cells can be locked or remain available. Inventory jobs are generated for each cell and accumulated in the job queue. The audit worker receives jobs from the queue generated in various ways, but only for the zone he or she selects and sorted by priority. The operator can manually generate inventory jobs depending on different filters. InStock WMS automatically generates inventory jobs when there are discrepancies in WMS business processes. The planned inventory is carried out with the stop of movement of goods in the warehouse or a separate area. The operator can configure parameters for generating cyclic counts, such as Article Number, Zone, and Generation Period. Cells are not locked.

As a result of the introduction of InStock WMS into the Leader-Krasnodar warehouse, the processes of processing goods were accelerated, accurate accounting of goods in the warehouse was established, selection processes were automated taking into account the requirements of customers and the peculiarities of goods. Regular inventory has been established. The warehouse is ready for new requirements from 2025 for the accounting of products with the marking Honest Sign.