Revitech automated warehouse based on InStock WMS

2023: Warehouse Automation Based on InStock WMS

On December 22, 2023, InStock Technologies announced that it had completed the automation of Revitech's warehouse.

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Фото: Revitech

According to the company, the peculiarity of this project was the presence of a large assortment of heterogeneous products that are stored in different storage systems. Each group of goods requires different processing methods, for different storage systems there are different rules and nuances for accepting placement and selection.

The warehouse is equipped with pallet, cantilever, padded racks, mezzanine. There is street storage on both racks and floor storage. The warehouse stores measuring goods, initially arriving at the warehouse in the bay, and then shipped in meters. Such goods also require special methods and rules for handling and accounting for balances. The warehouse stores products of compound articles, as well as kits are formed for certain orders. The tasks of implementing InStock WMS included optimizing all processes, eliminating overwriting, establishing accurate accounting for residues and optimizing all processes.

The project uses different methods of acceptance: acceptance by place, acceptance by transport in the assortment, acceptance by transport with sorting.

Receiving an inbound delivery by location allows you to accept the goods according to the number of locations and fix the accepted pallets of the goods, but without entering articles and quantities. This allows you to quickly free up cars and space in front of the gate. After such acceptance, the process of regular acceptance of the goods must be carried out.

During the acceptance process, the warehouse employee accepts goods into floor bins, scanning them. It indicates the maximum information about the goods of the inbound delivery: The system asks for the item code, and the employee scans the barcode on the item.

You must enter batch characteristics in the system - expiration date, production date. The system takes this data from the inbound delivery line, if there is no such data in it, the system asks you to enter the data manually. Once each individual pallet has been accepted, the System automatically creates jobs to place it.

WMS selects the highest priority Placement task and issues it to the employee: recommends to pick up a certain pallet with an item from a certain receiving location. WMS will ask the user to scan the pallet code. Different placement rules have been created for different item groups, and the system automatically determines how to place a particular item.

For the console group on the Street and Warehouse, the system will select a cell by volume and in accordance with the withdrawal of the ABC of this group:

• Group Street floor: a cell with the same product is searched, if not, then any cell with a minimum number of articles is selected.
• The system tries to select a cell with the same product and report to the cell by volume, if the system does not find such cells, then places the product in an empty cell of stuffed racks. If there are no empty cells, then the product is located in floor street storage, while the system selects a cell with a minimum number of articles.
• The group is pallet street, the system selects an empty cell.
• Pallet warehouse group - the rules are more complex. The system determines the withdrawal of goods and selects a cell by size in this exit zone. If there is no such cell, then the product is placed in a different departure hon.

The system can lay out mixed pallet goods in the boxed area in two ways: "from the goods," "along the route." At the same time, the system always takes into account the withdrawal of this product, article number, batch and tries to report by volume to the corresponding cells before filling in the empty one. In the route method, the system plans the route and recommends cells for each item.

From the interception cell, the system moves the pallet to be placed on the corresponding floor. Next, you also select cells by departure, volume, batch and article. Thus, the placement of the goods of each group in the warehouse is strict systematized by rules. At any time, the InStock WMS system has information about the location of all goods, their number and the need for replenishment of areas. The systematization of the placement helps to optimize the further selection of orders.

There are several types of orders in this project:

• Delivery
• Shipment at own expense
• Shipping to FBS Marketplace
• For own needs, write-off of defects, etc.

In InStock WMS, orders arrive in the system from 1C. The system takes priority from the order (ship time date or priority number). The operator can manually change the order priority. Orders are combined into a flight as a result of separate loading of flights from 1C. The flight contains: date/time of shipment, sequence of loading in the flight. The flight can be updated with information until the flight closes. Delivery orders are only unloaded to WMS after they have been merged into a flight. Until the flights are loaded, the operator places individual orders in the selection. From the moment the flights are loaded, the Operator places the entire flights in the selection. For order types, Pick-up - Place in the selection automatically as soon as the order is loaded into the system.

In the project, control of selected goods is carried out in different places. At the control station on the mezzanine, a separate control zone for goods for marketplaces. There is a separate control of pallets and boxes received in the zone of finished orders.

The shipping operator can manage the shipment in the flight (route) screen or separately in the order screen (if need to ship orders that are not linked to flights). It allows the shipment of a flight.

The storekeeper at the shipping documentation selects the "Route Shipment" operation. Only flights that are allowed to be shipped in priority order (by shipping time) are displayed in the list. The storekeeper selects the flight and the system indicates which pallet/box to take for loading and from which cell. The system sorts the orders according to the loading priority specified on the flight and issues pallet tasks by order. Loading processes are optimized with InStock WMS, with accurate system control, all shipments take place in the lines according to the plan.

Thanks to InStock WMS, inventory is regularly carried out in the warehouse. Inventory jobs can be generated by the operator, or automatically by events during warehouse work on non-conformities or certain conditions. If the operator generates tasks, he can set the following parameters for generating tasks: warehouse area, item group, article number, pallet and a number of other filters. The system can generate inventory tasks automatically according to the rules.

WMS generates inventory jobs automatically in the following cases: discrepancies occur as a result of any WMS business processes.

The operator in a specific screen can set the parameters for generating cyclic counts. For example, such parameters may be. Article, zone and period of generation of cyclic counts.

After the implementation of WMS, it was possible to optimize accounting for a large assortment of heterogeneous products, optimize work with sets and composite articles, and debug the processes of accounting and processing of measured goods. Under the management of InStock WMS, a regular inventory is carried out, always at any time there is data on the stock balances of any product. Now the processes of placement and selection of products in different storage systems and areas of the warehouse are automated. This optimizes the processing time of the item and the shipping process.