Picking a Sales Order
To minimize walking time in the warehouse, it's best to collect goods for multiple orders at once and do so as efficiently as possible. This grouping is called a pick cycle:
Planning a Pick Cycle
To pick multiple orders in as little time and effort as possible, group them based on shared characteristics. For example, you can easily combine orders that require picking the same product or orders that all need to be picked from the same warehouse zone.
Pick Suggestions
By clicking the dashboard button "Start picking", you'll get Stoqflow's pick suggestions. These are logical groupings of orders based on filters and your preference for the number of orders per pick cycle.
Enter the desired number of orders per pick cycle in the top right corner, and choose a suggestion group from the left based on your preference or the urgency of the suggestion. Stoqflow displays a pick list to the right with the orders in your next pick cycle. Start the pick cycle by selecting "paper" or "digital" at the bottom.
?> If Stoqflow notices a slight deviation from your preferred number of orders per pick cycle, it may not be necessary to complete a group; for example, you might pick 5 instead of 4 orders.
Order Overview
You can also manually plan a pick cycle from the order overview planning page. There, you can use the search function and/or filter panel to find the orders that are relevant to you.
When selecting the "Ready for Picking" orders, you'll have the option to start picking them.
Preparing a Pick Cycle
The easiest way to pick sales orders is by using a picking cart with X number of bins (depending on the average order size or the number of orders being picked at once). Then place one packaging slip in each bin, as it must accompany the package in the shipping box.
At the end of the pick cycle, leave the picking carts behind at the packing table, and the packer can scan the barcode to receive the order on the packing screen immediately.
Picking
You can either pick one or multiple sales orders simultaneously using two different methods: paper picking or digital picking (beta).
Paper Picking
With paper picking, Stoqflow generates a (A4 format) document with all necessary information for efficiently picking the chosen orders, as well as packaging slips for each order to be picked. The document can easily be printed or saved.
?> After picking, the selected orders should receive a "Ready for Packing" status. This can be done by searching for orders with a status of "Picking". You can easily do this by scanning the barcode on the packaging slip.
Digital Picking (Beta)
Digital picking is currently in beta but already available in Stoqflow. Digital picking is best done on a tablet or other mobile device.
At the start of digital picking, you'll receive an overview of the number of orders to be picked and locations to visit, so you can prepare your picking cart with sufficient bins.
Then our application will guide you to each location in the pick cycle and clearly indicate how many items of which product need to be picked. For each new order in the pick cycle, you'll need to assign a warehouse bin/picking bin to that specific order. You can confirm the pick location and adjust the number of picked items using a swipe movement.
?> Tip: By holding down the & buttons, you can quickly adjust the number of picked items.
After digital picking, you can easily place all picked orders on status "Ready for Packing" and they will automatically appear on the packing screen.
Ready to Pack
Regardless of which method was chosen for picking, the result is a cart with each order having a bin with a packaging slip and one or more products, everything the packer needs to send the orders.