Design your Warehouse Location Numbering System

Product Locations   - Dot Separated Format – Five sections of up to three alpha numeric characters each

Depending on the size of your warehouse you could combine info various ways, also remember you can use alpha numeric characters.  Additionally, you create a text field DESCRIBING the location as well as the location itself, which allows for exponentially more options when using all numeric elements, where you still have a human readable element.  You can post the label with the bar code and the DESCRIPTION at the shelf/bin location. 

Types of locations, First Segment

Types of Departments, First Segement alternative for a more generic "PRD" location, if you desire a human readable cue, instead of generic product or numeric indicators (We'll use the Skateboard example)

oSkateboard Decks:  DEK

oSkateboard Trucks:  TRK

oSkateboard Wheels:  WHL

oSkateboard Bearings:  BRG

Aisle:  Second Segment:  001-999 

Rack:  Third Segment:  001-999

Shelf:  Fourth Segment:  001-999

 

You are completely in control of planning these locations, but you should strive for consistency:          

          

Overhead View:

Front view

For the above configuration you'd have 37 total locations

 

Other options would be using a shelf or bin location to indicate a vendor by defining a split among the characters – in the example below in the fifth/last segment, the first two digits might signify a vendor, and the last digit still defines the position on the shelf.  You could also split up the Shelf locations similarly.  You would not want to split up the Rack or Aisle location, as they define a truly physical space.

$%TRK.001.002.003.011

$%TRK.001.002.003.022

$%TRK.001.002.003.033

$%TRK.001.002.002.041

$%TRK.001.002.002.052

… etc.

… etc.

Another consideration would be how much ability and how many resources you have to maintain your warehouse, keeping bestsellers and core products easily accessible and close to your packing stations, and moving slower moving items to less accessed areas.

 

For the Dash Separated format, you have fewer segments (4) but 5 characters per segment, potentially making it easier to combine aisles and racks, or shelves and bins, etc.

 

You could use carts, such as those pictured below for returns, to divvy them up between product type and damaged or not damaged, as well as using them to pick product and return to pack stations to QA, Box and Ship

 

 

 

 

 

All of the above are items you should plan/design before even beginning the set up in the SalesWarp application.   If you already have a warehouse schema designed, now is the time to make sure that it is scalable and clean.  Clean it up and make it right before moving it into SalesWarp!

 

Setting up an internal Warehouse

 

Create warehouse schema for locations in SalesWarp:   Info you need to know before you begin

1)Bar Code formats - you must choose a single format to move forward, you cannot switch between formats after selecting!

a)Dot Separated Fomat:

i)$%CCC.CCC.CCC.CCC.CCC (Five sections of up to three alpha numeric characters separated by PERIODS “.”)   If you choose this format, you must fill in all segments, even if just to zero fill; however, each segment's length is independent of the others, and can vary from physical location to location:

ii)Examples:
$%CCC.CC.CCC.C.CC
$%CC.CC.CC.C.CCC
$%CCC.CCC.CCC.C.CC

b)Dash Separated Format:

i)$%CCC-CCC-CCC-CCC (four sections of up to five alpha numeric characters separated by DASHES “-“)   If you choose this format, you must fill in all segments, even if just to zero fill; however, each segment's length is independent of the others, and can vary from physical location to location.

ii)Examples:
$%CCC-CC-CCC-C-CC
$%CC-CC-CC-C-CCC
$%CCC-CCC-CCC-C-CC

 

Locations have three Yes/No settings that must be defined as they are created:

1)Sellable – product is included in "Available for Sale" inventory quantities.  If a location containing the only sellable quantity is not pickable, then product must be moved from a non-pickable location to sellable location to be used for fulfilling orders.

2)Pickable – Locations that are not pickable would be staging/fulfillment locations, or items you have not released yet, and/or are not actively selling.  When ready to sell, quantities would need to be moved to pickable locations. 

3)Visible on pick tickets –  You can hide individual locations from appearing on pick tickets by setting the visible on pick tickets setting to no on the location itself.  You can also prevent locations from appearing on pick tickets globally by modifying the pick ticket template.

 

 

You can see all the warehouse settings referred to in this document, by following the Product Locations item on the Warehouse menu in the application

 

 

Default Locations

SalesWarp has four default locations you must define, then you can build out and import additional locations as you wish, or as needed.  If your warehouse is small you can start out very basic and expand on locations as you grow, provided you start out with a scalable plan.  The following is an example.  The SalesWarp customer service team can offer best practice solutions based on your business needs.

1)Default Return Location Example:  $%400.000.000.000.000  -  If you have or need to create multiple return locations, you would know that any location that begins with 400 is a return location.  Generally, returns are put into bins/carts which are later sorted through, to determine if damaged or resellable. 

2)Default Receiving Location $%300.000.000.000.000

3)Default Fulfillment Location $%200.000.000.000.000  - Fulfillment location use is not required, but is intended to be a temporary location for items being moved from product locations to packing stations, etc.  If you feel you have need for this we can help define usage and processes.  It always has to be defined, however.

4)Default Product Location $%100.000.000.000.000  -  You would create additional product locations, designating as fits your warehouse, aisle, rack, shelf, bin, etc.  Best practice would be to have the segments remain consistent.  If you plan the second segment to be aisle, then it should always be aisle. 

 

Continuing Warehouse set up

Activate warehouse locations in SalesWarp

You can use locations in SalesWarp without having Advanced Warehouse Management enabled, but to take advantage of the full capabilities of AWM, it needs to be included in your subscription, and SalesWarp will have performed additional steps to activate the advanced features.

Once you have your location schema defined, you would fill them in on an excel spreadsheet or csv file and import them into SalesWarp.  For detailed instructions on importing warehouse locations, follow this link:  Importing Warehouse Locations

For detailed instructions on activating your contracted subscription for AWM follow this link:  Activating Advanced Warehouse Management

 

SKU Setup

Review product SKUs and correct as required.  SalesWarp SKUs may not contain spaces.  *Note there is an additional consideration if you are using Zoey for your storefront, that the customer team will explain if it applies. (If you use Zoey, and have all numeric SKUs with no symbols (_ or -), and we don’t know this already, please let us know!)

Ensure all products exist in SalesWarp, either by file import or store sync. If you added product data via storefront sync, you will most likely have to add/import additional product data to complete your product info, as the store fronts sync basic/limited data elements.  For detailed instructions on importing products into SalesWarp, to round out your product data, follow this link:  Importing SKU/Product Data

Product-Vendor association

In order to utilize SalesWarp's Purchase Order features, you must have at least one vendor assigned to each SKU.  For detailed instructions on importing Product-Vendor relationships follow this link:  Importing Product Vendor Associations

If you have multiple vendors for a product, the primary vendor will be used for PO generation first.

If you are in a unique situation where you are your own vendor (manufacturing product), or are not using our system to generate Purchase Orders, the customer team should already know and will likely have already provided additional guidance on how to handle.  Generally, you would create a single vendor, your company, and assign it to all products.  In this case you could use the Purchase Order functions as work order requisitions to your manufacturing software, feed stock availability from another application into SalesWarp, or utilize Display Overrides, which are stock quantities that never decrease, so that items never go out of stock.  You want to manage this functionality carefully, so you can handle if items ever really do go out of stock!

Product Vendor Import notes:

•Does the vendor require a different SKU on purchase orders than you use on customer orders?

•Is this product drop shipped?  This can be a whole can of worms, if they are providing you with stock levels.

•Prepare a list of product COST (your cost) by vendor to import into SalesWarp.

•Will this product be fulfilled from the warehouse?  You need to be aware of this when creating POs or using imports to adjust inventory exceptions.  You must choose the proper warehouse during these activities, or else orders will attempt to reserve quantities that may not actually have any quantity.

 

Print the warehouse location labels

1)Once you have defined/added and/or imported your warehouse locations, you can then print out labels to mark your bins/shelves, etc.  From Warehouses->Warehouses, use the View (eye) link to view warehouse info, and select locations.    For detailed instructions on printing location labels, follow this link:  Printing Warehouse Location Labels

 

Once you have your warehouse defined and set up in SalesWarp, you will then need to print product labels and update the product locations with proper inventory for each sku.  This can be done via import, it can also be done by scanning products into the locations by walking the warehouse.

 

Once locations are turned on in the warehouse, you can no longer just update inventory quantities.  You must scan products in and out, or scan to relocate items within the warehouse.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions or require further assistance, please feel free to contact us at support@saleswarp.zendesk.com