Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), are designed to maximize the efficient movement of inventory to ensure that you are receiving, picking, packing and shipping the correct product each time to your customers. There are numerous functionality components to WMS. This brief post will discuss Allocation in Exploring Warehouse Technology.
Warehouse allocation and warehouse allocation technology is responsible for the logical reservation of product for sales orders. Allocation may be based on specific criteria such as FIFO, LIFO, FEFO, batch, pack-size, zone and warehouse.
As items are received into the warehouse, they are immediately available for order allocation, eliminating any time delay or sequencing issues between receipts, receipt confirmation and pick-list creation.
While orders may be allocated on a first come first serve basis, the warehouse manager will more likely want to assert control over the warehouse process by prioritizing which orders are selected for allocation using the Sales Order Grid.
After an order is allocated it will fall into one of several statuses, depending on the availability of inventory and where the inventory is located in the warehouse. A few common examples include:
- Held Short– There is not enough stock to satisfy the order
- Ready to Wave– There is enough stock and the order is ready for picking
- Held for Replenishment– There is enough stock, but there is not enough units in pick locations to fill the order, a replenishment task needs to be completed before the order can be picked.
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