• Use of location barcodes to uniquely record what is placed in each rack, bin, or floor location. Barcode on pallet, skid, or container is scanned, followed by scanning location barcode, to record where materials are placed.
• Ability to see, in real-time, the location and status of all materials in warehouse.
• Ability to receive raw, WIP, and finished goods material into the warehouse and put a unique “license plate” tag on each pallet or container or individual item for tracking purposes.
• Ability to download open purchase orders from an ERP or Accounting system. Receipts are performed against purchase order line items. Receipts are relayed back to ERP or accounting system.
• Supports nested containers, such as barcoded boxes on a barcoded pallet. Movement of pallet, recorded by scanning barcode on pallet, automatically moves all boxes on pallet without scanning box barcodes.
• Ability to receive pre-barcoded material with data about pallet or container encoded in 2D barcode or multiple linear barcodes. On raw goods these barcodes typically contain data such as part number, quantity, lot number, vendor number.
• Ability to download orders to be picked from ERP or Accounting System into mobile computing elements. As each item is picked, it is scanned and checked for correctness against order both in terms of SKU and quantity. Picking can be done at the pallet, box, or individual item level.
• When an order is moved to a staging area, this is recorded. When shipment pallets are made up then these are barcoded. The barcode is scanned as part of the order picking to record what goods are on what pallet.
• When a pallet is moved onto a truck, then this is recorded using the mobile computer. The pallet or container barcode is scanned along with a barcode for the loading bay or truck.
• Complete lot number traceability is maintained from the time of receipt in the warehouse until the time material leaves the warehouse. The age of the materials is also tracked so the oldest can be picked first.
• When picking or pulling material from the warehouse, the fork lift truck or mobile computer operator can view the locations of the items to be picked or pulled in real-time, together with their age so the oldest material can be moved first.
• Batch mobile computers. Can be used to record the movement of materials in a yard or external warehouse that is not covered by an RF access point.
• The system will save up data, in batch mode, if a mobile computer is unable to contact an access point. The data is transmitted as soon as an access point is visible to the mobile computer. This can significantly reduce the cost of access points.
• Optionally the system can be interfaced to weighing scales to automatically record the weight of incoming or outgoing material.