Warehouse Management

Last week I blogged about important role of compliance mandates in warehousing. Here is a quick summary of these standards for which compliance is needed in warehousing operations:

Obviously there are numerous compliance mandates that a warehouse needs to wrestle with. Moreover some of these compliance mandates are ever changing. What does a warehouse need to do to stay on top of these and not get charge backs from customers?

Warehouses clearly need a system that is flexible enough to address the compliance mandates as well as adjust to frequent changes to these compliance standards. I will quickly summarize some of the important compliance mandates and our commitment to  them in Oracle WMS:

• Shipping Label Compliance is one of the most common compliance demand. In Oracle WMS, using simple setup forms one could configure:

• 1.    When to request a label print?

• 2.    What label layout should be selected under what circumstances?

• 3.    Which fields should be printed on the label?

• 4.    Which printer to use for printing?

• SSCC-18 (Serialized Shipping Container Code) is the 18 digit number applied on shipping containers that is unique in global context. Oracle WMS can create license plate numbers (including the Modulo-10 check digit) as per SSCC-18 standards and also send  the container details in outbound ASN. See the following UCC-128 label that was generated for the Vision Operations enterprise.

• GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) data structures such as UPC, EAN-8, EAN-13 and EAN.UCC-14 are codes that are applied on SKUs. You can include these numbers in labels as well as scan these labels if the items are already barcoded using this standard.  If you need to generate GTIN (UPC, EAN-8, EAN-13 and EAN.UCC-14) you can use the Excel  worksheet that is available on this blig by clicking here.
  

• EPC (Electronic Product Code) are unique IDs such as SGTIN-64, SGTIN-96, SSCC-64, etc. that are generated based on EPCGlobal standards and encoded on the RFID tag. Once again its possible for WMS to generate EPCs and include it as a label field. On the other hand if your supplier is sending you tagged item, its possible to receive it based on the RFID read.

• Numerous Barcode Standards like UCC-128, ANSI/FACT (Electronic and Hi Tech), AIAG (Automotive), SPEC 2000 (Aerospace), EIAJ (Japanese Electronic Industry) can be supported using Field Identifiers and Bar Code scanning framework in WMS.

• Shipping Documents like VICS bill of lading and other regulatory documents can be generated during the outbound process.

Yesterday's post was mostly about GS1 or EAN.UCC compliance. I have uploaded an Excel file that allows you to generate common GS1 data structures such as SSCC-18, EAN-8, EAN-13, EAN.UCC-14 and UCC-12 (UPC). You can use this Excel sheet to not only generate GS1 data structures such as SSCC-18, EAN-8, EAN-13, EAN.UCC-14 and UCC-12 (UPC) but also generate an XML file that can be used to print labels.

In my previous posting on inventory accuracy in the warehouse, I referred to locator check digit feature in R12. In this blog entry I want to provide more details about this small but powerful feature to improve inventory accuracy in the warehouse. The biggest benefit of locator check digit is that it ensures that warehouse operator physically travels to the locator and performs transaction. Consider this example:

Sounds familiar? How does check digits help? The way check digits work is that each locator is associated with a check digit and transactions can be confirmed only using check digit. This check digit is printed on the locator label physically but it is not suggested to the operator on the mobile device. Meaning that operator can use the locator suggested on the mobile device to travel to the locator but must go to the locator to record its check digit. Besides check digits also helps in faster data entry especially if you have to enter long locator values manually.

Here is a small utility that I have developed in Excel that could be useful for initial locator or warehouse bin definition in your warehouse. To summarize the Excel file does the following:

1. Auto generates locators using range for 3 segments such as Row, Rack and Bin or X, Y and Z coordinates.

2. Generate check digits for each locator using algorithms such as Modulo-10, Alphanumeric, or Unique 4 digit check digit

3. Create locator labels with check digit. You need to have an XML enabled printer such as Zebra 110XiIII, Intermec PM4i, Sato CL412e, Toshiba B-SX6T, Cognitive Advantage LX, Datamax I-4308 or Printronix T5206. Alternatively you need an XML enabled print server such as Loftware, Niceware, Optio or Unibar.

The excel sheet can run a macro to generate the label XML. If you wish to randomize the check digits, there is a macro for it as well.

The locator generation parameters includes a range for each segment. Each segment in turn is split into two sections and you could provide a range for each section using the "From" and "To" parameter. You could for example create locators from EA1-A1-A11 to EA2-D3-Z14 by entering the "From" and "To" parameters as follows:

In one of my previous posts, I blogged about facilitating "Just in Time" crossdocking from your assembly line directly to a shipping dock. The objective is to finish assembly completion into an LPN, move it directly to a staging area and then ship it. This process has obvious benefits such as:

• Reduction in inventory, storage and thereby carrying costs

• Minimal material handling and therefore reduction in labor and equipment costs

• Reduction in lead time and therefore faster shipment

In order to make this process work, you need to tie the WIP job to a sales order using either the new planned crossdocking functionality in R12 or using ATO feature. Either way your WIP job will be reserved to the sales order. To further optimize the process, you need to minimize "contacts" for the shipping container and you might want to consider the following ideas:

• Shipping Label at Manufacturing: To minimize material handling, you would want to create a shipping label directly at WIP completion for the license plates. The labels can be customer specific that include the customer name, address and purchase order number. By labeling the license plates at WIP completion, the shipping process can be simplified because no additional labeling steps may be required as part of the outbound flows. However the customer data is not available on any labels at WIP completion. You will need to use the "Custom Label Field" feature in R12 to fetch the shipping information e.g. a custom label field can be defined for  order number as follows. In this example the return value of the following SQL is mapped to custom label field defined for order number:

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GS1-128 (formally known as UCC/EAN-128) labels are the standards in today's consumer packaged goods, wholesale distribution and retail segments. It is therefore important to familiarize yourself with this label format and understand how to best use these in your WMS enabled warehouses.

As background information, the GS1-128 label is derived from Code 128, a simple symbology that translates numbers and characters into what's commonly known as "barcode". GS1-128 looks like a longer version of the typical barcode. It stores not only the serial number, but also the company and the application identifier. In essence, GS1-128 is an advanced barcode that provides the relevant business context in addition to identifying a product.
Here's an example:

Let’s take a closer look at the last set of numbers in the previous example. The label roughly breaks down into 4 sections, plus an application identifier.

It’s worthwhile to note that the Application Identifier field can refer to wide range of data contents. In the example shown, (00) implies the content is a License Plate Number(LPN). This number can also be used to identify zip code, expiration date, weight, container code and other information. Here’s the full list.

The 18-digit after Application Identifier is the LPN, also known as SSCC-18(Serialized Shipping Container Code). This number is 18 digitals long, and it is globally unique. SSCC-18 tells any operator what the product is and where it is from.

The versatility of GS1-128 is what makes it the standard labeling format in the world today. In the next post, we will be discussing how Oracle WMS can be used to generate GS1-128 label and Advanced Shipping Notices (ASN) in the customer’s inbound process.

In the last blog post we drilled deep into the GS1-128 labeling. In this post, we will go through the steps on how to setup WMS to enable GS1-128 printing.

1. LPN Setup: GS1-128 label requires an LPN to be generated as per SSCC standards. An SSCC-18 number is a unique 18-digit license plate number that is generated as per specific UCC standards. Therefore to generate GS1-128 label requires this 18 digit number to be generated.

2. Create GS1-128 label layout (see sample label) in a label designing software. In this example, the number following (00) is the SSCC-18 number. Whereas (00) is the application identifier. Please note that application identifier should appear in the human readable format as “(00)”. However in actual barcode the application identifier should be encoded as “00” (i.e. without brackets). The variable following the “00” is the 18-digit LPN number from WMS.

3. To auto-generate LPN using SSCC-18 standard, the following setup is needed in org parameters form:

4. Note: As per GS1/UCC standards, application identifier (00) is not part of the SSCC-18 data structure and need not be transmitted as a prefix for LPN in ASNs. However there are customers who require incoming ASN must have LPNs with 20-digit container reference. In this case the 20 digit number consists of 18 digit-SSCC number prefixed with SSCC application identifier “00”. Prefixing “00” to SSCC number will not change the check digit of SSCC. If a customer requires 20-digit container reference, a prefix of “00” can be added in either the label printing software or the prefix of “00” can be added to the extension digit. The setup in this case may look like:

Sometimes customers also enforce a range of container serials for certain warehouses e.g. W1 container serials start with 1, W2 with 2 etc. in such as case, the leading digit from the container serial can be removed and suffixed to LPN prefix:

This way, W1 will always generate LPNs in SSCC18 format that is distinct from W2.

5. Create a label format “UCC128” for type “Shipping Content”. Include fields such as LPN (SSCC-18), Ship to address, PO, Ship from address, etc. as shown in the figure above. You can make this the default label format for “Shipping Content” label.

6. Select a valid printer.

7. Assign “Shipping Content” label to business flow “pick drop” (you may use other business flows like packing workbench, ship confirm or pick load)