Nerds' Eye View: Improve Picking Accuracy With Pick Slip Picking

In our previous post, we discussed the various counting options that RF-SMART can offer Oracle Cloud users, such as Cycle Counting and Physical Inventory Counting. Today, we are switching our focus to Picking, and we’ll be exploring Pick Slip Picking and Directed Pick Slip Picking.

We will cover the main differences between these two workflows. We'll look at how these functions work in Oracle and how they work in RF-SMART, including workflow options of interest when using them.

Pick Slip Picking - Oracle Cloud Prerequisites 

Before you can start using the picking functions covered here, you will need to configure certain elements in Oracle:

Pick Slip Grouping Rules

• This determines how your Pick Slips are generated and the data that is contained within them. For example, do you want to group your picks by Order, Customer or Subinventory?

Picking Rules

• These determine whether the pick is generated using LIFO (Last In First Out), FIFO (First In First Out) and so on. There are many rules here for you to choose from.

Pick Wave Release Rules

• These are not mandatory, but are useful if you wish to schedule your Pick Waves.
• You can specify rules around the “Pick From” and “Pick To” Subinventories and whether you want to automatically create Shipments at the time of Pick Release. There are other options you can have here too.

And finally, before you can start picking, you need to run the Pick Wave. This can be run manually or scheduled depending on the frequency of your picking. The Pick Wave process will generate the Pick Slips utilizing the configuration specified above, ready to be picked.

Figure 1: Oracle - Confirm Pick Slips 

Pick Slip Picking - RF-SMART

While thinking of ways to improve our solution, our team identified an opportunity to give Oracle Cloud users more options for how their picks were performed, such as the ability to consolidate their picks, the ability to sort, and so on.

When performing these functions in RF-SMART, users will be physically scanning the data (Item, Locator, Subinventory) during the pick itself. This has been proven to increase the accuracy of the picking process.

How it Works 

Pick Slip Picking

• Picking a Single Pick Slip at a time, RF-SMART guides the users through the data and warehouse to perform the pick.

Directed Pick Slip Picking

• Consolidate multiple Pick Slips into one action (i.e. you would perform this all at the same time, however Oracle would record them as separate picks).
• As with Pick Slip Picking, users are guided through the data and warehouse.

Both functions are fully configurable to meet the needs of the user and business. For instance, screens can be defaulted and hidden as required.

Figure 2: Pick Slip Picking (Mobile)

Tips and Tricks

Now that you understand how picking in Oracle and RF-SMART works, here are some tips for configuring these mobile functions to meet the needs of your business’s processes.

As with all RF-SMART functions, we always recommend labeling as much of the warehouse as possible. Giving the users the ability to scan barcodes rather than rely on manual input really does make the user’s task much easier, and it also helps to increase the accuracy of the functions.

Pick Slip Picking Workflow Options

There are various workflow options available for Pick Slip Picking, but here are some of the highlights:

PickSlipLockingType

• This is the record locking parameter, which has three options:
  
  1. Disabled – no record locking
  2. Lock By PickSlip – the record will be locked by PickSlip (i.e. when you enter the PickSlip it will be locked, meaning only one user can pick a PickSlip at a time)
  3. Lock By Line – basically same as Lock By PickSlip but at the line level instead

SortBySubLocItem

• When enabled: Pick slip lines will be sorted in alphabetical order by Subinventory, then by Locator, then by Item Number.
• When disabled: Pick slip lines will be sorted by Line (the value of Line is returned by Oracle).

LabelPrintUponPickSlipCompletionOnly

• When disabled: you have the option to print an RF-SMART label after every pick transaction.
• When enabled: RF-SMART label printing will be skipped and not displayed and only be navigable once all lines on the PickSlip have been picked.

Sort By DestSub DestLoc SourceSub

• When enabled: PickSlip lines will be sorted in alphabetical order by Destination Subinventory, then by Destination Locator, then by Source Subinventory.
• When disabled: PickSlip lines will be sorted by Line (the value of Line is returned by Oracle).

Directed Pick Slip Picking Workflow Options

There are various workflow options available for Directed Pick Slip Picking, here are some of the highlights:

Skip Repeated Sub Loc Collection - When enabled, the CollectSubinventory and CollectLocator screens will be skipped if the expected values are the same as the last pick.

Pick Sequence Override - Override the default picking sequence: +PickingOrder, +Subinventory, +Locator, +ItemNumber, +PickSlip, +Line.

Consolidate Quantity - When enabled, the function will consolidate quantities of the same item number/lot/serial combination across selected PickSlips.

Email Notification List Of Values - List of email addresses to be notified are separated by semicolons.

Email Notification Subject - Email subject line for notification emails can be set to include Order, PickSlip or Shipment numbers by using $Order, $PickSlip or $Shipment.

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The Nerds' Eye View blog is written by members of our RF-SMART Oracle Cloud development team. This series features behind the scenes insights into why we've developed different functionality and how you can best leverage it. 

Read Part 1 on Physical Inventory Counts

Read Part 2 on Cycle Counting

About Scott Sellers: Developer of the Physical Inventory function. Working at RF-SMART for 3 years, joined the Oracle Cloud technical team in June 2019.

About Rachel Warren: Architect/Designer of the Physical Inventory function. Working at RF-SMART for 2 years. Previously worked with Oracle EBS, then switched to work with Oracle Cloud in 2017