Automatic Breaking Bulk with Directed Put-away and Pick

For locations that use directed put-away and pick, the program can, in various situations, automatically breakbulk, that is, break a larger unit of measure into smaller units of measure, when it creates warehouse instructions that fulfill the needs of source documents, production orders or internal picks and put-aways. To breakbulk sometimes also means gathering smaller units of measure, if necessary, to meet outbound (leaving the warehouse) requests: in effect, breaking the larger unit of measure on the source document or production order into the smaller units of measure that are available in the warehouse. The program breakbulks as follows:

Breakbulking in Picks

If you want to store items in several different units of measure and allow the program to combine them as needed in the picking process, place a check mark in the Allow Breakbulk field on the location card.

To fulfill a task, the program automatically looks for an item in the same unit of measure. But if it cannot find this form of the item, and you have placed a check mark in this field, the program will suggest that you break a larger unit of measure into the unit of measure that is needed.

If the program can only find smaller units of measure, it will suggest that you gather items to fulfill the quantity on the shipment or production order. In effect, it breaks the larger unit of measure on the source document into smaller units for picking.

Breakbulking in Put-aways

In the warehouse put-away, the program automatically suggests Place action lines in the put-away unit of measure (for example, pieces), even though the items arrive in a different unit of measure.

Breakbulking in Movements

The program also breakbulks automatically in replenishment movements, if you do not remove the default check mark in the Allow Breakbulk field on the Option tab of the Calculate Bin Replenishment request window.

You can view the results of the conversion process from one unit of measure to another as intermediate breakbulk lines in the put-away, pick or movement instructions.

Note

If you place a check mark in the Breakbulk Filter field on the warehouse instruction header, the program will hide the breakbulk lines whenever the larger unit of measure is going to be completely used.

For example, if a pallet is 12 pieces and you are going to use all 12 pieces, the pick will then direct you to take 1 pallet and place 12 pieces.  However, if you have to pick only 9 pieces, then the breakbulk lines will not be hidden, even if you have place a check mark in the Breakbulk Filter field, because you have to place the remaining 3 pieces somewhere in the warehouse.

Note:

If you want your units of measure to perform optimally in the warehouse, also in connection with the breakbulk functionality, you should wherever possible try to:

  1. Set up the base unit of measure for an item as the smallest unit of measure that you expect to handle in your warehouse processes.

  2. Set up your alternative units of measure for the item as multiples of the base unit of measure.