EWM pick pack and pass with pick by cart app possible?

[simonweber]

Until now, picking has been done on paper, but now we want to go digital 😊

Currently, the «normal products» are first picked into a box using the multi-order picking principle. The box with the picking slip is then placed on a conveyor belt and transported to a second area. In the second area the "special products" are picked (not by the same person). In this area, however, it is not multi-order picking but picking per box (or picking slip). The box is then returned to the conveyor belt and transported to the packing station. The entire process is not supported by a system but is simply handled using the picking slip.

Our idea is to create an activity area for the "normal products" and one for the "special products" so that the tasks are split into different warehouse orders. And then using the pick pass pack functionality! But the warehouse orders for the "normal products" should then be picked using the “Pick by Cart app” and after picking the “normal products” placed on the conveyor belt. The "special products" should then be picked by RF Transaction and per HU.

Is this feasible with EWM? Has anyone already done this? If so, what do I need to consider?

[simonweber]

@JuergenPitz 

I was able to set up the Pick Pack and Pass. It was more complicated than I thought, luckily there are these instructions here "LINK".

The Pick by Cart also works with one or more customer orders.

If I want to combine it now, unfortunately it doesn't work! Because it does not give me the required pick HU for pick by cart! According to my analysis it is due to the WO creation Category!

Here are a few examples! The example is a delivery with only one item! Of course, it's not exactly what I want to do at the end but it's easier for the test!

My outbound delivery looks like this:

If I set the Warehouse Order Creation Rule like this with the Warehouse creation categorie “B Pick Path”

Then the warehouse order looks like this:

And I could pick it with the pick by cart App:

But if I now set the Warehouse Creation rule with the WP creation Category to “C Pick, Pack, and Pass: System-Driven”

Then the warehouse order looks like this:

And because no pick HU has been created, I can't pick them with the Pick by Cart app because it doesn't have a pick HU!

What is also interesting is that when I start the dialogue, it says 1HU at the top but I cannot assign an HU!

A manually added pick HU in the warehouse order does not help either, as I then have 2 HUs when assigning but can only assign one!

I now ask myself two things!

1. Why is no pick HU created in the Warehouse Order Creation when I set the WP creation Category to “C Pick, Pack, and Pass: System-Driven”?
2. Why does the Pick by Cart app first show 0 and then 1 HU which I then cannot assign! Isn't that a bug?

[JuergenPitz]

Hi,

- the pick by cart app is not supposed to create pick HUs. I had a release where it did that, but learned later that it is not supposed to do that. Because for the scenario it was build, the customer uses pre-existing pick HUs, boxes which were constantly re-used, so it is actually an error when the system creates a pick-HU (number).

- For the pick, pack, & pass scenario: the system must be able to calculate the numbers of HU, that is specifically the idea of PP&P. What is not simple is that the system creates a pick HU number. That is because of the higher level and lower level of activity areas. You need to make assignments of the bins to the higher level activity areas, so that you can assign a start bin for the activity area - but you can not sort the bins with this activity area, as otherwise the sorting for the lower level is lost. I would recommend to activate the warehouse order creation log and to look into that, this should help to find out where the issue is.

Brgds

Juergen

[simonweber]

@JuergenPitz 

The tip with the log was very helpful 😊 You can really see a lot there!
I really hadn't set something up properly, so it found the pack spec but couldn't create an HU!

After I corrected this, it looked a bit better

The log also looks green 😊

But it seems as if the Pick by Cart app doesn't enjoy such a structure at all! Because now there is a nice error! If I delete the WO, the error does not appear!

However, if I pick the WO with the classic RF transaction, it works!

I fear that this will not be compatible! Which is a great pity. Because multi-order picking is a must, otherwise we will lose too much time in the picking process.

[JuergenPitz]

Hi,

ok, this would need to be complete checked, by setting it up in order to see what limitations you might run into. And all I describe would be the standard, without modifications.

But in general you would use a pick, pack, & pass scenario for this. Also the "normal products" would come from an activity area which is part of the PPP scenario (otherwise the pick HU would not move to the second area for the next picking).

If you then use the pick by cart app for one of the picking parts, is a different question. The pick by cart app is a fancy version of the RF dialog, technically you use the RF framework. But of course the pick by cart app is meant to pick into several pick HUs at the same time. Which is possible in a PPP scenario as well, but usually gets messy. Why do you want to use the pick by cart app?

OK, probably because of this: " In this area, however, it is not multi-order picking but picking per box (or picking slip). " So in the first area you have a warehouse order which includes WTs for different deliveries, separated by different pick HUs, in the second area you now want to split the next WTs into different WOs.

Yeah, that is something which needs to be tested. The main controlling part for the pick by cart app is the resource type. And you need a WOCR which makes the combination of WTs, but keeps them in different pick HUs. That is just the WOCR. But if this works in a PPP scenario, you need to try (at least if no-one here says that they have done it already). The system must be able to create a higher level WO (which happens in a PPP scenario), but the lower level WOs do not all belong together.

Brgds

Juergen

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[simonweber]

Hello Jürgen

Thank you very much for your comments.

The reason why we want the Pick by Cart app is that we have thousands of different products in the first area "normal products". In the second area "special products", on the other hand, there are only about 20 different products.

98% of a customer order consists of 1-2 "normal products" and 2-4 "special products".

In the "normal products" area, up to 12 different customer orders/deliveries are usually picked into trays (one tray per customer order/delivery), which are then placed on the conveyor belt in the "special products" area, where the special products are added per customer order or tray.

We consider multi-order picking in the "normal products" area with the RF options to be unsuitable. Hence the idea of the Pick by Cart app.

I will try to set this up. Let's see if we can manage it.

If anyone has already done this, please share your experiences.

Best regards

Simon