IVS.Warehousing Overview

IVS.Warehousing was designed to meet the total inventory control needs of companies who manufacture and/or distribute products. It’s stand-alone as well as integration capability make it the perfect choice for companies who have an existing host (accounting, order processing, ERP/MRP) application but are lacking real-time automated warehouse control.

Built with flexibility in mind, IVS.Warehousing is user configurable to meet the specific requirements of the customer. You determine how inventory is tracked, configure bins, suggested put-away logic, picking method/sequence, etc. As your needs change, a built in configuration utility allows you to redesign your system to meet those new requirements.

IVS.Warehousing is developed in Visual Basic utilizing client/server technology employing business objects. The database is Microsoft SQL Server and the system is designed to be deployed using Windows 2000, 2003 or XP. All database structures are documented to allow user defined queries and reports.

Inventory tracking by FIFO, Lot Number, and Serial Number is fully supported. A complete audit trail of inventory transactions is provided. All warehouse activity is date and time stamped allowing the end user to develop custom operator productivity reporting in-house.

Each transaction provides for user defined input fields to assure that all relevant information is collected. For instance, in addition to the system required fields for Purchase Order Receiving, the user may want to capture the Vendor Item Number, Lot Number, Serial Number, Weight, Shade, etc. User defined validation and data parsing can be assigned to these additional fields as well. User defined fields are available for both unit level and transaction level input and can be flagged as required or optional.

The system supports three different types of paperless picking: Customer Order Picking, Transfer Picking and Work Order Picking. System controlled “Picker Assignment” allows the supervisor to place orders in the picker’s queue to be picked either in a random order or sequenced order. The Pick Detail transaction for all three order types shows what specific product was picked (down to Unit ID/Lot/Serial Number detail) and which inventory bin/location it was picked from.

The system supports Pick to Stage, Pick to Pack, Pick to Load and Pick Line functions. If an order is staged, an RF Load function verifies that all product picked for the order is loaded. It also directs the operator to the appropriate loading dock to assure that the order is loaded into the correct trailer. An RF Pallet Adjustment function allows the operator to shift inventory from one pallet to another (of the same order) to assist loading. A Pallet Inquiry function displays all the items assigned to the pallet to permit verification prior to shipping. Both an Address label and Content label are produced and the system supports custom label formats.

The system provides full Multi-Warehouse support with inventory visibility of all warehouses. Both host driven and operator driven transfer requests are supported. Transfer orders are created by Ship To and then picked utilizing wireless RF picking. For “Two Way” transfers (between internal warehouses) the goods are placed In-transit when shipped and are received at the destination warehouse by scanning. Full inventory visibility includes the ability to see goods In-transit between warehouses.

The system was also built to automate Work Order manufacturing/assembly. Work Orders are picked in the same manner as other order types. A “Deliver To” location is assigned to each line item and once goods are scanned to the location they are consumed at actual. A Return to Stock function takes care of any goods returned from manufacturing and put back into inventory. Pick Detail provides full accountability for raw materials which have been consumed to produce the Work Order.

The Production Recording function records the quantity of goods produced against the Work Order and generates barcode labels for the items to be placed in inventory. Additional User Defined information; Lot Number, Machine Number, Operator ID, scrap, etc. can be collected. All production recording transactions can be uploaded to the host Shop Floor control module to update the status of the Work Order.

The system tracks and records Customer Returns. Items can be returned to stock with their original barcode label (if available) or a new label can be generated. Customer Account numbers, RMA numbers and other pertinent information may be collected. User defined Reason Codes are required.

Full support for real-time RF Cycle Counting is supported. Cycle Count frequency by bin/location is assigned by the user and maintained by the system. The supervisor is provided a detailed Cycle Count Error screen which shows the expected versus actual cycle count results. From this screen, he/she can determine whether to re-count the bin/location or reconcile the inventory. If the location is reconciled, the system will generate all appropriate host transactions to keep the warehouse management system and host system in synch.
 

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