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Sage 100 Directed Picking for your Warehouse

June 4, 2020 by Darcy Boerio

Is your warehouse staff wasting time wandering the aisles of your warehouse picking items haphazardly? Could you increase productivity and speed up fulfillment if orders were picked in a more deliberate manner?

One solution to this is ScanForce Directed Picking for Sage 100, which is available for users of ScanForce WMS Advanced and Premium.

The concept of Directed Picking is to tell a user on their mobile device where to go within the warehouse to pick the goods and what to get. The device guides the user through the most efficient path based on item locations.

In this recording from ScanForce, join Steve Showalter as he walks you through the process.

This feature works with and without multi-bin. In the demo shown, Steve is referencing a bin location, so in a non multi-bin install this is going to look to the standard bin locations that are set up in Sage 100 inventory item maintenance.

How it works

This demonstration uses the DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin which leverages the allocation methods back in the multi-bin solution, so it assigns a bin location based on a certain set of rules available within multi-bin.

This allocation can occur automatically at several points. It can also be done manually back at the order level, so what you’ll see is simply an emulation of the mobile screen as is available on iOS and Android devices.

For this video, you’ll see the picking transaction, however the Directed Picking side carries through to the one-step Sage 100 Sales Order shipping if you’re not doing a staging of a Sales Order.

When the user launches Sage 100 Sales Order Picking on the mobile device, ScanForce will prompt for the Sage 100 Sales Order number. From here, the user can scan the order from a picking sheet, key it in, or do a lookup that connects in real-time to the Sage 100 accounting system displaying all available orders.

When the order has been selected, the device will connect up real-time and grab the information from Sage 100, placing it locally on the device. The user can then go stage this order with Multi-Bin by indicating a bin location. Sage can be set to default to a shipping bin, a staging bin, or any bin you’d like.

ScanForce Directed Picking takes over, and the display shows the user where to go and what to get – sorted by bin location as well.

Even though an item may be the first line on the sales order, ScanForce Directed Picking will direct the user to go to a different bin first to get a closer item because it’s sorting by bin locations. This means they’re not going all over the warehouse back and forth again, it’s a Directed Pick.

This also works with lot and serialized inventory type items. ScanForce Directed Picking will direct the user where to get these lot/serial numbers.

The ScanForce Directed Picking concept is to tell the person where to go using the most efficient route possible so they can quickly and easily pick or ship that Sage Sales Order.

How To Handle Warehouse Transfers in Sage 100cloud

March 6, 2020 by Wayne Schulz

Working in a storage. Placing cardboard boxes on a pile. Man with a white hard hat holding a carton box in a warehouse.

A question was raised recently by one of our Sage 100cloud distribution customers. They planned to open a new warehouse in another state and need a way to transfer inventory between the warehouses while still maintaining the visibility of on-hand available quantities.

Since this particular customer is not yet integrated with warehouse management software we will first investigate a series of manual processes using Sage 100cloud inventory transaction entry.

To start we plan to add at least two user-defined fields. The first, Tracking #, will allow inventory staff to monitor the progress of the shipment.

The second field, Final WHSE, will allow us to automate the transfer once it has been received at the final warehouse. For large orders, we don’t want staff manually entering another transaction so we plan to export out the original transaction entry and use the Final WHSE UDF to create another entry using Sage 100cloud Visual Integrator.

We expect that this use of Custom Office plus Visual Integrator may allow us to temporarily avoid a more custom solution until the volume grows to the point where this manual process is no longer feasible.

Once we outgrow the manual process we expect to implement a more automated system such as one that ScanForce offers.

ScanForce Warehouse Management To Automate Transfers

In anticipation of eventually needing to further automate this transfer task, I asked ScanForce who produces a popular line of WMS ( Warehouse Management Solutions ) for Sage 100 which makes use of both wired and wireless bar code scanners to highly automate these types of processes.

Transfer Request From Sales Order – ScanForce Lite

Create Sales Order in Sage for the items requesting to be transferred (create a customer like INTERNAL TRANSFER to distinguish this as a transfer from real sales orders)
The ScanForce mobile program will prompt the user for the “FROM” and “TO” warehouses
User will enter the sales order number of the transfer request. The program will do a live lookup to pull the items and quantities on the order.
User scans/enters items as they are being picked. The entry is validated to ensure the item is on the order.
User enters the quantity. The entry is validated to ensure it is not greater than what is on the order.
Upon data transfer from the scanner to Sage, a Transfer transaction is created moving the items and quantities from one warehouse to the other.
The transfer sales order must be manually managed/deleted in Sage upon completion of the transfer.

To use a Quote instead of a Sales Order – 3 custom programming hours

Transfer Request From Sales Order – ScanForce Plus

Same concepts as Lite with the following variations:

Checkbox is added to Sales Order Entry in Sage to indicate the order is for a Transfer request
The ScanForce mobile program will have an option to only display during the Pick process orders that have the Transfer request Checkbox checked for more efficient processing.
The “TO” warehouse code is indicated upon entry of the Sales Order in Sage.
The “FROM” warehouse is pulled from the line items on the order. This eliminates the need for the scanner user to select the TO and FROM warehouses.
The mobile program will compare the picked quantity with the order quantity to determine if the transfer has been completed. If so, a COMPLETE status will be set for the order.
OPTION – Orders that are COMPLETE will be automatically deleted in Sage upon data transfer from the scanner. This eliminates the need to manually delete the order in Sage.
If this auto-delete option is disabled, the Sage user will be warned if they try to delete an incomplete order.
If using our Advanced or Premium version, bin locations will be displayed to provide a Directed Pick making the pick process more efficient.
To use a Quote instead of a Sales Order –5 custom programming hours

There are probably another half-dozen variations on this workflow that could be implemented depending upon the complexity of your inventory transfer requirements.

This type of transfer is typically not needed if you are using virtual warehouses within the same building or in a location where you can easily carry inventory from one warehouse to another.

If you have questions on how Sage 100cloud might be better tailored to handle your company’s requirements please contact us here.

Watch: Sage Production Management Automation by ScanForce, with Sage’s Timothy Harfield

February 10, 2020 by Darcy Boerio

ScanForce recently made big news in the Sage 100cloud world when they hosted a webinar to introduce their new set of tools to automate Sage Production Management.

Since Sage Production Management is new to many in the Sage 100cloud community, having only been released in 2019, Timothy Harfield, head of Product Marketing for Sage 100cloud, made a guest appearance. He gave an overview of how Production Management gives manufacturers visibility into the entire production process and lets them increase agility by tracking costs in real-time.

A “Tremendous Accomplishment”

Harfield also commended ScanForce on their achievements in rapidly developing integrations to Production Management, including compatibility of DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin, which he referred to as a “tremendous accomplishment”.

What’s so tremendous about it? While Production Management is written in a more modern architecture than its predecessor, making it easier for third party developers to integrate with, ScanForce faced the challenge of not having access to the source code due to arrangements that Sage made with the company who was contracted to write the module. While lack of access to source code made writing the integration that much more difficult, their in-house development team was able to make it happen thanks to ScanForce’s modern architecture.

“Choice is good”

Choice is good. It’s really important for growing businesses that they have the flexibility they need to remain agile in the face of constant change. And we don’t want to hobble our customers as they work to make the technology investment decisions that are right for them.

– Timothy Harfield, Product Marketing, Sage 100cloud

While Sage Production Management is a feature rich offering that will meet many of the core needs of manufacturers using Sage 100cloud, it does not inherently include multi-bin management or barcode scanning. Rather than restrict users to certain providers of these solutions, Sage encourages collaboration with partners like ScanForce to provide options for users to implement the right tool set. Harfield continues:

I’m thrilled by their accomplishment as a testament to the values of trust, customizability, and connectedness that we embed into everything we do in Sage 100cloud.

ScanForce Knows Manufacturing

After the opening remarks by Harfield, ScanForce’s Director of Sales, Steve Showalter, gave a little background on the company and their manufacturing suite, which includes Bill of Materials Production Entry, Work Order Automation, and of course the new Production Management Automation.

He also showed a slide showing a list of well-known brands whose products are made using ScanForce’s Manufacturing tools.

Demo Time!

After setting the stage, Showalter did a live demonstration of the ScanForce solution, including data capture on the mobile device and the flow of data into Sage 100cloud.

Ready to watch? See it all here!

ScanForce Announces Production Management Automation

January 22, 2020 by Darcy Boerio

The release of Sage Production Management made big headlines in the Sage 100 community in 2019. Replacing several legacy applications – Work Order and MRP – the new module is written in the “framework” essentially meaning that it has more modern technology that is consistent with much of the rest of Sage 100cloud.

Here’s a helpful reference for more about Production Management itself:

Sage 100 Work Order vs Production Management

Manufacturing is a big vertical for Sage 100, with many Sage 100 partners reporting an uptick in adoption of Sage 100 as a whole by manufacturers in 2019. For new Sage 100cloud adopters, this is a no-brainer. They won’t have an option to use the legacy WO and MRP.

But for existing Sage 100cloud customers, they need to decide when the time is right for them to switch over (they’ll all have to make the move eventually). Adoption by this group has been slow by all accounts, which is not uncommon when people are being asked to leave what they know for something new that hasn’t been on the market long enough to garner proven success. Naturally people want others to be the “guinea pigs” and identify holes in the solution that the publisher can repair before they jump into the fray.

One such hole was the lack of an integration to ScanForce’s mobile barcode scanning technology. Users of Work Order and MRP were previously able to use mobile barcode scanning devices by ScanForce to automate actions like capturing material issues and completions as well as Labor Tracking. Only after the release was ScanForce able to access the functionality in order to develop their integration to Production Management.

Another problem that needed to be resolved after the initial release was that it didn’t initially integrate with DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin, which is included out-of-the box for free with every license of Sage 100cloud. So if you were using the free multi-bin tool that comes with Sage and you wanted to move to Production Management, you would need to adopt a different multi-bin tool or forego multi-bin functionality in the PM process.

Fortunately, both of these issues have been resolved! In December, 2019, ScanForce announced compatibility between Production Management and DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin. And today they’ve announced the February 1 general availability of the integration of their barcode scanning technology with Production Management.

You can read more about the solution on the ScanForce blog and/or join them for a live webinar:

Keep an eye on Wayne’s blog as things develop – you know he’ll give you the scoop!

How to enable Sage 100 wave picking and wave receiving in your warehouse

August 28, 2019 by Darcy Boerio

Warehouses aren’t for storing inventory, they’re for moving inventory.

Efficient warehouses will find the fastest path to keep inventory flowing. There are a number of different strategies to accomplish this, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some of the commonly used procedures include split picking, bin allocations for direct picking, zone picking, and of course, the topic of this article, which is wave picking/receiving.

Wave picking and receiving are processes that pre-determine the way you move throughout the warehouse to maximize productivity. Items for multiple orders are picked in one pass, minimizing pickers’ “footprints” and keeping inventory on the move.

Let’s break down the two sides to the wave concept. You may find that both are options that could streamline your operations, or perhaps just one or the other. Every warehouse is different.

Wave Receiving

Waves allow you to group multiple POs together to receive by item. For example, if you receive a large shipment that has multiple items for multiple POs, there’s no need to sort items by purchase order before recording receipts. Simply scan the items in, and they’ll be allocated to the appropriate PO.

Related and based on the wave receiving concept is ScanForce’s new Container Receipt Management (CRM) offering, which is the answer to efficiently receiving items from multiple POs that all arrive together unsorted in a single container. CRM allows you to receive items in a container while it’s still in transit, then verify contents once it arrives, as well as track container details such as container ID numbers and other shipment related info.

Wave Picking

For Picking, waves allow you to pick multiple orders at one time using the most efficient path through the warehouse. With wave picking, your picking order is sorted by bin location rather than SO. This lets you walk the warehouse ONE TIME, rather than duplicating efforts and making multiple trips to the same locations.

A simple analogy for wave picking involves going grocery shopping armed with a shopping list. If your list is in alphabetical order, you will end up going back and forth through aisles, hitting some aisles multiple times. You might go to the produce section for bananas, then over to the meat department for chicken, then back to product for grapes. And so on. Not very efficient!

Scanforce integrated to Sage 100cloud enableds improved wholesale, logistic, loading, shipment and processing within your warehouse

But if your list is sorted by aisle, and the aisles are sorted in location order on your list, you’ll achieve a seamless single path through the store and be on your way!

Read more on this concept here: A Warehouse Nightmare

Fully integrated with Sage 100 / Sage 100cloud

As with all ScanForce solutions, wave picking and receiving in ScanForce are seamlessly integrated with Sage 100, including Sage 100cloud Multi-Bin Basic if you have items in multiple bin locations. Information about quantities picked and received populate the inventory records in Sage for full visibility into whats been picked or received.

Want to learn more? Watch this 20-minute recorded webinar, and we’ll explain what wave picking/receiving is, and what types of warehouse operations can benefit from it. And we’ll show you how easy it is to implement in ScanForce and Sage 100.

Watch “Ride the Warehouse Wave: Wave Picking and Receiving for Sage 100

ScanForce Warehouse Management To Automate Transfers

Transfer Request From Sales Order – ScanForce Lite

Transfer Request From Sales Order – ScanForce Plus

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