Solved

Wharehouse: Storage Optimization - what does it do?

  • 10 July 2021
  • 8 replies
  • 426 views

Userlevel 5
Badge +9
  • Sidekick (Employee)
  • 50 replies

Hi,

IFS has a menu called “Storage Optimization”

  • Warehouse Management>Part Handling>Storage Optimization

Does any one know know what’s functionality it offer? any documentation of it?

icon

Best answer by Thushitha Chandrasiri 11 July 2021, 14:38

View original

This topic has been closed for comments

8 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Hi @Shou ,

Once the storage optimization is performed for a site, transport tasks are created for inventory movements of parts, to better optimize the selected or all locations in the site. It considers the capacity, conditions and capabilities of both the parts and the locations, and if there are better locations which very much fit with the capacity, conditions and capabilities of the those with parts (which are defined as the storage requirements in the part records), this activity would create transport task to move the parts from the existing inventory locations to the locations which are best fit for them within the site. Putaway ranking defined for the part is also considered to rank them best fit locations.

You can find what storage optimization does briefly in the below IFS help documentation description.

https://docs.ifs.com/ifsclouddocs/default.htm?openpage=https://docs.ifs.com/ifsclouddocs/MaintainInventory/ActivityInventStorageOptimization.htm

And, before that you may need to understand what Inventory Putaway does, because the storage optimization is actually doing inventory putaway. You can find a detailed explanation on Inventory Putaway from the below IFS documentation section.

https://docs.ifs.com/ifsclouddocs/default.htm?openpage=https://docs.ifs.com/ifsclouddocs/MaintainInventory/AboutInventoryPutaway.htm

 

Thanks,

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Very useful piece of info @ThushAsanka , thank you. Thank You @Shou for asking the question too. I am already thinking of starting the use of Puaway Zones in our warehouse. Looks like setting the basic data first in Inventory Parts, Locations, HUs and Putaway Zones in IFS will take a significant amount of time, nevertheless the process will be optimized. For instance when the Transport Tasks are created and the automatic receipts happen, I believe then the warehouse staff can physically move the inventory to the suggested location in IFS. (Please correct me if I am wrong) 

 

I am thinking of starting small though - maybe start using ‘Storage Zones’ in IFS to help with the upcoming annual counting across all our warehouses. The goal is to do a random counting and generalize it to all locations. Do you have any advise on the use of storage zones and generalizing the random count results in IFS? (Not sure what it’s called in IFS terminology though :D ) 

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Hi @EnzoFerrari ,

Once the storage optimization is run, transport tasks are created, but the receipts are not automatically happened. Transport tasks should be executed by the transport users, and then the inventory movements happen.

I’m not getting exactly about random counting and generalizing the count results to other locations.

But, when you create storage zones, you can add warehouses to each storage zones, so that you can do the counting for a specific storage zone, so the count report is generated for all the warehouses/locations in that storage zones.

 

Thanks,

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Random Counting - I actually meant that looking for a smarter way of counting with IFS where we can generalize, let’s say, the count of a certain bay across all bays. 

 

Do you think it’s smart or rather a stupid idea? :) 

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

@EnzoFerrari , I think it’s a smarter idea, but I’m struggling on how we can achieve it in IFS. 😊

 

Thanks,

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

@ThushAsanka, I think I found the thread I was looking for :) 

 

 

Thanks alot for your help. ‘Counting best practices’ should have been the term I should have used actually. You are more than welcome to suggest any :) I am currently trying to follow flexible reservations, Pick by choice and Remote Warehouse functionalities. Not sure if that’s alot, but need to cover them within the week to help my warehouse colleague. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Hi @EnzoFerrari,

Yes, cycle counting would be a good idea. So, that you can define in which time intervals, which parts should have been automatically counted cyclically. The time interval for the cycle counting in each inventory part would be based on the historical data or value of the item. (Inventory value, number of transactions etc.)

You can enable an inventory part for cycle counting by checking the check box “Cycle Counting” in the Inventory Part record, and specify a cycle interval for the counting.

 

Thanks,

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

@ThushAsanka Thank You sir :pray: