Static Structure
- Bart Friederichs
Introduction
The static structure describes all objects in the system that do not change during day-to-day operation. This includes:
warehouses
zones
locations
articles (note this is not the same as items or stock)
carrier types
All these objects can be managed in the Client using the Management menu. You have to be a user of the Administrator level to change these.
Physical Warehouse Structure
Warehouses, zones and locations define the physical structure of the warehouse. A warehouse consists of zones, and zones consist of locations. Locations cannot belong to multiple zones, as this would be physically impossible (at least in our Newtonian world). Use Categories to structure locations and articles in a logical way, as locations can belong to zero or more free-formed categories.
Locations
Locations are defined by aisle-rack-plank-section. Those are free to form, but the location's label is derived from these four properties by using the location_format. So it is strongly advised to structure them such, that each separate property at least has the same length. See also Location Labels
Articles
An article is a stock keeping unit (SKU). It is important to make the distinction between articles and items. A quick explanation can be that when your warehouse is physically empty, you do not have items, but you still can have articles. As such, articles is where all properties of your products are stored, like barcode, dimensions, packing variants, etc.
Important properties:
Article number. This number doesn’t need to be unique, but it is advised to have it unique on the article level. Even better is to have a unique number for each pack.
One or more barcodes. This is not mandatory, but if you want to use barcode scanning, this is advised.
Dimensions and weight. These can be used to calculate fill in carriers, or locations.
Categories . This controls where the items of this article will be stored in the warehouse.
Carrier Types
In addition to articles, you can define carrier types. Using the client, you can define the label pattern. Dimensions and other important properties can be defined in the database.