A bulk pick is a single pick that satisfies multiple order or work order lines for which the inventory would otherwise have been picked separately.
Bulk pick processing allocates matching inventory for multiple order or work order lines together into larger unit of measure (UOM) picks to reduce the number of smaller UOM picks required to satisfy the orders. For the application to allocate bulk picks, the order or work order lines must have the same item and item footprint, as well as identical values for any other order, work order, shipment, or customer attributes that you specify.
For example, assume that three different orders are planned into multiple shipments, but the inventory needed to satisfy those orders are identical. If each order required 5 cases and 15 cases made up a pallet, then instead of allocating the shipments separately and creating multiple case picks, using bulk picking, the application would allocate the shipment lines together to create a single pallet pick. Once the pallet pick is complete, an operator breaks down the pallet and deposits each shipment quantity to a specified location.
However, if necessary you can disable bulk pick processing at the time of allocation. For example, assume that 20 cases from multiple shipments are eligible to be combined into a single pallet bulk pick, which the application would process upon allocating the shipments, prior to completing allocation you identify you won’t be able to satisfy the orders/work orders for the multiple shipments. Instead of allocating the inventory as a bulk pick and waiting for the work to be completed in the pallet location, you can disable bulk picking during shipping allocation or during work order processing, so the order or work order lines are allocated separately and can be immediately picked as cases in the case pick area. |
