Storage Location Structure

One document per warehouse. You describe the warehouse in a few lines, such as aisles 1 to 3, racks 1 to 2, shelves 1 to 4, and Save builds one storage location for every combination. Those storage locations are what stock lines, the picking list and the warehouse map refer to.

Where

Warehouse Management › Temp › Storage Location Structure

Who uses it

The implementation consultant, or the warehouse manager

When

When a warehouse is set up, and again whenever bins are added

Needs first

The warehouse itself, set up on Warehouse in Inventory. Optionally a Storage indicator and a Storage Area

What it is for

A warehouse in Businessflo is a place that holds stock. Inside it, stock can also be kept by storage location: the exact bin it sits in. This screen is where a warehouse's storage locations are listed.

Typing hundreds of bin codes by hand is slow and error-prone. So the screen has two tabs below the header. On Structure you say how the warehouse is built: which levels it has (Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Bin), and the range of numbers on each level. On Location Detail Save then lists every storage location that structure makes, one line each.

The one rule people get wrong

Save only ever adds storage locations. It never removes one, because stock may already sit in it. If you shrink a range, the locations outside the new range stay on Location Detail. A location that already exists keeps its own Capacity and On Hold.

One warehouse has one Storage Location Structure per company. A second document for the same warehouse is refused.

Every field in plain words

Header, General tab

Field	What it means	What to put
Warehouse	The warehouse this structure describes	Pick the warehouse. Required. One document per warehouse
Warehouse prefix	Text put in front of every generated location code	A short code such as W1-, or empty. It counts toward the 15-character limit of a location code
Storage indicator	A classification of the warehouse	Pick one from Storage indicator, or leave empty. Recorded only: nothing in the system acts on it today
Storage Area	The area the warehouse belongs to	Pick one from Storage Area, or leave empty. Recorded only: nothing in the system acts on it today
Receiving Side	The side of the warehouse where goods come in	Pick a side. The warehouse map draws the receiving door there. Empty means the top edge
Dispatch Side	The side where goods go out	Pick a side. The map draws the dispatch door there. Empty means the bottom edge
Capacity	The capacity each new storage location starts with	A number in the same unit as the stock you keep, such as 100. Copied onto each location Save creates. Existing locations keep their own

Each side field has a code and a name beside it. Pick from the name; the code fills in by itself.

Structure tab: how the warehouse is built

One line per level of the warehouse. Lines can be in any order.

Field	What it means	What to put
Line #	The line number	Fills in by itself
Structures	Which level this line describes	Aisle, Rack, Shelf or Bin. Required. Only the first letter is read, so A, R, S and B work too. Each level at most once
Prefix	Text in front of the number on this level	A for aisles, R for racks, or empty
Sufix	Text after the number on this level	Usually empty
Start Value	The first number on this level	1
End Value	The last number on this level	3 for three aisles. It cannot be less than Start Value
Increment	The step between two numbers	1, or 2 to number one side of an aisle only. Empty or 0 counts as 1
Weight, Weight Unit, length, Width, height, Volume	The size and load of a place on this level	Recorded only. Nothing in the system reads them today

Location Detail tab: the storage locations

One line per storage location. Save fills this tab from the Structure tab. You can also add a line by hand, and it is kept.

Field	What it means	What to put
Line #	The line number	Fills in by itself
Storage Location	The location's code, as people will type and scan it	Built by Save, such as W1-A01-R02-S03. Required on a line you add by hand
Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Bin	The parts the code was built from	Filled by Save. The warehouse map places the location by these, so fill them on a line you add by hand
Capacity	How much the location holds	Starts at the header's Capacity. Change it per location if bins differ. Used only by the warehouse map to show how full the bin is
On Hold	The location is not to be used for now	Tick it. The map shows it as On hold and leaves it out of the space-used figure. Stock movements are not stopped by it
Hold Reason	Why it is on hold	Free text, such as Racking damaged. Shown on the map

How a location code is built

Save takes the Structure lines in the order Aisle, Rack, Shelf, Bin, whatever order you typed them in, and makes every combination of their numbers.

• Each part is the line's Prefix, then the number, then the line's Sufix.
• The number is padded with zeros to at least two digits, or to the number of digits in End Value if that is more. End Value 9 gives 01 to 09; End Value 120 gives 001 to 120.
• The parts are joined with a dash, and the Warehouse prefix goes in front.

Structure line	Prefix	Start	End	Increment
Aisle	A	1	3	1
Rack	R	1	2	1
Shelf	S	1	4	1

With Warehouse prefix W1-, Save builds 3 x 2 x 4 = 24 storage locations, from W1-A01-R01-S01 to W1-A03-R02-S04.

Two limits apply. A code longer than 15 characters is refused, and one warehouse cannot be given more than 20,000 locations from its structure. Shorten the prefixes, or split a very large warehouse into two warehouses.

How to configure it

1. Create the document and pick the Warehouse.
2. Type a short Warehouse prefix if location codes must tell warehouses apart, for example when several warehouses share one site.
3. Set Capacity to what a typical bin holds, and pick the Receiving Side and Dispatch Side if the warehouse map is used.
4. On Structure, add one line per level the warehouse really has. A floor-stacked warehouse may need only Aisle and Bin.
5. Save. Open Location Detail and check the codes and the count.
6. Change Capacity on bins that differ, and tick On Hold on any bin not in use. Save again.

The two lists picked on the header, Storage Area and Storage indicator, are optional. The third small list of the module, Location Structure, is not used on this screen.

Scenarios

• A distributor with racked aisles. Three aisles, two racks per aisle, four shelves per rack: three Structure lines as in the example above. Save gives 24 locations.
• A cold store with numbered bays only. One Structure line, Bin, prefix BAY, 1 to 40. Save gives BAY01 to BAY40, with the Warehouse prefix in front if one is set.
• The warehouse grows. Raise End Value on the Aisle line from 3 to 5 and Save. The 16 new locations for aisles 4 and 5 are added. The first 24 are left exactly as they were, with their capacity and hold.
• A bin is damaged. Tick On Hold on its line, write the reason, Save. The map shows it as on hold. Tell the storemen: nothing stops a stock movement into it.

What it is connected to

• The warehouse (Warehouse) is what this document describes. Only a warehouse of the company you are logged in to can be picked.
• Storage Structure on the item (Storage Structure) decides whether an item's stock lines must name a storage location at all. With Location Required, a stock movement line without one is refused.
• Picking List Registration (Picking List Registration) offers, on each line, the storage locations of that line's warehouse from this screen.
• Stock movement lines carry the storage location as a typed code. They are not checked against this list.
• The warehouse map reads this screen to draw the warehouse.

The warehouse map

The Warehouse Map list in Inventory draws every warehouse that has a Storage Location Structure as a floor plan: the receiving and dispatch doors, the aisles, the racks on either side, and each bin coloured by how full it is (Empty, up to 25, 50 or 75 percent, over 75 percent, On hold). How full is the stock in the bin against the bin's Capacity. Picking a bin shows what it holds: item, batch, expiry, quantity and unit. Tiles beside the legend count Locations, Occupied, Empty and On hold, and show Space used and Items.

The stock in a bin is the stock that movements have recorded against that storage location code. A location no movement has used shows empty. Scanning a batch label anywhere a screen does not take scans opens the map on the bin that holds the batch. See Find where a batch sits.

If something looks wrong

• "Warehouse Cannot be Duplicate" - the warehouse already has a Storage Location Structure in this company. Open that one and change it.
• "Structure must be Aisle, Rack, Shelf or Bin" followed by what you typed - the Structures value does not start with A, R, S or B. Type one of the four words.
• "Structure is repeated" - two Structure lines start with the same letter. Keep one line per level.
• "End Value cannot be less than Start Value" - swap the two numbers on that line.
• "The structure makes more than 20,000 locations in one warehouse" - the ranges multiply to more than 20,000. Narrow a range or use a larger Increment.
• "Location ... is longer than 15 characters; shorten the prefixes" - the Warehouse prefix plus the parts make too long a code. Shorten the Warehouse prefix or the line prefixes.
• I shrank a range and the old bins are still there. Save never removes a location. Delete the lines you no longer need on Location Detail yourself, once you are sure no stock is in them.
• The Warehouse lookup on a new document does not show my warehouse. Only warehouses of the company you are logged in to are offered. Create the warehouse in Inventory first.
• A bin on hold still receives stock. On Hold is shown on the map only. It does not refuse a movement.