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Warehouse route

The Warehouse route page provides you with a visual 2D warehouse designer and a picking route generator. With its help you draw to scale the placement of the racks in a zone, you define the locations on the racks and you let the system calculate the optimal order in which operators must traverse the locations during picking, in order to reduce the walking distance.

The calculated route is applied automatically as the picking order on the locations in the zone, so the existing picking flow will use this order without additional settings.

Info

This page is available to users with warehouse administration rights. If you do not see it in the Company settings menu, your account does not have the required permission.

How the page is organized

  • Warehouse - select the warehouse you are working for.
  • Zone - select the zone in the warehouse. Each zone has its own 2D plan and its own route.
  • Working canvas - the surface on which you draw the warehouse: the grid-type background, the starting point (the dock / shipping area) and the racks.
  • Racks panel - the list of racks and the form for adding a new rack.
  • Coding scheme - the rules by which the location codes are generated (rack, column, level).
  • Optimization strategy - the method of calculating the route.

Step 1 - choose the warehouse and the zone

Select in turn the Warehouse and the Zone. The system loads the plan previously saved for that zone or, if there is not yet a plan, it shows you an empty canvas.

Info

If the list of zones is empty, define the zones first here: Zones.

Step 2 - build the warehouse plan

You have two ways to start:

  • New warehouse - fill in the warehouse dimensions (length and width, in meters). The system creates the canvas and positions the starting point (the dock). Then you add the racks manually.
  • Import from existing locations - if the zone already has locations defined in the system, you can start from their structure: the application detects the racks (columns and levels) and places them on the canvas, and you then adjust their position.

To add a rack, fill in the racks panel its dimensions (length, width), the number of columns and of levels and the orientation (horizontal or vertical). The racks can be moved and resized directly on the canvas, and the starting point can be repositioned according to the actual placement in the warehouse.

Step 3 - configure the locations and the coding

A double-click on a rack opens its detail, where you see the columns x levels matrix of the rack. Here you can allocate the location codes and you can set the filling order (by column or by level).

The coding scheme sets how the code of each location is automatically built from the available segments (rack, column, level) and the separators between them. The missing locations in the zone are created automatically by the system when you save the plan.

Step 4 - generate the picking route

Choose an optimization strategy:

  • Optimal - calculates the shortest possible route. Recommended for the best result.
  • Zigzag - traverses the aisles alternating the direction from one row to another. Fast.
  • Snake - traverses the aisles in a snake pattern, from one end to the other. Fast.

Press Show route to calculate and display the route. The distances are calculated on the actual walking aisles (going around the racks), not in a straight line. On the canvas appear:

  • the route as a continuous line, from the starting point through all the locations and back;
  • the numbering of the order in which the locations are visited;
  • any locations that cannot be reached (blocked by racks), signaled separately.

You can play back the route as an animation and you can open the list of locations in the calculated order.

Step 5 - save and activate

Press Save. The system validates the plan, saves it and recalculates the picking order for the locations in the zone. At the end you receive the confirmation that the locations and the picking order have been updated.

From this moment, the picking flow uses the generated order: operators traverse the locations in the optimal sequence, reducing the walking distance. You can return to the page at any time to change the plan and regenerate the route.