Web/HHT- Pigeon Hole and Sorting bay/station

Web/HHT- Pigeon Hole and Sorting bay/station

Software Plan : Growth & Enterprise
Account Type : Seller Account & Aggregator 3PL
Inventory Type : Serialized & Non-Serialized

Feature Description

Pigeon hole : It is a small movable bin with bin id which can contain items. One pigeon hole contains one order and thus it is used for multi-item orders only. If a single item order is found it can be directly given to packer for packing.

People involved in this process

  1. Picker : Picks the items from WH bins and hands over to sorter for sorting into the pigeon holes.
  2. Sorter : A sorter sorts the picked items by order into pigeon holes
  3. Pigeon hole picker : He/She picks the filled pigeon holes and takes them to packing station & empty pigeon holes from packing station back to pigeon hole bay.
  4. Packer : A packer accepts pigeon holes and packs the items
Notes

Use Case

Scenario:
 An eCommerce seller receives hundreds of orders every day, with a mix of single-item and multi-item orders. To ensure smooth operations in the warehouse and reduce packing errors, the seller implements a pigeon hole system.

How it Works:

  1. Picking Phase:
     A picker is assigned to pick items from various warehouse (WH) bins based on the order list. Once picked, these items are handed over to the sorter.

  2. Sorting Phase:
     The sorter places the items into pigeon holes, ensuring each pigeon hole contains items from only one order. This process is especially useful for multi-item orders, ensuring all items of the same order stay together.

  3. Direct Packing for Single-Item Orders:
     Any single-item order identified during the sorting process is directly handed over to the packer without using a pigeon hole, saving time and space.

  4. Pigeon Hole Movement:
     Once a pigeon hole is completely filled (i.e., all items of a particular order are sorted into it), the pigeon hole picker carries it to the packing station. At the same time, they collect empty pigeon holes from the packing station and return them to the pigeon hole bay for reuse.

  5. Packing Phase:
     The packer receives filled pigeon holes, unpacks the items, verifies the order, and proceeds with packing and labeling for shipment.

Workflow

  1. Picker brings in a basket of picks to the sorting bay.

  2. Sorter picks items from this basket and scans the items.

  3. Sorter puts the item in a pigeon hole

  4. System suggests a pigeon hole to the sorter now onwards so as to put the item to the directed pigeon hole.

  5. Sorter puts the item in the pigeon hole and scans the pigeon hole barcode in order to let the system know that the pigeon hole putaway has been done.

  6. Pigeon hole picker picks the filled pigeon holes and gives to packing station.

  7. Packer receives all the items from the completed/filled pigeon hole and scans the pigeon hole.

  8. System generates the invoices and labels for the scanned pigeon hole.





Pigeon hole configuration

Done from Bin Master






Sorting(PH putaway)



Pigeon Hole Picking

  1. Showing list of all Picklist Batches which have atleast 1 pigeon holes is in Filled status.
  2. When entered inside, you see all pigeon holes associated with this batch.

  3. Enter inside to pick the pigeon hole

  4. Scan PH again to confirm the pick

  5. PH statuses : a) Empty b)Partially Filled c) Filled d) Picked

  6. ‘Not picked' and 'Picked PH’ data is the truth and will not change depending on realtime data.