Pick, Pack & Dispatch

Overview — Pick, Pack & Dispatch

The store fulfillment process includes picking, packing and dispatching fulfillments for click and collect and home delivery orders.

Concepts you'll encounter in this lesson:

• Fulfillment
• Home Delivery
• Click and Collect
• Wave
• Pick
• Pack
• Dispatch

The 'Store Fulfillment' module supports a Wave picking process to group orders together into waves for optimal picking by Store staff.

▶  Why use Waves to group orders for picking?  

Instead of picking each order individually, Waves helps facilitate the picking of order items from multiple orders (not one at a time) making picking more faster and efficient.  Optimal grouping of orders also helps to manage the demand of orders with the resources available at the time.

▶ Wave prioritization criteria prioritize fulfillments due to 'expiring soon' 

Waves can be created with a specified number of orders (fulfillments) and selected based on various criteria. The sample Location workflow prioritizes fulfillments that are due to expire soon to ensure that the order gets fulfilled by the location within the specified time limit. 

▶ What happens if the expiry time is reached before the store has allocated the fulfillment to a Wave?

If the expiry time is reached before the store has allocated the fulfillment to a wave for picking, the Order workflow would source a new fulfillment location for those items.

Selecting fulfillments for a wave can also be customized to support alternative criteria

Prioritise by delivery type - Pick by delivery type:

• A fulfillment from a Click & Collect (CC) order gets prioritized over the fulfillment from a Home Delivery (HD) order.

Pick by fastest delivery - Pick by the speed of delivery:

• A fulfillment with a 1-hour delivery is prioritized over express delivery 
• An express delivery is prioritized over standard delivery.

Prioritize grouping similar items:

• A large retailer with many different departments finds it more optimal to prioritize its Wave according to department type — cosmetics, shoes, lingerie etc.
• A luxury goods retailer prioritizes its Wave for VIP orders.

Once a Wave is created, a Store Assistant can begin picking.  We will discuss 'picking’ next.

Picking

Let's learn about how fulfillments are assigned to a store location for picking

As covered previously in the Order Orchestration course, fulfillments are assigned to various locations based on the sourcing logic in the Order workflow — that is, they are assigned to stores that show available stock at the time of assignment.    

Once a fulfillment is assigned to a store, that fulfillment shows up in that store's 'ORDERS AWAITING PICK' screen — the fulfillment is now ready to be assigned to a Wave for picking.

You'll now be taken through a journey of a Store Assistant completing Wave creation, Picking, Packing, and then preparing the order for dispatch.

First up, Wave creation

1 - Check for any incoming orders

In order for Jacob to check if any orders have come through, he opens the in-store web app,  'Fluent Store', and navigates to the 'Pick and Pack' dashboard.

There are two 'ORDERS AWAITING PICK':  

• Home Delivery, HD-1659588029
• Click and Collect, CC-1659588024

2 - Create a Wave

The fulfillment is now ready to be assigned to a Wave for picking.  Recall that Wave prioritization criteria prioritize fulfillments due to expire soon:

Expiry time (time remaining) to complete pick, patch, and dispatch:

• Home delivery, HD-1659588029, has a 3-hour window.
• Click and collect, CC-1659588024, has only a 1-hour window.

Therefore, the click-and-collect order takes priority due to the least time remaining.

Status updates:

• When the Store Associate creates the Wave, Order status will be updated to PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in ASSIGNED status.
• Inventory Quantity type will still be in RESERVED.

Let's proceed to the next step, Picking

A Picklist plays an important role during 'picking'

What is a Picklist?

A Picklist contains details of the items needing picking by the Store Assistant for a particular Wave, and registering the items' status as confirmed or rejected while carrying out the picking process.
Once all of the items have been picked and registered, they are taken to the location for packing.

Let's continue on Jacob's journey as he completes the Pick step

3 - View / Access Picklist

Jacob uses a mobile device to access the 'Pick' screen where he is able to view all of the items in the picklist — 3 items in total appear on the picklist:

• Women's Strynger Hoodie
• Men's Thunder Jacket
• Nike Trainers

4 - Pick screen

5 - Pick items

With his mobile in hand, Jacob picks each item located in the store making sure to register each item as either  'confirm' or 'reject' on the Picklist — all of the items are in stock so he is able to 'confirm' all of the items.

Once the items have been picked, Jacob takes the items to the packing location.

Status updates

• Once picking is complete on the order, Order status remains in PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in FULFILLED  status
• A new Inventory Quantity type SALE is created and will be in ACTIVE status. 
• Inventory quantity type RESERVED will be moved to INACTIVE status.

Alternative scenarios — In the Store journey above, you're shown a 'happy path' scenario. However, there are situations where this might not be the case

• What if an item on the picklist was no longer in stock?
• What if a defect was found in the Nike Trainers while performing the pick step and is now unsellable?
• What if one of the items on the picklist was sold off the shop floor before the order fulfillment could be completed?

A 'Short Pick' happens in scenarios where not all items are picked.  Click 'Continue' to learn more

Short Pick

During picking the Store Assistant should set the correct quantities for items picked and if not all items are picked, the Order workflow will source a new fulfillment location for the rejected items — Items that are successfully picked will continue through the current process.

Below, you are shown a Picklist scenario where there is '1 rejected item': 

Status updates

Once short-picking is complete on the order:

• Order status remains in PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in PARTIALLY_FULFILLED  stats.
• A new Inventory Quantity type SALE is created and will be in ACTIVE status.
• A new Inventory Quantity type CORRECTION will be created and will be in ACTIVE status. — this is for recording what has been short-picked.
• Inventory quantity type RESERVED will be moved to INACTIVE status.
• In the reference workflow, a new fulfillment will be created for the short picked item with status either ESCALATED (Rejected Location) or ASSIGN / AWAITING_WAVE (next available location).

Next up, Packing

Packing

Pack step begins after the Pick step is complete and involves packing items into parcels (articles) at the designated packing location

Packing slips are used to consolidate items into their respective orders

Once items are packed into their parcels (articles), the packing slip is placed inside of the parcel for the customer's reference.

Note: If there are any items 'rejected' for a specific order, it will be displayed under 'Pending Items' on the packing slip to inform the customer that those items are not included in that particular parcel.

'Packing' is completed via the 'Pack' screen

Status updates

• Once packing is complete, Order status remains in PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in FULFILLED  status
• A packing slip will be generated and the order is ready for dispatch. 

Next step, 'Prepare for Dispatch'

Prepare for Dispatch

Once the articles (or parcels) have been packed, the Store Assistant should prepare the parcels for dispatch

1- Preparation for dispatch varies depending on collection requirements

• Customer Collection In-store
• Customer's parcel is placed in the storage area.
• An email and text message is sent out to the customer confirming their order is ready for collection. 
• When the customer arrives to collect the item an ID check is carried out to confirm the customer's name, primary phone and email, and the article is marked as 'collected'.
• Wave is complete

Status updates

• Status of fulfillment while in the storage area waiting for collection: AWAITING_CUSTOMER_COLLECTION

Note: Once the status has moved to AWAITING_CUSTOMER_COLLECTION, it’s possible for Fluent Store to trigger a notification via email and SMS to the customer to inform the customer their item is ready for pickup

2- Preparation for dispatch varies depending on collection requirements

A Carrier Collection is needed in a situation where articles (parcels) are to be shipped to another location, such as:

• Home Delivery orders
• Store-to-store transfers

Carrier Collection 

• Order workflow may integrate with a carrier system to book a carrier and create a consignment.
• Once the carrier accepts the consignment request, consignment labels will become available.
  
• At this point labels can be downloaded and applied on the top of each parcel, then placed in the designated storage area ready for carrier collection.
• Wave is complete.

Status updates

• Once the carrier has acknowledged receiving the consignment details, Fulfillment Status changes to AWAITING_COURIER_COLLECTION
• Consignment Status: ACTIVE_LODGED
• Wave workflow can update the Wave status to Complete.
• Fulfillment has now moved to FULFILLED status — awaiting carrier to accept the request

Starting point workflow

• Picking orders are initiated by creating a wave. 
• Achieved by clicking on the CREATE WAVE user action.
• User action is available on the Dashboard page. 

Status updates

Confirmed Orders for which Fulfillments are created and are in AWAITING_WAVE, will be assigned to respective stores for processing.

• Once Create Wave step is complete:
  • When the Store Associate creates the Wave, the Order status will be updated to PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in ASSIGNED status.
  • Inventory Quantity type will still be in RESERVED status.
• Once Pick step is complete:
  • When the Store Associate completely picks the items on the order Order status remains in PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in FULFILLED  status.
  • Inventory Quantity type will move to SALE and will be in ACTIVE status. 
  • Inventory quantity type RESERVED will be moved to INACTIVE status.
• Once Pack step is complete:
  • When the Store Associate packs the order, Order status remains in PICK_PACK and respective fulfillments will be in FULFILLED status.
  • Inventory Quantity type will move to SALE and will be in ACTIVE status. 
  • Inventory quantity type RESERVED will be moved to INACTIVE status. 
  • Packing slip will be generated and the order is ready to dispatch. 
• Once the order items are packed and the Store Associate clicks on BOOK Courier,  if the order type is:
  • Click and Collect (CC), the Parcel (or Article) will be moved to the pick-up storage area.
  • Home Delivery (HD), the parcel (or Article) will be moved to the courier collection storage area.