Bulk Fulfill Orders

Bulk Fulfill Orders(BFOs) are used to pick and process multiple orders that contain the same Shipment Items. This is particularly helpful if a Merchant often has multiple orders containing the same items. Since all the Shipments in a BFO have the same items and quantities, this feature allows picking and packing optimizations to help the user quickly pick and process a large number of similar orders.

Common Use Cases:

• A merchant's customers often order the exact same items and quantities.
• A merchant allows multiple shipments and a common grouping of items occurs for multiple shipments.
• A merchant has limited SKUs but has a high volume of orders.
• Fulfilling large bulky SKUs that have to ship separately.
• SKUs that ship in their manufacturer's packaging (i.e.: The SKU just needs a shipping label added to fulfill).

Create a new Bulk Fulfill Order(BFO):

The BFO creation page has two primary areas.

• The upper section contains Filter and Grouping options.
• The lower section is a grid that displays the possible BFOs that can be created after applying the filters and grouping. This area shows the Shipment Combinations.
• After making Filter and Grouping changes click "Apply" in the upper right to see the changes reflected in the Shipment Combinations.

Filter By:

The Filter By section contains various options to refine the Shipment Combinations that can be processed in a BFO.

Picking Class

Filter the BFO application to only show Orders assigned to a specific Picking Class.

Merchant/Brand

Filter the BFO application to only show Orders to a specific Merchant or Brand.

Excludes Shipping Region

Filter out all orders with a specific shipping region in the United States.

Include Future Target Ship Dates

Specify if future Target Ship Dates should be included during the assessment.

Group By:

Grouping adds additional columns to the Shipment Combination grid. These columns can break the Shipment Combinations into smaller groups allowing for different potential BFOs (e.g.: Grouping by Shipping Method would separate what may normally be one group of Shipments into separate groups according to their assigned Shipping Method).

Orders can be grouped by:

• Picking Class
• Overbox
• Carrier
• Shipping Method
• Batch Tag

  

Shipment Combination Results:

The lower section contains a grid to display the Shipment Item combinations that match the filtering and grouping parameters. Each row displays a group of Shipments that are Ready to Ship and contain the same Shipment Items and quantities.

Actions:

There are several actions that can be performed on a Shipment Combination.

1. Click on a Shipment Combination to dig into the details.
   1. This opens a new view containing the details of how this potential BFO was formed by displaying any Filters or Grouping that were used.
   2. It will also show the number of Shipments in the Group.
   3. Location selection can be changed at this stage.
   4. After making any selection desired, to finish making this BFO click on the Submit button in the upper right corner. After submission, the page will change to the BFO view of the one created.

      

2. Lock the Shipment Combination.
   Locking a Shipment Combination prevents those Shipment signatures (current and future) from being automatically added to normal batches. This allows a Combo to continue to accumulate without it getting pulled into a normal batch. This can be used to grow a number of similar Shipments during the day and allow them to be bulk processed later.
3. Mass Actions can be used to Lock and Unlock multiple Shipment Combinations at once. The Mass Actions can also Create multiple BFOs at once.

BFO Creation/Submission:

Upon Creation, the System will create the BFO Pick Sheet. If a printer is selected then the file will be automatically printed otherwise the browser will download the file. If the BFO was submitted through the Mass Action then the user will remain on the BFO create page otherwise the page will change to the BFO view for the one submitted.

BFO Pick Sheet:

The BFO Pick Sheet displays the essential information about the BFO. The BFO has some similarities with a normal batch pick sheet. The BFO Pick Sheet is optimized for picking Shipment Combinations that are exactly the same and contains a special barcode that is used to start the BFO picking and packing processes.

The BFO Pick Sheet may contain the following information:

• BFO #
• Barcoded BFO ID
• Merchant
• Optionally based on grouping selection:
  • Picking Class
  • Overbox
  • Carrier
  • Shipping Method
  • Batch Tag
• Created By
• Created At
• Group Size
• Total Weight
• The "Shipment Items" as a grid
  • Product Name
  • SKU
  • Item Weight — The weight of one unit.
  • Each Shipment — The quantity required for a single Shipment on the BFO.
  • Pick Location(s)

Viewing a BFO:

The BFO view contains several sections displaying information about the BFO and its status. It contains a number of actions that can be performed on the entire BFO which are listed in Working with a BFO (Admin UI).

Status

Displays the Merchant, Status, number of Shipments, and when it was last updated.

Information

Displays who created the BFO and when it was created. It will also display any Grouping options that were used to create the BFO. The BFO example below was created while using the "Group By: Shipping Method" option.

Shipment Items

A grid showing the Shipment Items to be picked and how many need to be picked in total.

Shipment Item Columns

• Product Name
• SKU
• Each Shipment — The quantity required for a single Shipment on the BFO.
• Pick Location(s)

Shipments

A grid to display the Shipment belonging to this BFO. Showing various info about the Shipments.

Shipment Grid Columns

• (Checkbox) — for searching and applying actions.
• Packing Slip
• Order #
• Order Status
• Shipment Status
• Shipping Method
• Shipping Name
• Date Submitted
• Pack Instr Laser — The number of Packing Instructions requiring a Laser Printer on this Shipment
• Pack Instr Label — The number of Packing Instructions requiring a Label Printer on this Shipment
• Pack Instr Small — The number of Packing Instructions requiring a Small Label Printer on this Shipment

Action Log

Displays a grid showing the user actions and duration as the BFO is processed.

• Action
• Entity ID
• User
• Start
• End
• Duration

Stock Movements

Displays a grid showing the Shipment Item movements as the BFO is processed.

• Warehouse
• Type
• Entity ID
• Action
• Expected
• Processed
• Put-Away
• Available
• Allocated
• Reserved
• Picked
• Backordered
• Location
• User
• Timestamp

Working with a BFO (Scanner UI):

Processing a BFO is similar to picking a normal Batch except this pick focuses on bulk-picking the Shipment Items.

There are two phases during BFO processing. Both of these phases use the normal Picking and Packing areas of the Scanner UI. However, because these Shipments are on a BFO the System will behave slightly differently to allow for a quick, optimized workflow to process the Bulk Fulfill Order.

1. The first phase will be to pick the items and place them in the staging area or cart depending on the size of the SKUs and the number of Shipments on the BFO.
2. The second phase will be to pack the BFO items into their separate Shipments.

Picking

In the Scanner UI, go to the Picking module.

1. Scan the BFO barcode from the BFO Pick Sheet. This Barcode scan will open the starting page to pick the BFO.

   

2. When picking a BFO the System will direct the user to the first item to pick. Once at the location, the user will be directed to scan the Location barcode and the SKU's barcode.

   

3. Once Location and SKU are confirmed the System will direct the user to pick a quantity from the current Location. The User should place these items in a cart or a staging area. A location from which the Shipments will be packed and finished. Once this pick has been placed in the cart/staging area, confirm this pick.

   

4. The User will be directed to repeat Steps 2 and 3 until each Pick Item has been picked. Once all Picks are confirmed the screen will show the Pick completion statistics.

   

Packing

In the Scanner UI, go to the Packing module.

1. Scan the BFO Pick Sheet. This barcode scan will open the starting page to pack the BFO Shipments. It will display the SKUs and quantities that were picked.

   

2. The System will load the first Shipment in the BFO. On the first BFO Shipment, everything is just like a normal Packing process. The Packer will follow the normal scan and packing rules. Once the required actions and scans have been performed the user will click "Finish Packing" to complete this first Shipment.
3. After completing the first Shipment, the System will auto-load in the next Shipment and automatically add the Container SKU used to pack the first Shipment.
4. The Packer will need to scan the SKUs being packed. After scanning the last SKU for this Shipment, the System will auto-mark the Shipment finish.
   1. The System will request and print the Label for the completed Shipment.
   2. (Default Configuration) The weight from the first Shipment will be used to set all the following Shipments on the BFO.
   3. (Non-default Configuration) Optionally will print the Packing Slip for the completed Shipment.
   4. Load in the next Shipment to be packed.

      

5. In this fashion, the System will cut down on the number of scans required and actions needed to complete each Shipment. Repeating Steps 3 and 4 until all the Shipments on the BFO have been completed.

Working with a BFO (Admin UI):

In the Admin UI on a BFO view, there are several actions that can be taken. A few actions are handy to use on any BFO. While several actions should be reserved for special occasions.

Always available actions:

Print Pick Sheet

Prints the BFO Pick Sheet.

Print Documents

Opens the Print Documents dialog. This dialog can be used to facilitate printing various documents for the BFO.

New BFO:

A new BFO will also show the "Pick" and "Cancel" buttons.

Pick

Pick will force-pick all items on the BFO. All items will be transferred from reserved to picked status at their currently assigned Locations and update the Shipments accordingly. The System will display an alert to confirm before taking action. Requires "Operations > Bulk Fulfill Orders > Force Pick" resource permission.

Cancel

Cancel will completely cancel the BFO. All Shipments will revert back to New status. Once some items have been picked the Cancel button will not be available.

Picked BFO:

Ship Offline

Process all the Shipments offline and mark the Shipments accordingly. The System will display an alert to confirm before taking action.

Generate Shipping Labels

Generates Shipping Labels for all Shipments. The System will display an alert to confirm before taking action. Once the Labels are generated, use the "Print Documents" button to easily print the Labels and any other documents assigned to these Shipments.

BFO Configurations:

There are two areas for BFO configurations.

• The Warehouse Operation configurations control how the BFO is created and what actions can be taken on a BFO.
• The Scanner configurations control how the BFO behaves during Packing.

Warehouse Operation Configurations:

You can find the BFO Operation Configurations in System > Configurations > Warehouse group > Operations tab > Bulk Fulfill Order fieldset.

Ship Separately Only

Only include products with "Ship Separate: Yes" when using "Split Into Singles" functionality.

Minimum Group Size

Set the minimum number of identical Shipments that must be available before the Shipment can show on the BFO Creation page.

Default Allocation Method

The method that will be used to determine the default pick locations.

Large Group Allocation Method

This method will be used instead of the Default Allocation Method if the group size is greater than the Large Group Size Threshold below. This is intended to allow you to pick large groups from reserve locations rather than depleting your forward pick locations if appropriate.

Large Group Size Threshold

Set the minimum number of identical Shipments that must be available before the System is allowed to use the Large Group Allocation Method to select the Locations.

Auto-Release Locked Combos

Automatically release "Locked" order combos after a BFO is created if the remaining group size is below the threshold.

Group By:

Each "Group By" configuration can be set to use one of these options:

• Optional — During BFO creation the user may choose to select this as an option
• Always — This Group By option will always be selected and applied during BFO creation.
• Never — This Group By option will be hidden and will not be applied during BFO creation.

The Configurable Group By fields:

• Group By Picking Class
• Group By Overbox
• Group By Carrier
• Group By Shipping Method
• Group By Batch Tag

Allow Batch Label Generation

Display button on Bulk Fulfill Order page for "Generate Shipping Labels". Also requires "Operations > Bulk Fulfill Orders > Batch Label Generation" resource permission.

Batch Label Generation Not-Classified Addresses

For orders which fail address classification, default to the specified classification during batch label generation rather than skipping the shipment with an error.

Allow Batch Ship Offline

Display button on Bulk Fulfill Order page for "Ship Offline". Also requires "Operations > Bulk Fulfill Orders > Ship Offline" resource permission.

Warehouse Scanner Configurations:

The BFO Scanner configurations can be found at System > Configuration > Warehouse group > Scanner tab > Bulk Fulfill Order fieldset.

Bypass Weight Check

Set whether a weight check is required for each shipment in the BFO during packing. Otherwise, the weight used for the first Shipment will be used for each of the following Shipments.

Print Packing Slip

Set whether the Packing Slip should be automatically printed once the Packer clicks "Finish Packing" on each completed Shipment.

Not-Classified Addresses

For orders which fail address classification, default to the specified classification during packing rather than requiring the packer to update. Or require the order's address to be validated with a classification before completing the BFO Packing.