Warehouse Despatch Tracking

Overview

The despatch tracking application, commissioned by Personal Computer World Business, consists of a web front end connected to a SQL server database.

"The software from PSS far exceded our expectations in terms of quality and the speed with which the project was completed."
Richard Eden-Maugh, PCWB

Operation

Despatch/picking notes are issued to members of the picking team. who they've given them to and the date and time they received them

"Not Found"s are recorded when pickers bring back notes with items missing from the warehouse to the despatch desk.

Initial investigation of not founds by the despatch controller confirms if they've found or not.

If still not found then a stock control investigation determines if:

Item found in original location,
Item found in alternative location,
Goods lost - a true can't finds.

When goods are dispatched they are removed from the being picked list on the central Maginus database. The being picked list list is regularly imported and automatically matched against issued despatch notes.

At the end of each day the supervisor is presented with list showing issued notes no longer on the being picked list and confirms that the import was correct and that the notes have gone.

Two situations are reported for manually investigation, and will result in either re-issue of the note or the being assigned as lost.

A: Notes issued on the database and still on the being picked list.

B: Notes not on the database but on the being picked list.

Exceptions can be recorded for cases A and B against the note where the reason is known.

For any despatch number the application shows the current status of the note, time and date of every event and the member of the team performing the action.

Benefits

Ability to trace where the dispatch note is, and who it is issued to, at any time.

Monitor which pickers are making most errors.

Productivity of each picker per day can be measured.

Number of lost notes can be monitored per picker.

Determine the number of goods misplaced in the warehouse.

Pickers are made responsible for explaining why note are not dispatched.

Can identify if notes on the being picked list have not been issued, before end of the day.

Security

User are allocated a security level which controls the functions they can perform. For example:
- Pickers are not be allowed to do any data entry function,
- Despatch controllers can issue notes to pickers but do not have access to the stock controller functions.

Input

Input of despatch number is via a scanner to allow for fast data entry. Up to 20 notes can be issued in a single batch.

User input is always checked to maintain the consistency of the database. Forms allow for easy correction of mistakes without supervisor intervention.

Maintenance

The database requires minimal maintenance. Every period end notes more than 3 periods old are summarised and individual despatch records are deleted from the database.

Technical Specification

SQL Server 2000 database
ASP.Net Framework 1.1 & VB.Net
Windows Server 2003 - IIS 6.0
Handles 5000 dispatches per day