1.3. Inventory Management¶
1.3.1. Check the Status of a Box¶
From the Inventory Management section on the Manin screen clicking on Check the status of a box will bring you to the Manual Status a Box screen. Here you can check the box status by entering a 5 digit box number and then clicking on the Search button.
After clicking on the Search button you should see a screen listing the Box Number, Box Type, Box Contents, Contents Expire (expiration date) and location- Row, Bin and Tier number.
From this screen you can click on Check another box or Return to Main Menu.
If you see the screen below that means the Box Number is invalid or has not been entered into inventory.
1.3.2. Checkin a Box¶
With this screen you can add all the information needed to check in a box of food items to warehouse inventory. The blank Checkin a Box screen is shown below.
The first two items to enter are the Box number and Product. With the keyboard enter a 5 digit ‘Box number’ in the Box number field. Then click on the small triangle in the circle at the right of the Product drop down list to select a product with your mouse.
After entering the Product the next step is to enter the pallet location. You will have to select 3 different entries with your mouse.
Row number
Bin number ( Bin number in the length of a row)
Tier number (level up or down
Each entry uses a drop down list and you will make a choice from each drop down list. In the graphic below the Row and Bin numbers have been chosen and the drop down list is shown with the Tier number.
After entering the location enter the expiration year by clicking on the small triangle to the right of the Exp year field and making a selection from the drop down list.
The last selection you will have to make is the expiration month. There are 2 drop down list fields here Exp month start and Exp month end. These fields are optional and it is not necessary to fill these fields out. These drop down lists show a list of all the months in the year. You can also choose to only fill out the Exp month start field also. However if you choose to fill out the Exp month end field you must make sure it is a later month in the year than the Exp month start field. So if you enter April in the Exp month start field, then you must enter May or a later month in the Exp month end field.
When you are through with the Exp month fields click on the blue Set Box Checkin Information button to enter all the Checkin data.
If everything has worked correctly you should see the following screen below. Simply click on the Return to Main Menu link to continue.
If there is an error you should see a screen like the one below. The red arrows point to what has to be fixed before a box can be Checked in. Click on the Cancel Box Checkin link at the bottom of the page to go back to the Main Menu screen to start over.
1.3.3. Checkout (Consume Product in) a Box¶
To consume or empty a box enter a 5 digit box number in the Box Number field. Then click on the blue Search button.
If everything went ok you should see the box information on the next screen. The box information includes the Box Number, the Box Type, the Box Contents, the year the Contents Expire and the location- Row, Bin, Tier. Click on the blue Consume button to continue if all the information seems correct.
The next screen should contain a message stating that a box ‘has been succesfully consumed’. Click on the Return to Main Menu link to return to the Main Menu page.
In case of error you should see a screen similar to the one below listing the error. Click on the Cancel Box Consumption link to return to the Main Menu Page page.
1.3.4. Build a Pallet¶
The next screen you will see is the Build Pallet screen. Here you will have two choices, Select or Add. Select gives you a choice of pallets to work with. If there are no pallets in Select, you must create a new pallet listing using Add.
Select¶
To check if there are pallets that you can select click on the ‘Dropdown icon’ shown below. If there are pallets available you will see a drop down list as shown below. Select one of the pallets from the drop down list.
If there are no pallets available nothing will show on the drop down list. You will have to go the Add section.
After selecting a pallet click on the Select button to go to the Build Pallet screen as shown below.
Add¶
Enter or key in a pallet name. In the screen below the pallet name ‘purple’ has been entered. You can pick any name you choose. After keying in the new pallet name click on Add for the Build Pallet screen.
Build Pallet Screen¶
The next screen you will come to is the Build Pallet screen. On this screen the first thing you should do is to create a location for the pallet.
You will create the pallets location for ‘Row’, ‘Bin’ and ‘Tier’. Row refers to which long row the pallet is on. Currently rows are 2 bins wide. Bin refers pallet bins located down the length of the row. Tier refers to the height level of the location. Use the drop down list boxes to enter ‘Row’, ‘Bin’ and ‘Tier’.
Once you have entered the pallet location, click on the Scan a Box button in the middle of the Build Pallet page.
Scan a Box Popup¶
You will be directed to a Scan a Box popup window. If your computer has a camera you will be asked to enter a QR code. QR is short for Quick Response and is simply a funny looking label that can be read by computers.
Scan a Box QR code popup (for computers with a camera)¶
Use the camera on your computer to scan the QR code as shown below. Some computers may request your permission to use the computer camera. You will have to agree to the camera permission request to scan the QR code. In the image below an individual is holding a scan code up to the computer camera. With the QR code in the center of the ‘Picture Window’ click on the blue Scan button at the bottom right.
Occasionally there may be a situation where the computer is unable to scan the QR code, due to poor lighting or some other technical issue. In that case you can always add the QR code manually be entering or keying in the 5 digit box number manually in the pop up window at the bottom left. Then click the blue Scan button at the bottom right.
Scan a Box popup (for computers without a camera)¶
On this page you first have to enter or key in a 5 digit box number in the bottom left of the screen. You can enter any number but it must contain exactly 5 digits. Once you have entered the number click on the Scan button in the bottom right of the popup window.
Return to Build Pallet¶
After clicking on the Scan Button you will be returned to the Build Pallet screen. You should see the ‘Box Number’ you have entered as well as a small white ‘X’ in a red box at the left of your screen. On this screen you will select a product to go in the box from a drop down product list. Click on the ‘Dropdown icon’ at the bottom right of the ‘Product’ rectangle’. Then choose an item from the list.
Once you have entered the product, use the ‘Expiration Year’ drop down list to enter the ‘Expiration Year’.
Entering the ‘Expiration Month’ is optional. Months are entered from a drop down list that holds numbers from 1 to 12 that correspond to the months of the year- January to December. If you do decide to enter the ‘Expiration Month’ please make sure that the ‘Start’ month is always less than the ‘End’ month. This means the ‘End’ month must not equal the ‘Start’ month and must be greater than the ‘Start’ month. Not all food items will have an ‘Expiration Month’ with a ‘Start’ and an ‘End’ month. Once you have entered everything on this page the page should look similar to what is below.
From here if you click on Scan a Box you will be directed back to the Scan a Box popup window. There you can add another box in the same manner as you did before. If you click Pallet Complete you will be directed to the Pallet Complete screen.
Pallet Complete¶
You should now see the Pallet Complete screen.
From here you can return to the main screen by clicking ‘Return to main page’.
1.3.5. Move a Pallet¶
Currently the Move Pallet screen has an error or bug in it. There is a link on the Move Pallet screen which states ‘Return to Manual Pallet Menu’. This link should NOT be clicked and should be ignored. If you do not see this link then the bug has been fixed but the User Documentation has not been updated.
After clicking on Move a Pallet you should see a screen like the one below. This screen allows you to move the location of each pallet along with its boxes in the database records. Basically if you move a pallet you are also moving the boxes the pallet contains.
When moving a pallet (with its boxes) three different conditions can occur.
Move a pallet and its boxes to an empty pallet location.
Move a pallet and its boxes to non-empty pallet location.
Attempt to move an empty pallet with no boxes.
All three conditions will be shown below.
Move a Pallet to an Empty Pallet Location¶
When moving a pallet and its boxes to a new location the first thing you need to do is to “Enter location to move pallet from”. You enter the position of the pallet by selecting the Row, Bin, and Tier dropdown lists by using the mouse to click on the down arrow at the right of each dropdown list. Selecting the down arrow as shown below in the Row dropdown list brings a set of choices. Simply click on the current Row location choice to “Enter the location to move pallet from”.
Do the same with the Row and Tier locations. Once that is done you should see the Move Pallet screen as filled out below with Row, Bin, and Tier locations filled out. Then click on the blue Submit Query button.
This will bring you to a similar screen but this new screen will say “Enter location to move pallet to”. Enter the Row, Bin, and Tier location for where the pallet and it’s boxes will be moved to. The screen below shows the new Tier location being chosen.
Once the Enter location to move pallet to screen has been filled out click on the blue Submit Query button. If the new location you want to move the pallet is empty and has no boxes you should see a screen similar to the one shown immediately below.
If the “Enter location to move pallet to” is NOT EMPTY then you will see a screen like the one shown in the next section below.
Move a Pallet and Its Boxes to a Non-Empty Pallet Location¶
The screen below shows up when you try to move a pallet to a location where a pallet is already located. Notice that the message states “There are 2 boxes at 01,03,C2”.
This means you will have to make a decision, either (1) choose a new location by clicking the Change To Location choice or (2) merge the pallets by clicking the Merge Pallets choice.
If you click on Change to Location you will be directed back to the Enter location to move pallet to screen as shown above. From there you can select another location to move the pallet to.
If you click on Merge Pallets both pallets along with their boxes will be merged into the new location you picked from the Enter location to move pallet to screen. You will see a screen stating “boxes move to row, bin, tier”.
Attempt to Move an Empty Pallet¶
If you attempt “Enter location to move pallet from” and there are no boxes recorded in the database for that pallet location you will see a screen similar to the one shown below.
1.3.6. Move a Box¶
To move a box to a different pallet enter the 5 digit box number in the Box Number field and then click on the blue Search button.
The next Move Box screen contains all the box information. In this screen you can choose a new location by entering new Row, Bin, Tier locations. Click on the small triangle to the right of each Row, Bin, Tier to get your drop down list choices. After choosing your new location entries click on the blue Move button to change the information in the database.
If there are no errors you should see a screen similar to the one below. Click on the Return to Main Menu link to return to the Main Menu Page screen.
In case of error you will see a screen similar to the one below with an error message. Click on the Cancel Box Move link to return to the Main Menu screen.
1.3.7. Add a New Box to Inventory¶
With this screen you can add a new box following the 4 steps listed below.
Enter a 5 digit box number.
Click on the drop down list triangle at the far right.
Choose an item from the drop down list.
Finally click on the Add Box button (hidden from view in the below graphic).
After clicking on Add Box you should see the following screen. From there you can Add another box or Return to Main Menu by clicking on the links in the New Box screen.
If there was an error you will see the following screen. Simply click on Cancel Adding a Box to return to the Main Menu screen.
