What is sequencing?
A location sequence is a designated picking route through a warehouse which is designed to optimise picking efficiency. By sequencing the locations, you can ensure that an operator always takes the most efficient route through the warehouse without covering the same ground more than once. Once the sequence is determined, PVX directs operators to follow the optimum route to find the items they need to fulfil their orders.
Before setting up the sequencing in PVX, we recommend that you walk around your warehouse a number of times. Consider the starting and finishing points for operators moving around the warehouse. Identify the quickest and easiest route for them to take. Make sure the route flows logically and, where possible, avoids covering the same ground more than once.
For example, an operator can pick from a series of bays in an aisle efficiently by picking from alternate sides, and then start from the top of the next aisle instead of the bottom. It's also good practice to always start from the bottom of one set of shelves and pick from each slot by moving across each shelf in alternate directions. This allows the sequencing to be easily adjusted if further shelves are needed in future to increase warehouse capacity.
Draw your optimum route on to paper with the numbering of the various elements of the warehouse structure (zones, aisles, bays, etc.) that you have set up in your location hierarchy. This sketch will be a vital point of reference when you are setting up the sequencing.
Setting up sequencing
You must start the sequencing from the foundation level of the location group hierarchy, which is usually the site. Then work through the hierarchy in order until you reach the locations themselves. In the example we used to set up the warehouse locations, the hierarchy order was site > warehouse > zone > aisle > bay > shelf > box. The site is set up in the Sites tab so does not need to be sequenced.
Go to the Locations tab in the Warehouse module of the PVX web app.
Select the top level of the hierarchy in this tab (the warehouse in our example) and click Edit.
At the top of the Manage sub category groups dialog, check that the sequence for the warehouse is set as 1.
Set the sequence for the next level of the hierarchy (the three zones) and click Save. Use the Reverse sequence and Reset sequence buttons in the dialog to help you set the sequencing quickly and easily, for example to have an alternating direction for the sequence in adjacent location groups.
In the Categories window, select the next level in the hierarchy (the first zone in the warehouse in our example), and click Edit.
Sequence the aisles in the zone as before, and click Save.
Continue sequencing each of the location group categories in the same way to follow the route you chose through the warehouse. When you reach the final level of the hierarchy, the locations themselves are displayed in the right hand window.
Click Edit locations to sequence the boxes on each shelf in turn.
Once completed, PVX will use the sequencing to plan each picking route in the warehouse.