Descartes® is pleased to announce the latest release of Peoplevox. This update includes a range of fixes and improvements related to both the recent put away rules functionality as well as the new cycle count action. Below, you'll find a summary of the changes implemented in this version. For any questions about specific items, please reference the associated number (if provided) when contacting Descartes Customer Support.
Tip: Use our Ideas Portal to submit your enhancement ideas for Descartes Peoplevox. Click here for additional information and instructions on how to request access.
Highlights
Put away improvements
🟨 Putting away to last-used locations (1239408)
We have made several improvements to the way the put away rules engine handles putting away to the last-used location for a given product. We have been working with several users to refine the current approach, and the key limitation reported with that approach is the inability to direct users to the most recently used of the previously used locations. Initially we had planned to add a new sort condition to the rules builder to allow sorting based on how recently the location was used, but this resulted in a more complex rule, which ultimately led to slower loading times for the suggestions on mobile.
In order to solve this, we are adding some new filter options to the rule (instead of a new sort option). These filter options are:
Is last used pick location?
Is last used bulk location?
Is last used quarantine location?
Each condition is a simple Yes/No and can be combined with other filter options and rule steps. For example, if you add the filter "Is last used pick location? Equals TRUE" to your rule step, the rule step will only return the pick location that was most recently used for the item. That location still needs to match the other conditions of the step, otherwise no location will be found. If you combine it with a filter that the location can contain no other different items, then the location will not be suggested if there are any other product types in it.
Since this is a very narrow condition, it is advised to make this one of the higher priority rule steps in your rule. Lower priority rule steps can then be used to suggest other suitable locations if that is unavailable.
This rule is still experimental, and we are continuing to monitor and evaluate it. It is likely that we will make further improvements to it in the future.
This rule condition relies on the system maintaining specific records around the last-used location of each type for each product, avoiding the need to check all historical movements for every item. If you are interested in using this rule, please reach out to support and request a backfill of historical movement data.
🟪 Automatically refresh suggestions (1268079)
The put away process within the mobile app is now capable of automatically refreshing suggestions that may be stale after completing other put away tasks from the same location(s). Early users reported the challenge that there may be multiple items to put away from a given location that all need to go to a new empty location. Since each rule is evaluated independently at the start of the process, that can lead to several products all being directed to the same location, but only the first put away is valid (after which the location is no longer empty). To solve this, the mobile app can now automatically determine whether a suggestion is "stale" and refresh it to get a new suggestion.
Stock take and cycle count improvements
🟪 Improved locations screen for cycle count (1284163)
The new Location Groups screen on the web app UI now allows you to specify both a stock take frequency and a last stock take date when creating a location. The Locations CSV template has also been extended to support these fields. This improvement will be useful during initial location setup, as well as during warehouse expansion when new locations need to be added.
🟪 Improved presentation of cycle count actions on mobile (1280964)
We have made improvements to the way the mobile app presents the list of cycle count actions. Primarily this involves improving the formatting of the cycle count information, so that the location and the time are displayed more prominently and clearly. We will continue refining this screen based on feedback over the next few months. Please reach out with any suggestions via the ideas portal.
🟪 New permission to disable quantity control during stock take (1291897)
A new permission called "Hide item quantity input" is now available within the Stock Take and Cycle Count module. As the name suggests, this permission prevents the mobile operator from being able to adjust the quantity of scanned items during a stock take. Instead, they must scan the item each time individually. This can be used to enforce stricter control in scenarios where a given location may contain several similar SKUs and a visual inspection runs the risk of mistaking one item for another.
Resolved Issues
🟩 We resolved an issue that could lead to a "Not enough items in pick location" error when attempting to create an action. The root cause of this was that the location had its type changed while there was an active replenishment task pending for the location. The system will now validate to ensure that any outstanding replenishment tasks are either completed or deleted prior to changing the location's type. (1234836)
🟩 We resolved an issue that could prevent purchase order documents from being printed correctly. The issue was caused by an incorrect reference between the print request and the document to be printed. This reference is now correctly provided on each generated print request. (1278064)
Preview of Changes Coming Soon
Cycle Count improvements
We’re working on several improvements to the cycle count process. We would love to hear your feedback on these topics as well.
🟦 We're working on a new variance approval workflow for the web application. This will allow you to easily search for variances using a new unique reference applied to each one, and to approve or reject those variances on a line-by-line basis. This new workflow will allow you to approve or reject individual item lines while leaving others undecided. It also simplifies the presentation of each variance and clearly distinguishes between item and container variances in a location, so that users can easily see what the impact of approving the variance will be.
🟦 In addition, we are already working on an auto-approval mechanism that will allow you to define thresholds for auto-approval based on the total item variance, or a percentage variance, or a total value variance (or any combination of the above). These thresholds will be set at the Site level and are entirely optional. You will be able to enable auto-approval with a variance threshold of zero if you only want to auto-approve variances with no discrepancies.
🟦 We plan to improve the way cycle count actions are displayed on the web application. The current actions pages are geared around pick actions making many of the fields and columns not applicable to cycle counting. The goal is to introduce screens that are relevant to the specific action type in question.
🟦 Finally, we are extending the mobile workflow for actually performing the cycle count action. At the moment, operators are limited to a a simple "count items in location/container" prompt. An upcoming update will allow mobile operators to use this workflow to:
Count items in locations/containers
Count containers in locations
Mark the location/container as empty
The single workflow will support all of these actions without the need to exit or switch screens.
Descartes ShipRush
You can also find the latest release notes for ShipRush here: