Descartes® is pleased to announce the latest Peoplevox release. In this release, we are adding some exciting new features to action creation, continuing to add some further user experience improvements to the variance approval screens, and improving the overall look and feel of the PVX+ application. Below, you will find a summary of everything included, grouped by category so you can easily focus on what is most relevant to you. For any questions about specific items, please reference the associated number (if provided) when contacting Descartes Customer Support.
Migration to New UI - Stock Take, Cycle Count, Variance Approval
We are continuing to roll out the new UI for web and mobile applications. Our current focus is on Stock Take, Cycle Count and Variance Approval. Thank you for your feedback on the updated screens. We are incorporating your input and are currently working on the next round of improvements based on that feedback.
New Action Creation Batching Improvements – Batch by Order Footprint
🟪 In this release, we are introducing a new Batching method to allow you to more efficiently group your orders during a pick. The new batching method is called By order footprint. It is available for pick methods that support multi-order picking: (1486132)
The existing batching behavior remains the default option and is now labeled more clearly, making it easier to understand how each batching method works.
The new batching By order footprint is designed to minimize the overall travel time for pickers by prioritizing clusters of orders where possible. More specifically, the new batching works like this:
The system runs through each of the orders that match the selected filter, and hard-allocate inventory to them as we do today.
Based on this allocation, the system calculates a footprint for each order that represents how much of the warehouse a picker needs to travel through to complete the pick.
It selects a "seed" order by working out which product is needed on the greatest number of orders, and then choosing one of those orders as starting point (prioritizing those with smaller footprints). This is our initial footprint.
The system runs through the list of orders, and tries to add more, so long as they don't exceed the defined batch limits. We prioritize adding orders that will not increase the footprint (i.e. those that a picker would be passing anyway on their way to pick the already-selected orders), and after that, we prioritize those that would increase the footprint by the smallest amount. The process is repeated until a full action is complete.
When a batch is complete, the process repeats from step 3 until all eligible orders have been assigned to a batch.
The overall goal of this new process is to avoid situations where multiple pickers are going to the same location several times. This approach helps reduce duplicate travel by ensuring that when a picker is passing a location, they also pick items for other eligible orders from that location.
With the addition of this new batching approach, we also have the ability to explore and experiment further in the future, by adding new and smarter algorithms. Those will appear as options in this new Batching method drop-down.
We are excited to see how this improves your picking operation, so please experiment with it and let us know your thoughts.
Action Creation – In-Line Filter Edits
🟪 The new action creation workflow now supports inline filter editing, allowing you to create or modify filters directly within the workflow, similar to the popup legacy workflow. (1476271)
This enhancement makes it much easier to create actions without leaving the workflow to set up a filter on a different page. We have received valuable feedback on the new workflow and have additional improvements planned, including the ability to select individual orders that match the filter. Please do keep trying out the new workflow and let us know what we can do to streamline it for you.
Other Action Creation Improvements
🟪 You can now seamlessly switch between creating an individual action and creating an action profile. The new button Convert to action profile is located in the header section. It allows you to take your current parameters, filters, etc. and switch to a profile which can then be scheduled to run on a regular basis. (1476255)
🟪 A new backend search for orders is now available for filtering during action creation. Over the coming weeks, we will be migrating all customers to this new back-end system. No changes are required in the web or mobile app. The new back-end improves the performance of order searches and speeds up action creation. (1411454)
Auto-Updating Print Client
🟨 The new Print Client is now generally available, and we encourage you to upgrade to the latest version. This release introduces automatic updates, which will allow us to push fixes and improvements without disrupting your operation. The initial upgrade must be completed manually, but after installation, the client will update automatically. You can find the installation guide and download link for the new print client here.
Note: Our goal is for all customers to be using the new print client before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday peak period. This will allow us to deploy critical patches and fixes quickly, if needed, during this busy time. To help ensure uninterrupted printing, we encourage you to upgrade to the new version as soon as possible.
Other Improvements
🟪 We have extended the user activity history report to include returns. We are working on resolving a few minor bugs and improvements to the report, but it should now cover all key warehouse operations and allow you to effectively track time spent on tasks within the warehouse. (1414222)
🟪 The stock take variance approval screen now displays the full list of item variances rather than being limited to a small page of 5. This should allow you to more easily work with larger variances that require manual review and approval. (1494421)
🟪 We have adjusted the way tooltips are presented in the application. These tooltips now appear after a short delay, and will disappear when the cursor leaves the part of the screen that triggered the tooltip. This should prevent tooltips from one row of a grid blocking the buttons on the row below. (1494428)
🟪 The Register function on PVX+ now allows operators to more easily select and fill the location from a lookup list. After scanning the item, the (i) icon allows the operator to look up existing locations that already hold inventory for the item, and from there, you can then select a location from the list to automatically populate it as the destination location. (1361989)
Resolved Issues
🟩 We resolved several issues that were preventing actions from being created, on both the old and the new workflows. Both workflows should now be able to reliably create even large actions. (1516453, 1267550)
🟩 We resolved an issue that could cause an error when creating print template rules. (1195712)
Preview of Changes Coming Soon
Action Creation Improvements
Action creation continues to evolve as we drive toward more configurable and more flexible options for batching orders and automating manual processes.
🟦 We plan to extend the new action creation (including the scheduling component) to other warehouse activities, including put away, replenishment and more.
Descartes ShipRush
You can also find the latest release notes for ShipRush here: ShipRush release notes.