Replenishment in a warehouse is the process of refilling pick locations with inventory when the number of items in them becomes too low to quickly and reliably fulfil orders. There is more than one way that this process can be managed in PVX, each with advantages and disadvantages depending on the type of warehouse operation you are running.
How does auto-replenishment work?
PVX supports an optional feature called auto-replenishment, in which actions can be triggered automatically to replenish a pick location when the inventory of a specific item falls below a minimum quantity. Auto-replenishment can be set up for as many or as few items as required. The trigger points are completely flexible and can vary between items.
Paid Feature: Auto-replenishment is a chargeable feature. You need to raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to have this option enabled on your account.
Auto-replenishment works by comparing the current pick-face quantity of each item to a minimum pick face quantity defined for that item. If the pick face is below that threshold, then an action will be created to move a quantity (the replenish quantity) to the pick face.
The replenishment system looks for any items that has either:
Been moved recently (in case that movement brought it below the threshold), or
Been updated recently (in case the threshold was updated)
From there, the process will depend on which version of the functionality you are using. By default, you will be on the latest (2.0) unless your organization has requested to maintain the 1.0 behaviour.
The behaviour here describes the latest (2.0) version of the functionality:
From the list of eligible items, the system looks for products that meet all of the following conditions:
Quantity in pick locations - outstanding quantity to pick less than or equal to "MinimumPickfaceQuantity"
"DefaultReplenishmentQuantity" greater than 0 OR quantity required from bulk for outstanding orders greater than 0
Quantity in bulk locations greater than 0
The replenishment trigger then creates an action according to the following logic:
Replenisher is routed to FROM location(s). The FROM location is the location of the item to replenish in bulk, ordered first by container id (oldest first) and then by location sequence. This prioritises replenishment from the oldest containers (if used) first. Assuming certain operational processes are used, this allows FIFO replenishment based on container.
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The TO location is recommended based on:
The first pickface location that contains the item and only this item (it does not recommend replenishment to mixed locations)
If the item is not in the pickface, then the last location that contained that item and is empty is used (again, does not recommend replenishment to mixed locations)
If the the above criteria can't find a suitable location, the first empty location is used
The system also supports an older (1.0) process that you may use if some aspects of the newer workflow are not suitable for your operation.
From the list of eligible items, the system looks for products that meet all of the following conditions:
Quantity in pick locations less than or equal to "Min pick face quantity"
"Replenish quantity" greater than 0
Quantity in bulk locations greater than 0
The replenishment trigger then creates an action according to the following logic:
Replenisher is routed to a location in bulk (the FROM location). The system will select the first bulk location (ordered by location sequence) that contains the item to be replenished
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The TO location is recommended based on:
The first pickface location that contains the item (irrespective of whether the location contains other items)
If the item is not in the pickface, then the last location that contained that item is used (irrespective of whether the location contains other items)
If the item has never been in the pickface then the first empty location is used.
Configuring Auto-replenishment in Peoplevox
In order to implement any replenishment process, you must first set up your location use types to designate bulk and pick locations.
Next, you will need to set up the trigger points and replenishment quantities for your items. This process describes how to do this for a single item via the web app, but you can also update these quantities via a CSV upload.
Go to the Items tab in the Warehouse module of the PVX web app.
Select the item for which you want to set up auto-replenishment and click View.
In the Edit item dialog, click the Defaults tab and then click Edit.
Enter a value for the Min pick face quantity. This is the minimum quantity of that item to be stored in pick locations at any given time.
Enter a value for the Replenish quantity. This is the quantity of the item to be moved from bulk locations to pick locations. It is likely to be your optimum pick face quantity minus your minimum pick face quantity.
Click Save.
Site-specific replenishment
Peoplevox also supports site-specific replenishment overrides for each item. These are managed via the item type replenishment details integration template.
This template allows you to set optional overrides for specific products in specific sites. For a given item / site combination, you can define either a minimum pick face quantity, or a replenishment quantity, or both (or neither) to override the values that are set at the item-level.
When creating replenishment actions, the system will first check whether a site-specific override exists, and use that if available. If no site-specific override is define, then the item-level information is used instead.
This is a great way to manage multiple warehouses that may have different layouts and storage space. For example, for a warehouse that has significantly more pick space than bulk, you may want to adjust the replenishment quantity to be higher and the minimum pick face quantity to be lower for that site, so that goods are moved from bulk to pick sooner than they would be in your other warehouses.
New UI Only: The site-specific replenishment quantities can be managed through the integration template, but are not currently visible on the legacy item types tab of the web application. You will be able to manage these through the items tab on the new web app UI when that is available.
Common questions about auto-replenishment
Question 1: Will a replenishment be triggered if my pick face quantity is above the minimum, but I have allocated more than I have available in pick?
Answer: If you are using the 2.0 process (by default you will be, unless you have opted to use 1.0), then yes. As soon as your allocation leads to a situation where the pick face would have less than the replenishment trigger quantity, the replenishment task will be created.
Question 2: How do I handle the situation where the quantity that I need to replenish is less than the quantity I typically hold in a bulk location? I don't want to break up pallets in bulk and leave partial containers in bulk.
Answer: You can ask support to enable over-replenishment for your account. That allows you to transfer more than the replenish quantity from bulk to pick locations during replenishment actions. Raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to add this option to your account.
Alternative ways to manage replenishment
Auto-replenishment with the option to over-replenish can work for warehouses where bulk and pick locations are performed using standard quantities such as pallets, but for many e-commerce companies a better alternative may be to manually handle replenishment. This can be done in PVX by using reports to identify empty pick locations, and then use the Move function to replenish those locations with whatever quantities of items are appropriate to meet your typical order levels.
If you choose to use this approach, you should ensure that the replenishment settings (Min pick face quantity and Replenish quantity) are set to zero and that the auto-replenishment option is not enabled, as this could cause conflicts when managing your inventory replenishment.
If you have any ideas or feedback on this process, please raise them on the ideas portal and let us know your thoughts. If you are not yet registered on the ideas portal, please take a look at this video guide that explains how to request access.