Storage zones are those in which your permanent storage locations are set up. Depending on the type of storage, these could be areas which contain pallet racking, shelving or bin storage, bulk stacked storage or other open (internal or external) storage facilities.

Non-storage Zones

These are areas in your warehouse or storage area where you carry out activities other than permanent storage. These could include temporary holding areas e.g. QC or areas to perform re-work activities or to quarantine damaged products.

Marshalling Zones

These are specific areas that your goods will pass through when being received or despatched. There is a mandatory requirement to have at least one marshalling zone setup for the movement of goods. The reason is that any product in the warehouse which is not held in a permanent storage location (i.e. is going to or coming from) must still be identified. To conform to best practice any product which is in-transit within the warehouse will still appear on reports as being ‘in store’

Creating Zones

“Depot Set-up>Zones and Locations” can be accessed from the side menu.

 

 

To create a new zone click the “New Zone” button in the centre of the screen. This button will always appear below the zones table.

 

 

 

 

You will be asked to enter a name for the zone. This is mandatory, but there is no set field length. Zones cannot have the same name, but names like Racking 1, Racking 2 are OK.

You will be asked to enter an optional 2-character code to identify the zone. This can be alpha, numeric or a combination. If you choose not to enter one, the system will provide a numeric code for your zone (01, 02 – 99). The code it assigns from the number sequence will depend on which numbers have already been used.

NB. If you are not generating your own codes it may be important to ensure that the system generated sequence is in a logical order for your own warehouse if this is important to you.

Once you have entered the name and the code there are three check boxes:

If you are setting up normal storage locations (racking, shelving, etc.) do not check any of these boxes unless you require ‘random putaway’ otherwise;

 

Marshalling zone

If your zone is a marshalling area, check this box.

Non-storage zone

If your zone is a non-storage area check this box

 

Creating Locations

 

 

 

 

Now that your zones are set up, you can set up storage locations within them. The system is designed to allow flexibility for various storage equipment formats. For example the system will allow you to set up locations as ‘blocks’ or as ‘aisles’.

In practice the way you set these up isn’t that important. They don’t have to match the physical layout, as long as there is a physical location for each one you create in the system, and the location identifier (rack label, etc.) corresponds to the one in the system. ProSKU can also generate rack labels for you after the locations are created. The ProSKU support team will provide assistance with this during initial set-up.

Start Block/End Block

You will be asked to enter a ‘Start Block’ and ‘End Block’. These will designate the first and last blocks, or aisles within the selected zone.

Start Column/End Column

You are then asked to enter a ‘start column’, ‘column increment’ and ‘end column’.

• The start column will be the first numbered column in your aisle or block
• The end column will be the last numbered column in your aisle or block

Column Increment

In most cases, unless there is a reason to do otherwise, your column increment will be 1. What the column increment allows you to do is space your columns apart ‘numerically’ if required, so that the location numbers are increased by the number you enter here.

Levels

At the ‘Levels’ box you are asked to enter the number of levels. This is the total number of levels in your column.

Level Names

In ‘Level Names’ you will enter the individual number or name for each level within the column. This can be any combination of numbers or letters, with each name on a separate line

Mixed

Check this box if you want to set the default for the locations to allow mixed product storage. This can be amended at a later stage if needed.

Default Capacities by Unit of Measure

When setting up locations you must enter at least one default storage capacity. This can be a quantity (number of items) or a capacity in terms of volume. For a quantity this is the standard location capacity for the unit(s) you select to place in the locations being created.

Under the heading ‘Default Capacities by Unit of Measure’ the units of measure which are already set up (Company Setup>Units of Measure) are displayed.

 

 

You can enter a quantity against as many of the units of measure (UOM) as you want, according to the type you intend to store in the locations. If for example you only intend to store pallets in the locations, all the UOM except ‘Pallet’ can be left blank.

Default Capacities by Volume

You will use this if you want the system to put stock away automatically by volume, and the figure you enter here will be the volume in cubic metres for the locations you are creating. At putaway, the system will match items to be put away to available location space in M³ to determine a putaway location. The product’s volume must be held in the system in order to do this (see “Depot Set-up>Products”).

Editing Zones

To edit a zone click anywhere on the line against the zone name in the list. This takes you to a screen where you perform an edit. The only editable field is the check box for ‘Random Storage Sequence’ so long as no pickfaces exist in the zone.

 

Deleting Zones

To delete a zone click “Delete” button at the right of the zone in the list. Then click “OK” to confirm deletion or “Cancel” to abort. You will not be able to delete a zone if any of the locations within it hold stock.