Understanding why Available to Pick Status is Blue

Awaiting pick field has two potential statuses


Unavailable : Red

No stock is available to meet any of the pick requirements in any quantity

 

Part Available : Blue

The pick requirements can be partially satisfied. That is there is not sufficient stock available to fully satisfy all the pick requirements, but at least one or more requirements can be partially and/or fully met.

 

Let's dig deeper into the Partial availability status:-
There are three scenarios that result in partial availability of stock:-

The stock is genuinely not fully available

This can be the case when the stock is due from a production run that has not completed - or alternatively due in on a PO which is not received / processed yet.
For example in the below, there are 6 lines of Dominic Fike required for the fulfilment.
The first line's requirement of 2 items is expected and therefore cannot be satisfied until the expected item materialises.
The remaining line items on the fulfilment are available in the quantities wanted and therefore these requirements can be satisfied

However, due to the expected status of the 1st line - overall the fulfilment is in a partial availability status

 

Production Run is complete, and there were one or more rejects

Where the whole of the production run is required on a despatch but there have been some rejects in the production run resulting in less produced than required the available light will show blue.

In reality the full qty of stock is available but the existing requirements needs to be reduced to match what has been produced  - it is just not logistically feasible to set up the print presses for a handful of "missing" garments.

To assess for, and correct the status, for these cases:-

 

  1. In the Fulfilment List layout - use the Awaiting Pick button to show records that require picking but are not available to pick.
  2. Identify a Blue status record.

  3. Click details and then Joblines tab to see the requirements and availability

  4. Review the available, to be given and allocated fields. You can see that 36 is allocated for each SKU as well as 36 of each SKU is needed.  However, you can also see that there are not any expected amounts due, and that there is minus 1 in Available (and Available + Expected)

  5. This gives us a good clue that as there is one shortfall for each SKU it is likely because the required amount of 36 was allocated prior to the job completing with the expectation that 36 would be produced.
  6. Let's check what was produced  - so click on Data Entry Info for SKU button


  7. This will bring up the job that produced the items. Note that both production and data entry statuses are complete.

  8. Click Data to reveal the details of what was data entered.
    Note the total quantity produced for each SKU is 35, and 1 reject per SKU

  9. We have now proved our assumption that there was a production shortfall >
  10. We can therefore safely reduce the fulfilment requirements to match what was produced. So back to the fulfilment joblines tab:-
    1. De-allocate for each SKU

    2. Reduce the To be Given figure to match what was produced and allocate


    3. The position is back in proof  - and the available to pick status can be safely updated to green to denote that the requirement can be fully picked.

 

 

Note

In the event of "overs", this data entry adjustment can be used to avoid storing the excess items in the warehouse.
However, before adding overs in this manner  - undertake checks - he client may deliberately have requested extras to be produced for sample purposes.
Bottom line: Do not automatically adjust for overs until you have checked that it is not deliberate

 

 

Problem with Data Entry

 

  1. Repeat steps 1) to 4) from above.
  2. When reviewing the numbers, we can see that one size of the ERC lines is still showing as expected

  3. Again click Data Entry info for SKU to further investigate what happened in data entry.

  4. Note that as before, production is fully complete as is data entry, so click Data to further investigate
  5. And here we can see the source of the problem. Data entry has been completed - but no figures (produced or rejected) have been recorded for the XL Line
  6. As belt and braces check, we could confirm with the staff who did the data entry to confirm the error.
  7. To remedy the error:-
    1. Click Managers Only button
    2. Enter the correct number produced and click SKU adjustment

    3. In the SKU adjustment - correct the position. Expected should be zero, and as the requirement has been allocated the available quantity should be set as zero also and click Close

    4. Note the In Warehouse Locations balance is out of proof also - as the 30 produced were missed out from the original data entry process, so were not booked into a location.
    5. To remedy this, go to the Stock List layout, find the SKU, and drill down to the details layout
    6. Add a new record in the Stock Locations tab - and record the location of where the 30 ERC T-Shirts are
    7. The SKU is now fully back in proof
    8. The fulfilment requirements can now be fully satisfied

    9. If the Available to Pick light has not updated (it is currently scripted to update status at 41mins past the hour), you can manually toggle it to green to indicate the fulfilment is ready for picking.


Important Note

Expected Quantities of an item can come from multiple jobs / source, Therefore reconciling out of proof data entry records should be undertaken by experienced staff who are aware of the consequences of manually adjusting positions.