Strategy B: Bulk Storage 

Materials that occur in large quantities and generally take up a lot of space in storage (for example tires, glass products and beverages) are often stored in bulk storage. The advantages of bulk storage include:

This putaway strategy searches for storage bins in bulk storage.

Use

The figure below illustrates bulk storage in WMS.


The most important features of bulk storage processing include:

When you define the storage bins in bulk storage, you do not have to adhere to the technical requirements of the system. The warehouse is divided into blocks, which in turn are divided into individual rows.

In practice, a row is treated as the control unit in bulk storage. In WMS a row is created and managed as a storage bin. The storage bins (rows) are classified according to storage bin types.

For example, rows 2 and 3 in block A05 (illustrated in the above figure) can hold up to 16 pallets. However the 4th row can hold a maximum of 12 pallets, due to the location of a structural column in the row. You can record this fact (reduction in the capacity of a row) in WMS when you define the block structure (see step 4 in "Setting up the Strategy" below).

Bulk storage is often used to manage different types of storage units with different dimensions, for example standard pallets and industrial pallets with clip-on mounts. WMS supports the management of different storage unit types in bulk storage.

Storage units for different materials are generally not stored in the same row. However, in WMS, all combinations of mixed storage are allowed in bulk storage. You can also require that the material in the storage bin must be from the same batch.

Within bulk storage you can store a specific material in a maximum of three different storage unit types. In the material master record you can define storage unit types and the number of quantity units, such as bottles or liters, per storage unit type for each material.

To optimize the transfer of goods into and from the storage bins in bulk storage, you can set a blocking indicator for each row separately.

Prerequisites

When you define the storage type record to use this strategy

  1. Enter b in the Putaway strategy field.
  2. Enter x in the Addition to stock field to allow for addition to existing stock.
  3. Leave the Capacity check method and SUT check active fields blank. Capacity checking and storage unit type (SUT) checking are not necessary in bulk storage since an internal check is carried out based on the block structure definition.
  4. Enter the appropriate indicator in the Mixed storage field. For a description of the different variations that are allowed, see the F1 help information in the storage type record.

When defining the storage type control for this strategy, there are several indicators that you must take into consideration to control the movement of goods into bulk storage. These include:

See also:

Overview: Picking Strategies

Definition of Bulk storage Indicators

For this strategy, you can define bulk storage indicators together with a descriptive text. Using the bulk storage indicator, you can specify how a particular material is to be stored in bulk storage. To do this, you enter the bulk storage indicator into the material master record and again into the bulk storage sectioning table when defining the structure of a block.

Structure Definition

You can also define storage bin types and storage unit types as well as other characteristics of bulk storage, such as the maximum number of stacks and the stacking height.

When you define storage bins for bulk storage you are required to enter a storage bin type. See The Storage Bin for information about creating and maintaining storage bins.

Miscellaneous Control Options

In the material master record (the warehouse data view), you can

See also:

Blocking in Bulk storage