Movable containers are tracked in the system as a serialized unit (with a unique Handle ID). Usage of movable containers in the system include the following:
- The ability to group quantity tracked type items to treat as a single serialized unit.
- For grouping units for shipping and transfers.
- For grouping units for projects to be moved as a single unit.
Container Templates
Container templates are defined under the settings area.
Template ID represents the general ID for the container. Examples include box, carton, pallet.
Display Name. This is how the container template will be selected when creating new container units. The display name can be the same as the Template ID.
Description. This optional field can provide additional description for the container.
Container Rules
The following are rules that can be assigned to how containers are tracked in the system.
Can hold hazardous material. When checked item units that are checked as hazardous can be added. If this is not checked, then any items marked as hazardous cannot be added.
Can combine items with different attributes. Be sure this is checked to be able to add item units that have different attributes. This was designed for management of lot-tracked type items to support isolating the same item code with the same lot to a container. In most cases, this will be checked.
Can combine items with multiple owners. This setting was designed to support isolating items that are owned by different customer owners when managing customer-owned inventory. If not managing customer-owned inventory, most common setup would have this rule checked.
Restrict contents to a single item master. This setting was designed for managing quantity-tracked items or when item units are received and stocked in a box or carton on the shelf. It becomes relevant when you want the ability to select a container that holds a specific item. Containers that will be used for holding stock in an area may have this checked. For containers that will be created or selected for staging items to ship, or transfer will most likely not have this restriction applied.
Can Hold Other Movable Containers. This often is checked for larger type containers (such as pallets or crates) that support nesting of multiple smaller containers. For small containers that will never hold other containers, have this rule checked. When this rule is not checked, the related container units will not be available to select when trying to move or add containers to shipments or transfers.
Available as a Pick To container for Pick Order. When completing a pack as part of an order pick; only existing containers with this rule will be available to move units into with the pick transaction. If creating a new container on-the-fly, only the container templates with this rule enabled can be selected.
For internally owned units, track ownership by team versus organization. When item units tracked in the system are owned by a customer; if the items are received to a container, the container will inherit the same ownership as the units… the customer team. For internally tracked items that are tracked by a team, the rule can be set to match the ownership on the container’s items are received into as part of the receiving step to maintain ownership logic to the container level. Containers that are assigned ownership adds restrictions to additional add to that container. Only units with the same ownership would be supported. If this is not checked, then there is no ownership logic assigned to the container level.
Can be directly Shipped. Anytime a shipment includes multiple containers, a shipment ID is required. The shipping transaction does support shipping a single container directly. In this case, that container must have this rule checked.
Allow for Update Unit Transaction. When checked, the container is available to select in the Update Unit transaction. The most common use of this transaction for containers is the ability to set the weight and dimension data. Often this is not known during the build of the container and is often recorded as a final step to shipping. Other container attributes can also be defined to capture as part of the Update Unit transaction.
Enable Project Allocation. When set to true, users can define a project on the container. When a project is set on the container, only items that are allocated to that project can be added or items that have no project allocation assigned. This allows the ability to restrict grouping of item units for a specific project. Because the rule is enabled; the project assignment is not required when creating a container.
Weights & Dimensions
If tracking weights and dimensions for containers, it is important to complete the setup of the weights and dimensions as part of the template setup. The unit of measure will be defined here. If the container itself has a tare weight or specified dimensions; those can be defined here. The dimensions will be inherited from the units created.
Define what transactions have the weight and dimension fields enabled to capture.
- On Create. The option to capture tare weight, gross weight, dimensions
- For Build Container (as the container being built) for gross weight and dimensions.
- When Added to Build Container. Capture the gross weight and/or dimensions when the container is being added to the container being built.
- When Added to Build Shipment. Capture the gross weight and/or dimensions when the container is being added to a shipment.
- Container Being Directly Shipped. Capture the gross weight and/or dimensions at Shipping when shipping a single container outside of the shipment ID.
- On Update Transaction. Capture or update gross weight and/or dimensions at any time using the Update Transaction transaction.
Container Attributes
If there is a static attribute for the container, that attribute can be assigned as part of the template setup.
For attributes captured for each specific container unit, define the attributes to capture under Unit Attributes. These will be displayed to capture when container units are created. Edits can be done through the edit function for containers.
Transaction Attributes. Define data to capture for the container as part of a transaction data. The data is associated with the container unit, but not directly assigned as an attribute. These would be attributes that may be captured at different times with different results. For example, a ‘condition’ which could be captured throughout the lifecycle of the container unit to build historical data about that container.