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WMSGuidelinesfor Material Handling
WMSGuidelinesfor Material Handling
WMSGuidelinesfor Material Handling
ORACLE WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT 11i SETUP AND EXECUTION GUIDELINES FOR MATERIAL HANDLING
Introduction
Table of Contents: Introduction..................................................1 Problem Statement.......................................1 Previous Options ..........................................1 Overview ......................................................2 Setup Considerations....................................2 Rules and Strategies ....................................3 Tasks and Departments ...............................4 Label Setup ..................................................4 Business Flows .............................................5 WMS Responsibilities....................................5 WMS Profile Settings ....................................5 Third-Party Printing Options.........................5 Radio Frequency (RF) and Wireless Devices 5 Summary ......................................................6 About the Author..........................................6 Oracle Warehouse Management provides integrated barcode scanning and label generation to improve material transactions and advanced shipping processes.
Problem Statement
Traditional Oracle Inventory Management requires users to receive material and perform inventory transactions such as cycle counting and material movement on the desktop instead of real-time on the warehouse or shop floor. With Oracle Warehouse Management 11i, users can scan barcodes, rfids (radio frequency identifiers) of serial numbers, part numbers and other information without entering it by hand in the desktop Oracle forms.
Previous Options
Previously, Oracle Inventory and Shipping users had to manually enter long serial and shipping numbers into desktop forms a time intensive task that was prone to entry errors. Inventory management relied on paper reports and offline physical and cycle counting for tracking inventory transactions and serial numbers. Additionally, prior to Oracle WMS, the real-time integration of automated material handling units was more difficult and relied on customizations and bolt-on solutions. The Oracle Experts Since 1988
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Overview
Oracle Warehouse Management (WMS) and Oracle Mobile Supply Chain Architecture (MSCA) have provided the ability to perform many traditional material handling processes more quickly and efficiently. Oracle WMS has the ability to manage and improve the process of material picking, receiving and replenishment by incorporating barcode and RFID scanners. This paper focuses on the guidelines and setup steps required for material handling including: receiving, material adjustments, replenishment, movement, shipping transactions and label generation. MSCA is an Oracle server that provides connection for transactions in Oracle WMS modules via mobile devices through a telnet connection. MSCA is embedded into WMS. The areas that benefit most from using WMS are: Inbound Receiving Order Picking Shipping Execution Work Order Completion Flow Schedule Completion Kanban Replenishment Cycle Counting Physical Inventories Scanners and radio frequency (RF) devices from manufacturers such as Symbol, PSC, LXE and Intermec connect to an exiting 802.11.b wireless network and connect to the MSCA server. Oracle WMS also relies on a third-party printing solution such as Loftware or Optio Software to read XML output and print barcode labels to label prints. Popular label print manufacturers include Zebra, Intermec and Sato. The next section will discuss the setup requirements needed to implement WMS in an Oracle 11.5.10 environment.
Setup Considerations
The setups steps are completed using the Warehouse Manager or Inventory Superuser responsibility. The key steps are: 1. Define and enable the locator flexfield and segments 2. Define at least one stock locator in each of the subinventories 3. Enable WMS at org level 4. Define label types 5. Associate business flows to events 6. Define printers to XML port 7. Associate labels to printing software The first step is to define and enable the stock locator flexfield and segments in inventory. Oracle WMS uses the stock locator to drive rules for material put away and picking. At least one stock locator must be defined for each subinventory. The next step is to check the Enable WMS check box on the Inventory Organization Parameter form.
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Enabling this parameter activates the allocation and rules engine for this organization. This parameter also allows for the use of containers and License Plate Numbers (LPN). License Plate Numbers (LPN) LPNs combine the item part number, stock location and serial/lot number into a single scanable record or number for material transactions. LPN sequence needs to be set up in the Organization Parameter form under the Warehouse Management tab.
Consolidation and Cross Docking Cartonization and cross docking are also controlled by organization parameters. Cross docking allows for material to be received and directly delivered to a shipping dock or manufacturing assembly line. Cartonization provides for box and container suggestions by item based on rules for size and weight. Cartonization can be controlled in manufacturing and at shipping.
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on the server, the file must be transferred to the print server by FTP or another means. The XML file can also be sent to XML-enabled printers, but storing and updating the label template on these printers can be complicated. Oracle WMS is defined with several label types: Material Shipping Shipping Content LPN LPN Content Flow WIP Completion The following is an illustration of the material label. The material label is widely used in Inventory Management and WMS to identify items as they are received into a warehouse from Work in Process (WIP) or Receiving. Label variable names are passed as XML tags with the actual value in the XML file that is generated. A rule of thumb is to always make the variable name uppercase so that the XML tag will match the value in the label printing software.
Label Setup
The next step is to define labels and associate them to business flows. A business flow in Oracle WMS is an event such as a Purchase Order Receipt or a Ship Confirmation process. The event automatically generates an XML file that can be stored on a file server or sent directly to the print server. The advantage of sending the XML file directly is there is no delay in the processing of the XML file. If the XML file is stored in a directory
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Business Flows
After a label is defined, the label type needs to associate to a business flow. Oracle WMS is seeded with predefined flows including: Purchase Order Receipt Receipt Delivery Ship Confirmation Picking Confirmation WIP Completion Flow Schedule After the label type is associated to a business flow, the label type must be associated to a printer and to a user or responsibility.
WMS: Label Print Mode = Synchronous (not used) Synchronous TCP/IP o Synchronous sends the XML directly to a print server or XML printer Asynchronous (Default) o Asynchronous uses the next profile to write the XML to a directory on the server.
WMS: Output Directory This profile is only used if the Label Print mode is set to Asynchronous. This directory is used to write the XML file out. The print server may need to read this directory to pull files from this directory.
WMS Responsibilities
Two types of responsibilities exist for WMS. The first is standard Desktop Applications. The second is to navigate the telnet/mobile forms. The seeded responsibility Whse Mgmt should be copied and modified to support requirements. These paths can be modified via the system administration or AOL developer forms.
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network server and create a share drive for label templates. RF and wireless devices must have a radio and must support a telnet session to communicate to the MSCA server. Scanners and radio frequency (RF) devices from manufacturers such as PSC (www.psc.com), LXE (www.lxe.com), Symbol (www.symbol.com) and Intermec (www.intermec.com) connect to an exiting 802.11.b wireless network and connect the MSCA server. These companies also make special scanners to read the embedded information in a rfid tag.
Ability to scan inbound shipments Ability to have directed putaways Ability to have directed zone picking for sales orders and work orders Ability to create kanban replenishments Ability to perform cycle counts and physical inventory transactions on mobile devices Ability to perform real-time inventory adjustments Ability to complete work orders and flow orders on mobile devices. For more information on these activities or for more detail on Warehouse Management setup, please contact TUSC at 800-755-TUSC or visit www.oracle.com.
Summary
Oracle WMS provides a very powerful tool that is fully integrated into the Oracle E-business suite of applications including Inventory and Purchasing. Oracle customers are no longer forced to use bolt-on or customized interfaces an improvement that reduces effort and risk of error dramatically. In addition, Oracle WMS enables important activities not addressed in this paper including:
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