Remote Warehouse

The definition of Remote Warehouse is a functionality that is available to support different scenarios where a warehouse is not strictly related to the site from a geographical point of view. These warehouses are "remote" compared with the typical central warehouse, having a different address/location.

Common uses of a remote warehouse could be:

Moving warehouses, typically a service van used for field service.
A warehouse located on another address than the site (the warehouse still belongs to the site). This could also be a temporary warehouse related to a customer or specific project.

A remote warehouse could be as a place that needs to have its own routines for supply and demand. There can also be the need to have restrictions regarding availability which only applies to locations in the remote warehouse. Furthermore, it's possible to define a remote warehouse specific assortment that should be part of the remote warehouse. This is a typical service van scenario.

Below follows more detailed descriptions on how to setup and manage the different features of a remote warehouse.

Commands on header

Register Arrivals. A filtered view showing all purchase order or shipment order arrivals that are planned to be received for this remote warehouse. This can be identified via the destination warehouse setting on purchase requisition and purchase order lines or the receiver of the shipment order. Destination warehouse setting in order line level can be added/modified by the supplier specific Kanban replenishment process, remote warehouse refilling process and manual data entry process.

Refill All Putaway Zones. Creates transport tasks or purchase requisitions to the remote warehouse depending on the setting for refill source and if the prerequisites listed below are fulfilled. It is also possible to set it up as a scheduled background job.

A remote warehouse assortment is connected to the remote warehouse.
The inventory part on the connected remote warehouse assortment has the setting Refill Putaway Zones (Inventory Part/Main tab) set to either From Putaway Zones or From All Stock Locations.
The remote warehouse is the highest ranked putaway zone with available capacity both with regards to the refill point quantity, receipt control, capacities and conditions and the capabilities on the warehouse.

Storage Optimization. Storage Optimization removes excess from the selected remote warehouse, if the below prerequisites are fulfilled. It is also possible to set it up as a scheduled background job.

Other putaway zones with available capacity exist, outside the remote warehouse from where the activity is performed.
The part is not connected to a remote warehouse assortment or the part has the Remove Excess option enabled and the quantity on-hand is greater than the refill-to quantity.

Transport Task Lines. Will open the overview transport task lines page with all the transport task lines to and from the remote warehouse in Created or Picked status.

Purchase Requisition Lines. Opens the Overview Purchase Requisition Lines page with all the requisition lines to the remote warehouse in Planned or Released status.

Purchase Order Lines. Opens the Overview Purchase Order Lines page with all the purchase order lines to the remote warehouse that have not been received yet.

General tab

Putaway control. This section has two settings:

Automatically Refill Putaway Zones setting indicates if automatic refill based on the putaway zone ranking will be triggered. The automatic refill of putaway zones means that whenever a part has a transaction, there will be an evaluation of the locations and the quantity stored at those locations to see if there could be an optimization done based on the putaway zone rankings set up for the part. In many scenarios the remote warehouse cannot be refilled continuously since it can be a moving warehouse, for example a service van used for service maintenance. In those scenarios the Automatically Refill Putaway Zones setting shall be disabled to avoid transport task reserving material that cannot be physically moved to the destination. The Refill All Putaway Zones job can be used to directly perform a refill or to schedule the refill of the remote warehouse regardless of the Automatically Refill Putaway Zones setting.
Putaway Destination setting indicates that all bins belonging to a putaway zone within this warehouse are considered as putaway destinations when running any of the putaway flows. To prevent putaways from being done directly to the remote warehouse, the setting should be disabled. In appropriate instances, clear this setting if purchase receipt to the central warehouse is using the receive case Receive into Arrival, Perform Putaway and then the transport tasks are not created directly to the remote warehouse.

Remote Warehouse tab

Delivery Address. Here one can define the delivery address per remote warehouse which is an alternative address to the site. This is used as the delivery address for shipment orders and purchase orders delivering to the remote warehouse. The address type Supplier can be used when you have defined a remote warehouse at supplier for purchase orders with outsourcing. When we receive the finished good, the components can be backflushed from that remote warehouse location.

Parts. This is an aggregated view showing the parts and active assortments connected to the remote warehouse. The user can see all quantity levels needed according to the assortment and the planning settings. The assortment description and assortment ID indicates the assortment from which the refill point, the refill-to, remove excess quantities and the refill source are inherited. If a part exists on two or more connected assortments, the one with the highest priority is made active for the remote warehouse. If the assortment field is empty the corresponding part does not exist on any connected assortment to the remote warehouse. The refill-to quantity is the same as the connected prioritized assortment.
The command Refill Parts creates transport tasks or purchase requisitions to reach the refill level. The below prerequisites exists:

A remote warehouse assortment is connected to the remote warehouse.
The inventory part on the connected remote warehouse assortment has the setting Refill Putaway Zones (Inventory Part/Main tab) set to either From Putaway Zones or From All Stock Locations.
The remote warehouse is the highest ranked putaway zone with available capacity both with regards to the refill point qty, receipt control, capacities and conditions and the capabilities on the warehouse.

Assortments. The assortment is used to control the standard inventory on the remote warehouses. For the connected parts, planning settings are set to automatically create transport tasks or purchase requisitions via the refill activities. The assortments are created and defined in Remote Warehouse Assortment page.

Users. Users can be added and the remote warehouse can be set as default either here or in the User Connected to Warehouses page. The connection will affect the reserve logic and issue logic from work task. When automatic reservations are done from a work task, the reservations will be limited to stock records on the defined default warehouse for the allocated to on the work assignment connected on the material line. When automatic issue is done from a work task the issue is limited to stock records on the defined default warehouse for the user.

Default Locations. Used to define default location for different locations types. You can define a default location when registering arrival of goods in this remote warehouse as well as a default shipment location at picking in the remote warehouse.

Putaway. The putaway zone basic data is used when transport tasks are created automatically via the refill jobs to the remote warehouse. When the Appear as Putaway Zone option is enabled the entire remote warehouse will appear as a putaway zone for all inventory parts that are connected to the remote warehouse via an assortment.

Arrival Defaults. Used when registering arrival of goods in this remote warehouse.

Shipment Order Defaults. Data entered here is used when creating a shipment order including this remote warehouse, either as sender or receiver. If the Send Dispatch Advice Automatically option is enabled and the receiver type of the shipment order is Remote Warehouse, a dispatch advice message is sent automatically when the shipment is delivered. See detailed information about the order of fetching data on respective field description in Shipment Order page.

Transport Task tab

Drop-Off Location. The drop-off location on the transport task tab in the warehouse navigator can be used to direct all transport tasks to first be moved to this location before they are moved to the intended location.

Automatic Consolidation. The transport task automatic consolidation rules for from-location and to-location can be used to override the settings on site.

Using Default Part Availability Control for Remote Warehouse

To be able to limit the stock in a remote warehouse for other functions like reserve and issue a default part availability control can be entered on warehouse level. It will be possible to override some of the part availability control settings on stock records for the default part availability control entered on the warehouse level. When you have defined a remote warehouse at supplier, when we receive finished goods, the components will be back flushed from the remote warehouse overriding part availability control settings.

The exceptions, from functions like reserve and issue, to the part availability is listed below:

Part Supply Control: If the setting is Not Nettable the parts are not plannable or available in the availability check, order proposal and MRP but for remote warehouses on the Parts tab, these will be considered as plannable. This is to be able to limit the availability of the stock when it is moved to a remote warehouse.
Part Auto Reservation Control: If the setting is Non-Automatic Reservation only manual reservations can be performed except from the below activities done by a user that has the specific remote warehouse as the default warehouse.

Reserve done from the Work Task/Material tab.
Reserve done from the Prepare Work Order/Material tab.
Reserve done from the Report In Work Order/Material tab.
Reserve done from the Maintenance Material Requisition page.
Part Manual Reservation Control: If the setting is Non-Manual Reservation the parts in the location cannot be manually reserved except from the below activities done by a user that have the specific remote warehouse set as the default or connected warehouse.

Reserve done from the Work Task/Material tab.
Reserve done from the Prepare Work Order/Material tab.
Reserve done from the Report In Work Order/Material tab.
Reserve done from the Maintenance Material Requisition page.
Part Order Issue Control: If the setting is Non-Order Issue no issues can be performed except from the below activities done by a user that have the specific remote warehouse as the default warehouse or connected warehouse (applies only for manual issue).

Issue done from Work Task/Material tab.
Issue done from the Prepare Work Order/Material tab.
Issue done from the Report In Work Order/Material tab.
Issue done from the Maintenance Material Requisition page.
Manual Issue done from the Work Task page.
Manual Issue done from the Prepare Work Order/Material tab.
Manual Issue done from the Report In Work Order/Material tab.
Manual Issue done from the Maintenance Material Requisition page.

Part Non-Order Issue Control, Part Scrap Control and Part Counting Control can have any setting. Part Movement Control should be set to All Allowed to be able to move the parts with transport task. The Putaway Zone Refill Source option should be disabled to avoid remote warehouse stock being used to refill other locations.

Work Task

This section describes how work task and remote warehouse functionality interact.

Reserve

If the logged in user is connected to a default warehouse with available quantity, material will be reserved only on the default warehouse. If the logged in user has connected warehouses but none of them are the default, no reservation will be done. To reserve material outside the default warehouse it is always possible to reserve material manually. The Reserve Manually dialog will be filtered as below if connected warehouses of the logged in user exists:

Default - The default warehouse of the logged in user.
Connected - All warehouses to which the logged in user is connected.
All - All warehouses on the default site of the user.

Note: Default and connected warehouses can be defined in the Users Connected to Warehouses page.

Move Reserved Work Task Material

It is possible to move work task reservations using transport task. To move a work task reservation any of the following possibilities can be used:

From the Reserve manually dialog it is possible to create a transport task to move the material. If the allocated to user has a default warehouse and the user reserves material outside the default warehouse, a transport task will be created to move the material to the default warehouse. It is also possible to move material to another location by typing a location number in the To Location No field.
From the work task material header, by using command Move All Reservations, it is possible to move all reservations to another location by typing a location number in the Location No field.
From the Inventory Part In Stock Reservations page, by selecting a work task reservation, using command Move Reservations, it is possible to move reservations to another location by typing a location number in the Location No field.

Issue

If the user performing the issue has a default warehouse defined in the Users Connected to Warehouses page the issue will be done here. If the warehouse only has a part of the required quantity this quantity will be issued and the user will receive an information message saying how much remains to be issued. It is only possible to issue reserved material from the default remote warehouse. The user will get an error message if the reservation is not done in the default remote warehouse of the user, then a manual issue has to be performed. If connected warehouses exists but none of them are default no issue will be done. The Issue manually dialog will be filtered as below if connected warehouses of the user exists:

Default - The default warehouse of the logged in user.
Connected - All warehouses to which the user is connected.
All - All warehouses on the default site of the logged in user.

Work Task- Service

This section describes how direct material flow in Work Task-Service and remote warehouse functionality interact. The direct material flow is only initiated from material line connected to Work Task - Service. There is no Impact on existing material line connected to Work Tasks originated from Work Order.

Remote warehouse is a central part of the service management material flows which is used to define inventory locations at the customer or other remote places where material can be temporary stored. This solution will allow the PSO/Material Planner to locate the remote warehouse with an address connected to service location, in order to directly deliver materials that are required to be available before the technician starts the work assignment. It will also allow automatic registration of new remote warehouses and clean-up remote warehouses once the work task is finished.

Automatic registration of remote warehouse

Automatic registration of remote warehouse is triggered in the Work Task-Service, when material lines are released for Supply Code= Shipment Order or Supply Code= Purchase Order with “Deliver to Service Location” option enabled. Remote warehouse is created automatically in the back end which is a “hidden” step for the end user.

A New address type “Geolocation” has been added to remote warehouse to keep service location address information. Geolocation address is taken from Work Task-Service address which is defined in service location basic data. “Geolocation” address information will be used in Purchase Order and Shipment Order as receiver address details for direct deliveries initiated from Work Task-Service material lines. System will use default values/auto generated values in auto created warehouses as mentioned below.

Site - Defaulted from from Work Task header Site
Warehouse ID = Description - System generated sequence
Warehouse Navigator/Locations Tab - One default picking location will be created based basic data on Site/Maintenance Tab/Service Material Direct Delivery Defaults . This picking location will be used to receive and issue parts in the service location
Remote option will be enabled by default
Warehouse Navigator/General Tab - Automatically Refill Putaway Zones and Putaway Destination , these two options will be disabled by default. Part Availability Control value will be defaulted from the basic data on Site/Maintenance Tab/Service Material Direct Delivery Defaults
Remote Warehouse Tab
- Delivery Address - Inherited from Work Task-Service address
- Arrival Defaults - Default Receive Case for Inventory Part will be set to Receive into Inventory
- Shipment Order Defaults - Ship Via, Delivery Terms will be picked from the Company/Address/Supply Chain Information
- Default Locations - Automatically created picking location will be set as the default location for receiving

Cleaning up remote warehouse created during the automatic process

Stock locations used in the direct flows are more of temporary and virtual in nature. When the materials are used and work task is finished, there is no need to keep the stocks at the service location. Therefore system will automatically remove such temporaory warehouses, once the service task is finished.

Cleaning up of remote warehouse solution is only applicable for the remote warehouses that are created automatically from the Work Task-Service, with Address Type= Geolocation. Remote warehouse will be automatically removed in the back end which is a “hidden” step for the end user. Automatic clean up of remote warehouse is triggered in the Work Task –Service, when Work Task-Service status is changed to “Finished” or “Cancelled” . The remote warehouse data created during automatic process will be removed from the system if remote warehouse is not used by other work tasks and it does not have remaining stocks/In transit Qty/reserved stocks/freeze stocks.

Reserve

For the direct flows originating from Work task-Service, system will always reserve materials automatically when receiving purchase order/shipment order. User connected warehouses logic used in existing work task will not be validated for direct flows. The user who performs register arrival will be able to receive and reserve materials automatically irrespective of the settings in the part availability control and user/warehouse connection.

Issue

There will be an exception for the direct material flows in work task service, when issuing materials. As per current work task logic, the system only issue from the user-connected default warehouse. But for direct flows,the automatic issue logic will be handled in a different way.

When using automatic "Issue" option, system will inform user that this material is sourced through direct flows and material should be manually issued from warehouse connected to direct flows.

When using the "Issue Manually" option, user will be always allowed to issue from the warehouse connected to direct flow. If user tries to issue from another warehouse, system will stop user with an error.

Recommended remote warehouse setup

Given below is one suggested remote warehouse setup. It is possible to make adjustments depending on the business requirements.

Page	Setting	Reason	Consequence
Warehouse Navigator	Enable the Remote option on the Warehouse header.	The warehouse will be a remote warehouse.	The Remote Warehouse tab will be enabled.
Warehouse Navigator/General tab	Clear the Automatically Refill Putaway Zones option.	To limit the refill to be executed instantly or on scheduled basis.	The automatic refill will be disabled.
Warehouse Navigator/General tab	Clear the Putaway Destination option.	We do not want the putaway to create transport task to the remote warehouse when for example a purchase order is received with putaway.	The locations in the Remote Warehouse will not be considered a putaway destination.
Warehouse Navigator/General tab	Enter a Default Part Availability Control with the setting: Part Supply Control: Not Nettable Part Auto Reservation Control: Non-Automatic Reservation Part Manual Reservation Control: Non-Manual Reservation Part Order Issue Control: Non-Order Issue Part Movement Control: All Allowed Putaway Zone Refill Source: Disabled Part Non-Order Issue Control, Part Scrap Control and Part Counting Control is user optional.	Explained in the section: Using default part availability control above.	The remote warehouse stock will be limited to the work task process and to the user that is connected to the actual remote warehouse.
Warehouse Navigator/Remote Warehouse tab	Enable Appear as Putaway Zone.	This setting will make it possible to run manual or scheduled refill of the remote warehouse.	All remote warehouse assortment-connected parts will get a putaway zone in the remote warehouse.
Warehouse Navigator/Remote Warehouse tab	Enter a ranking of the putaway zone.	It should be the highest ranking to make sure that parts are refilled in the remote warehouse.	All remote warehouse assortment-connected parts will get a putaway zone in the remote warehouse.
Remote Warehouse Assortment	Create a new remote warehouse assortment with priority.		The assortment part with the highest priority will appear on the *Warehouse Navigator/Remote Warehouse* tab.
Remote Warehouse Assortment/Parts tab	Add parts to the assortment.	The parts added in this tab will be connected to the remote warehouses defined on the Remote Warehouses tab.
Remote Warehouse Assortment/Sites tab	Add sites.	The assortment will be available on the sites added (the parts added have to exist as inventory parts on the added sites).
Warehouse Navigator/Remote Warehouse tab	Add the assortments for the specific remote warehouse (this can also be done from the Remote Warehouse Assortment/Remote Warehouses tab).	To make the assortment active on the remote warehouses.
Warehouse Navigator/Remote Warehouse tab	Add the users that should have the remote warehouse as a default warehouse (this can also be done from the Users Connected to Warehouses page).	The user added to a specific remote warehouse can override the default part availability control entered above in the work order process.	See above under the Work Order header how this affect the reserve and issue logic.
Site/Warehouse Management/General tab	Refill Putaway Zones: From All Stock Locations	This setting is needed to enable the refill jobs (the setting can be overridden on the Inventory Part).
*Site/Warehouse Management/Transport* Task tab	Enable Auto Assign Drop-Off Location on Manual Transport Task.	This setting makes it possible to use drop-off locations and two step transport task for manually created transport tasks.	The system will automatically create a two-step transport task if a drop-off location exists between the from and to-location.
Warehouse Navigator/Transport Task tab	Add a drop-off location.	The general reason using a drop-off location is that it is different persons handling the part. The warehouse worker in the central warehouse collects the parts needed and performs the transport task to the drop-off. The worker using the remote warehouse executes the transport task between the drop-off location and the remote warehouse.	Transport tasks to the warehouse will first be transported to the drop-off location with a forward-to location in the remote warehouse.
Warehouse Navigator/Transport Task tab	In the Automatic Consolidation section, select Warehouse for both From Location By and To Location By.	Transport task lines created to the warehouse will, if the rules on the from-warehouse allows it, be consolidated on one transport task to the remote warehouse. The same logic applies when transport task lines are created from the remote warehouse.	Transport task lines are consolidated. The setting on warehouse overrides the setting on site for from-location and to-location.
*Site/Warehouse Management/Transport* Task tab	Enable Allow Deviating Part Availability Control.	To make it possible to move parts with deviating part availability control using transport task.
Warehouse Navigator	Using command Refill all Putaway Zones on the warehouse header.	Create a scheduled job for when the transport task or purchase requisitions should be created. If no job is created the user have to perform refill job manually.	The remote warehouse assortment-connected parts will be refilled.