We’re pleased to announce the release of OrderFlow 4.3.1, followed shortly afterwards by the minor releases 4.3.1.1 and 4.3.1.2. Over this period we’ve continued to develop the product very actively, most notably in the areas of warehouse licence plates, delivery receipt, order processing and work orders for manufacturing.

Warehouse Licence Plates

The use of licence plates is continuing to extend across different parts of the system as we make increasing use of the flexibility they allow. A number of new flavours of licence plate picking and processing have been introduced

With 4.3.0 we had introduced nested licence plates, which allow for many individual licence plates to be nested in a parent (e.g. individually labelled totes nested within a labelled pallet). In 4.3.1 we extended this capability by allowing licence plates to be picked or moved as part of a handheld task. OrderFlow can now drive complex licence plate operations. For example, incoming stock might be sorted into individually labelled totes that are then nested within a pallet. The pallet can then be moved about the warehouse as a single entity and individual totes can be moved between pallets.

Possible scenarios for this sort of functionality include:

• Splitting incoming stock into totes on receipt, holding them in bulk pallet locations until ready to replenish the pick face with a complete tote.
• Removing slow moving SKUs from the ground level pick face and holding them in mixed totes on a pallet from where they will be picked for the occasional orders that requires them.
• Using licence plates to identify unique items that have to be tracked individually (e.g. personalised or custom items).

With 4.3.1 we have also introduced a new framework for managing the workflow of licence plates. This is suitable for more complex scenarios where a licence plate may need to be moved not just from A to B but through multiple steps in a more complex journey.

Receipt

We’ve improved the handheld validation of received products and quantities to ensure that problems are identified earlier in the process. For deliveries associated with an ASN or purchase order, we’ve extended the options for handling the receipt of unexpected stock. We’ve also introduced a mechanism that will prevent users receiving more stock than is expected on the associated PO or ASN unless they have the appropriate elevated permissions.

We’ve also made it easier to receive non-barcoded products for which no image is yet available.

Order Processing

With OrderFlow 4.3.1, we have new API operations that allow for the hold and release of orders via a remote web service operation.

It is now possible to create global shipment batches, that is, pick batches that include shipments for multiple organisations. This can be helpful in multi-organisation environments where the order volumes for each organisation may be quite small.

In this release, we’ve added some improvements to the calculation of shipment dimensions, particular when selecting the appropriate outer packaging for a shipment.

We’ve also created a new packing option that makes it possible to pack a shipment into multiple cases which can then be manifested and despatched separately.

Work Orders and Raw Materials

With 4.3.1 we’ve continued to add capability around the handling of manufacturing inputs and outputs, with further enhancements to the picking of raw materials and the receipt of new stock from manufacturing processes.

We’ve added new mechanisms to pick raw materials required by a works order and made improvements to the way OrderFlow manages raw material that needs to be returned to stock from weighing room operations that weigh out the required quantities before presenting it to a manufacturing process.

Other Enhancements

Altogether in the 4.3.1 releases we have included over 85 minor enhancements and bug fixes.