Lot swapping

During picking, the inventory in the system is validated to ensure that enough quantity is available to pick the lot, location, and license plate allocated for the pick. If inventory of the specific lot, location, and LPN does not exist, then the operator cannot complete the pick. When multiple lots exist for an item, you have the chance for more than one lot contained in a pick location's system inventory to exist. If orders are picked in a different sequence than how they were allocated, you have an increased chance that the lot allocated to the order may not be present in the pick location's system inventory at the time of picking. Therefore, the picking process is disrupted when the picker finds enough inventory to pick but the inventory is in a different lot than expected.

These two lot swapping functions can be used to ensure that the picking process continues even when the lot allocated to an order does not exist in the location field, but sufficient inventory of the item exists:

  • System directed lot swapping: Use to have the system determine lot swapping. These pick options can use the system directed lot swapping functionality:
    • Assignment picking
    • Task directed picking
    • Cluster picking
  • User directed lot swapping: Use to have the picker determine lot swapping by lot, LPN, or lot attribute. These pick options can use the user directed lot swapping functionality:
    • Cluster picking, all options
    • Task directed assignment picking
    • Task directed picking