Integrate a sorting system
A sorting system is used to sort incoming and outgoing goods in a warehouse. A sorting system typically come in the form of a conveyor system but can also be an Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) system.
Conveyor system
A conveyor system is used to transport objects from one place to another. The conveyor system may have the ability to move objects to different outgoing conveyor belts leading to different locations depending on the object itself. For instance, in a warehouse you may wish to have the conveyor system move all packages going to Sweden to one location, which all packages going to Norway should be moved to another location altogether. The conveyor system typically include some form of automatic data entry such as a barcode scanner or a RFID reader which inputs data to a control system.
Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) system
An AGV system may be used if a conveyor belt is not practically possible. It otherwise follows the same overall function seen from a WMS perspective.
Workflow
One possible way of integrating a sorting system with Ongoing WMS, is the following:
- An operator picks an order in the warehouse and places the goods in a package.
- A label with the order number (or some other identifier) is affixed to the package.
- The operator places the package on the start location. May be on a conveyor or on a designated site.
- The sorting system scans the package using a barcode reader or RFID.
- The sorting system makes a call to Ongoing WMS using the GetOrderArticleItemsByQuery endpoint.
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Using the information which Ongoing WMS returned to the sorting system, the sorting system can make an intelligent decision on where the package should be routed to.
The decision is made based on for example:
- carrier
- carrier service
- country
- ZIP code