Inventory - Bin Locations

Overview

The system to manage the location of Inventory should be kept as simple as is possible. As an example, let's use a supermarket where you find 5000+ SKUs in one location. We've all been to a supermarket and we, therefore, need to agree that it is not necessary to have an exact BIN location to find an item - even if it's your first visit to the store. Instead, we use the general aisle markings the logic of the layout which generally includes grouping of similar items.

We also know the people working in the store (Packers and cleaners) are mostly able to point us directly to the item we are looking for. By this we can assume that the people working in a store room or warehouse, would soon become familiar with the layout and content thereof.

Options for managing Bin Locations

  1. Linking a Bin. No. to an Inventory Stock location - this will be a general indication of where the Item is stored.

  2. Linking every Stock Receive/Issue to an exact Location. A lookup field, Bin Ref , field has been provided for this on the Transaction items. The lookup list is populated from the Bin Ref field in the Locations setup module. This also provides the functionality to transfer across locations too. You need a Custom Report to check Stock vs Locations then.

Option 2 adds a lot of additional transacting and confusion to the Inventory Management process, however, without adding any significant benefits. For example, using Option 1, you can easily move stuff around in your warehouse to ensure that same and similar items are kept together. When using Option 2, however, you often need to split items over multiple Bin Locations to prevent other items moving out of there exact Locations.