Warehouse Operations enables warehouse workers to use the eLogii Dashboard to manage their Tasks. Multiple workflows can be created to fit different scenarios and circumstances, so if you have multiple warehouses that operate differently, you can set up different workflows for each.
Additionally, warehouse operators are created as new users with unique permissions and user interface, so there is no risk of warehouse operators and route planners interfering with one another in the system.
Setting up Warehouse Operations requires a couple of steps. You would first need to define users (warehouse operators), and then start creating workflows.
Creating users
To create a user, navigate to the Users ⇒ Add a User. After setting up their basic information, configure their role as Warehouse Operator.
The warehouse operator can then log into eLogii with their login credentials (the email and password credentials assigned to them upon user creation). Even though it's the same login link regular eLogii users use to log into the system, the warehouse operator's view differs significantly.
This view is optimized for smartphones and tablets, which means that your workers can log into eLogii and manage their work from those devices.
Defining Loading Zones and Bays
Loading Zones and Bays represent different operational areas within your warehouse. They are an optional step in configuration, so if your workflow doesn't involve anything similar to this, you can skip to the Creating workflows step.
You can define as many Loading zones and Loading Bays as you want. Loading bays represent areas where Vehicles get loaded or unloaded, and they can be related to specific Loading zones, Loading zones are the areas of the warehouse where the loading bays are located.
It's also possible to attribute a maximum capacity to each bay, and this determines how much of your set capacity unit can be handled per bay. This will limit the Routes/Tasks that can be processed on the selected bay, and if they exceed the maximum capacity of the Bay, the system will not allow you to process them there, and the bay will be regarded as not usable.
If other warehouse operators are using a specific bay, it will be shown in eLogii as Locked and who's occupying it. It is possible to unlock these bays and use them regardless.
Creating workflows
Warehouse operations can be set up in Configuration ⇒ Warehouse operations.
You can define as many workflows as you want, and enable/disable them at any point in time.
To create a workflow click the Add a Workflow button and define the desired actions. After setting everything up, click Save to apply settings.
Workflow types
There are two types of workflows you can create:
Route workflow - Applies to Tasks that have been optimized and assigned to a Driver and a Vehicle. Practically, this workflow would be used if you need to sort and load specific packages into the designated Vehicle, or if you need to load into the Vehicle all the packages in a specific order.
Task workflow - Workflow applies to any Task on an individual level, regardless of which Driver and Vehicle it's assigned to, or which route it belongs to. In practice, this is most useful if you need to check the dimensions of packages before route creation and optimization, or for cases where you need to check everything in the warehouse on a particular day by scanning all items.
Currently, only Optimized Tasks will be processed for the Warehouse operations. If Tasks are only created and not optimized, they will not appear in the Warehouse Operations view.
Workflow States
After choosing between Route and Task workflow, the next step would be to define the Required state, Completed state, and Task State after the workflow is sorted. The Required and Completed states are warehouse states and are not the same as Task states. Warehouse states are entirely defined by users, and not pre-defined as Task states. eLogii identified the two as completely different elements.
Completed state - This is the warehouse state Tasks/Routes get when the workflow is completed, and it is also a mandatory field. This state is used as a pre-requisite to trigger other workflows based on completed state by setting the completed state of one workflow as the required state of another one.
Required state - This refers to the warehouse state that makes Tasks/Routes eligible for a workflow to be triggered for set Tasks. For the first workflow you create, you should leave this field empty, because there's no pre-set required warehouse state to trigger the first workflow. In all other workflows, you can use any of the existing completed states from previous workflows as the starting trigger.
Task state after workflow is completed - You can choose to set a specific Task state after the workflow is completed. You can choose from any of the presets. For example, if we want to automatically set the actual Task state to Pickup Completed after the Vehicle has been loaded, without the Driver having to do anything from the Driver App, we can accomplish that by setting the Task state to Pickup completed after the workflow ends.
Workflow example - you can have 2 workflows, the first one is called Sorting, and at this stage, your workers are sorting all the Tasks and checking them before loading them into vehicles. This workflow doesn't have a Required state set, because it's the first one, and we will also set the appropriate actions needed for Tasks to pass the check. All the Tasks that pass the check/are accounted for will be Sorted as the completed state and will move onto the second step of our Warehouse operations, which as the Loading workflow. This workflow will have a Required state as a trigger because we can only load Tasks that passed the check and have the appropriate state. We will set Sorted as the required state for workflow eligibility, and we can set the completed state as Loaded, and Task state after workflow is completed as Pickup Completed, though that's not mandatory. After setting the action required for the workflow to complete, we can save it and enable both workflows.
Actions
There are various actions that can be chosen as a prerequisite for workflow completion. Action types define the level of action applicability, meaning that an action can be performed on various levels, depending on the action type of choice.
There are 3 action types:
Route actions - They represent actions that can be performed on a Route level and will apply to all the Tasks that belong to that specific Route. This lets users perform bulk confirmation actions for all tasks on the same route. For example, if you need to confirm that a batch of Tasks should go on a specific loading bay, you can set that as a Route action which will apply to all Tasks within the same Route.
Task actions - These refer to actions that need to be done on an individual i.e. Task level, regardless of the Workflow type chosen. This means you can combine these alongside Route Actions. For example, after you've confirmed that your batch of Tasks needs to go on a specific loading bay, you want to make sure that each of the Tasks from the batch needs to go there, and that there are no Tasks that were accidentally placed in the batch, you can add a Task action to scan the Bay, and after that to scan the Task code.
Item actions - Item actions let you define further actions on an even more granular level. This lets you choose actions for each item for every Task.
Available actions are identical across all action types and you may choose between:
Barcode scan - refers to the barcode of the main entity (either Route Task or Item, depending on your configuration type). Lets you scan the barcode attributed to the entity.
Signature - Allows you to capture a signature for action confirmation for any of the selected action types.
Photo - Allows you to take a photo of the entity.
Comment - Allows you to leave a comment regarding the entity.
Confirmation - Allows you to add a confirmation action.
Scan loading bay - Allows you to scan the assigned loading bay, The loading bay QR code is printed and scanned by the device, and the QR code needs to contain the name of the loading bay that's identical to the name given to it in eLogii.
Scan Vehicle - This allows you to scan the assigned Vehicle.
All of these actions can be set as mandatory, or left optional by switching the toggle on or off. If set mandatory, if the action has not been completed, then the workflow will not be completed.
There are a few additional options such as Follows loading order which lets you perform actions that follow a predefined loading order, and Apply item actions to Task when Task has no items allows you to apply set Item actions on a Task level, so that you don't need to re-configure your setup.