Warehouse Hopping System in WMS

What is the Warehouse Hopping System in WMS?

Warehouse Hopping is an advanced order fulfillment strategy used for the business with multiple warehouses. It involves mapping a set of secondary warehouses to each primary warehouse and establishing priority levels for these secondary warehouses to efficiently fulfill the customer orders. This strategy is used when inventory is unavailable in the primary warehouse, as it allows for a systematic fallback (hopping) to secondary warehouses based on the established priorities to ensure order fulfillment.

How is this Warehouse Hopping feature structured?

The system is structured as follows:

1. Define Primary Warehouses

Designate primary warehouses based on your specific business requirements. These primary warehouses serve as the initial choice for order fulfillment.

2. Identify Secondary Warehouses

For each primary warehouse, select a set of secondary warehouses. 

3. Assign Priority

Establish priority levels for the secondary warehouses associated with each primary warehouse. This determines the sequence in which they should be considered for order fulfillment.

4. WMS Implementation

Share the defined warehouse structure and priority assignments with the WMS. The WMS configures its order fulfillment algorithms accordingly, ensuring that orders are processed based on the specified priorities.

How does the order fulfillment work in the Warehouse Hopping system ?

The order fulfillment process follows these steps:

1. Check Primary Warehouse 

Initially, the system checks the inventory in the customer's designated primary warehouse to fulfill the order.

2. Fallback to Secondary Warehouses

If the primary warehouse does not have sufficient inventory, the system examines the secondary warehouses linked to that primary warehouse, following the priority order.

3.  Order Routing 

Once a warehouse with adequate inventory is identified (either a primary or secondary warehouse), the order is directed there for fulfillment.

4. No Inventory Available Scenario

In the scenario where none of the primary or secondary warehouses have the required inventory to fulfill the order, the order enters an on-hold status at the primary warehouse. This status indicates that the order cannot be fulfilled due to insufficient stock, and the order remains in that stage until the stock becomes available and can be allocated to fulfill that specific order.