Users - order -> ??? -> pick

[davidnwelton]

Hi,

One thing that would be super useful in terms of documentation of
ofbiz is a "walkthrough" something like:

Some guy orders 1 "Opus Doll"
There are 3 in stock in the warehouse
One is reserved
???
Profit!

Another guy orders 5 "Bill the Cat Dolls"
There are 2 in stock in the warehouse
....
???

And so forth.

Right now I've been trying to see what happens at each step with the
demo setup, but I have run into something of a mystery.  I made
several orders, 2 of which were for items that were covered in the
warehouse stock (WG-1111).  Then I did another order that went over
the remaining number (to see what the ordering system does in that
case, if anything).

I see the orders in the order manager, but when I go into the facility
manager, and try and 'pick' the orders, it indicates that there are
two that need a 'stock move' prior to picking.  Is that inventory
xfer?  What needs moving and how does it happen?

What happens after that?

--
David N. Welton
 - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/

Linux, Open Source Consulting
 - http://www.dedasys.com/
 
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[Jacopo Cappellato]

Hi David,

stock moves are different from inventory xfer: stock moves happen within
the same warehouse between a bulk location and a pick location;
inventory xfers happen between two warehouses.
You can define bulk and pick location in the Facility-->Location tab
You can define 'stock move' rules in the Catalog-->Edit
Product-->Locations tab.

Hope this helps.

Jacopo



David Welton wrote:

> Hi,
>
> One thing that would be super useful in terms of documentation of
> ofbiz is a "walkthrough" something like:
>
> Some guy orders 1 "Opus Doll"
> There are 3 in stock in the warehouse
> One is reserved
> ???
> Profit!
>
> Another guy orders 5 "Bill the Cat Dolls"
> There are 2 in stock in the warehouse
> ....
> ???
>
> And so forth.
>
> Right now I've been trying to see what happens at each step with the
> demo setup, but I have run into something of a mystery.  I made
> several orders, 2 of which were for items that were covered in the
> warehouse stock (WG-1111).  Then I did another order that went over
> the remaining number (to see what the ordering system does in that
> case, if anything).
>
> I see the orders in the order manager, but when I go into the facility
> manager, and try and 'pick' the orders, it indicates that there are
> two that need a 'stock move' prior to picking.  Is that inventory
> xfer?  What needs moving and how does it happen?
>
> What happens after that?
>
> --
> David N. Welton
>  - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/
>
> Linux, Open Source Consulting
>  - http://www.dedasys.com/
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users
>

 
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[David E. Jones]

David,

To do the actual stock moves there is a link in the pick tab for a  
facility in the Facility Manager.

There is a lot of stuff like this in OFBiz that may not be totally  
obvious when you initially look at it. We do have a tech writer  
working full-time writing and maintaining end-user oriented  
documentation, and that might be of use to you. For those who are  
willing to offer feedback and contributions to the docs we do offer  
free access. The best way to start is the first month deal for $4.95.

-David J.


On Dec 7, 2005, at 11:39 AM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:

> Hi David,
>
> stock moves are different from inventory xfer: stock moves happen  
> within the same warehouse between a bulk location and a pick  
> location; inventory xfers happen between two warehouses.
> You can define bulk and pick location in the Facility-->Location tab
> You can define 'stock move' rules in the Catalog-->Edit Product--
> >Locations tab.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Jacopo
>
>
>
> David Welton wrote:
>> Hi,
>> One thing that would be super useful in terms of documentation of
>> ofbiz is a "walkthrough" something like:
>> Some guy orders 1 "Opus Doll"
>> There are 3 in stock in the warehouse
>> One is reserved
>> ???
>> Profit!
>> Another guy orders 5 "Bill the Cat Dolls"
>> There are 2 in stock in the warehouse
>> ....
>> ???
>> And so forth.
>> Right now I've been trying to see what happens at each step with the
>> demo setup, but I have run into something of a mystery.  I made
>> several orders, 2 of which were for items that were covered in the
>> warehouse stock (WG-1111).  Then I did another order that went over
>> the remaining number (to see what the ordering system does in that
>> case, if anything).
>> I see the orders in the order manager, but when I go into the  
>> facility
>> manager, and try and 'pick' the orders, it indicates that there are
>> two that need a 'stock move' prior to picking.  Is that inventory
>> xfer?  What needs moving and how does it happen?
>> What happens after that?
>> --
>> David N. Welton
>>  - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/
>> Linux, Open Source Consulting
>>  - http://www.dedasys.com/
>>  _______________________________________________
>> Users mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users

 
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[davidnwelton]

> stock moves are different from inventory xfer: stock moves happen within
> the same warehouse between a bulk location and a pick location;

Ah, ok, that wasn't obvious.  I've never dealt with warehouses before,
so my mental model is basically what I see at work, where the process
is a bit simpler: every day, we have a list of customer orders that
have been completed by the arrival of products that round out their
orders.  For each order, a pick list is generated, and the products
are gathered, packaged up, and sent.

> inventory xfers happen between two warehouses.
> You can define bulk and pick location in the Facility-->Location tab
> You can define 'stock move' rules in the Catalog-->Edit
> Product-->Locations tab.

Thanks - I'll play with that some when I go back to work tomorrow.

I'll take advantage of the documentation deal, too, and look through that.

I don't know if it contains a "walkthrough", but I think that would be
a useful addition to people trying to evaluate what ofbiz is capable
of.  More than anything, I'm curious how it scales in "people terms"
at each step of the process.  The website front-end scalability is a
technology issue, but I would need to make sure that processes are
automated as much as possible, with supplier orders not requiring
extensive human intervention - basically, I think I would want just an
HTML table displaying orders to sign off on, and an interface to drill
down should someone want to examine the details.  We try to stock as
few products as possible, and yet provide access to millions that are
stocked by many suppliers, so it's critical to be able to turn a
customer order into a supplier order quickly, once we have accumulated
enough items to request from that supplier that makes it worthwhile to
place an order.

Of course the technology has to scale too.  I'll see about loading one
of our catalogs up, and see if anything looks suspiciously slow.

--
David N. Welton
 - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/

Linux, Open Source Consulting
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[davidnwelton]

> Ah, ok, that wasn't obvious.

Speaking of non-obvious, another thing I see throughout OFBiz is the
little yellow hyperlink in the upper right corner of something.  Those
are easy to miss, and it's generally not the direction you look for
'important' functionality in most applications.  I'd suggest moving
it.

In any case, I found the 'stock move' and tried it.  Since our goal
here is to not have stuff in the warehouse if at all possible, what we
will need to do is have orders go out automatically.  So I wanted to
see what would happen when I placed an order for more product than was
in stock, which I did with WG-1111.  It generates an error:

45401 (http-0.0.0.0-8443-Processor3) [    
RequestHandler.java:281:ERROR] Request processPhysicalStockMove caused
an error with the following message:
Error with comparison in if-compare-field between fields
[.orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable] with value [null] and
[.reservedQuantityLeftOver] with value [1.0] with
operator [greater] and type [Double]: Left value is null, cannot
complete compare for the operator greater

I tried adding this, but it just made something of a mess...oops.

--- applications/product/script/org/ofbiz/product/inventory/StockMoveServices.xml (revision
6287)
+++ applications/product/script/org/ofbiz/product/inventory/StockMoveServices.xml (working
copy)
@@ -467,7 +467,8 @@
                     </if-compare-field>

                     <!-- now one other little trick:
reservedQuantityLeftOver is not empty and if
orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable is greater than
reservedQuantityLeftOver, then the difference should be moved -->
-                    <if>
+                    <if-not-empty
field-name="orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable">
+            <if>
                         <condition>
                             <and>
                                 <not><if-empty
field-name="reservedQuantityLeftOver"/></not>
@@ -484,6 +485,7 @@
                             <env-to-env
env-name="orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable"
to-env-name="quantityNotAvailableToMove"/>
                         </else>
                     </if>
+            </if-not-empty>

----

I guess it's just fixing the symptom - I'd be curious to see what the
real fix is.

--
David N. Welton
 - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/

Linux, Open Source Consulting
 - http://www.dedasys.com/
 
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[Jacopo Cappellato]

David,

I think you have definitely discovered a bug; yes, your patch will fix
the symptom, I'd like to help you to find the root of the problem and
fix it as well, but you should give me some more details so I can
reproduce the error.

In general, if you are not interested in warehouse management and want
to quickly close orders you can do it from the Order Manager --> Find
Order --> Order detail screen:

In it you'll find links to approve the order (one of the little yellow
hyperlinks you love ;-)) and, when orders are approved, a link to "Quick
Ship Entire Order" (in the "Shipment Information" box).
This link will take care of creating a shipment and taking items from
warehouse for you.
If you are processing an order for more product than are in stock, the
stock will go under zero.

Jacopo


David Welton wrote:

>>Ah, ok, that wasn't obvious.
>
>
> Speaking of non-obvious, another thing I see throughout OFBiz is the
> little yellow hyperlink in the upper right corner of something.  Those
> are easy to miss, and it's generally not the direction you look for
> 'important' functionality in most applications.  I'd suggest moving
> it.
>
> In any case, I found the 'stock move' and tried it.  Since our goal
> here is to not have stuff in the warehouse if at all possible, what we
> will need to do is have orders go out automatically.  So I wanted to
> see what would happen when I placed an order for more product than was
> in stock, which I did with WG-1111.  It generates an error:
>
> 45401 (http-0.0.0.0-8443-Processor3) [    
> RequestHandler.java:281:ERROR] Request processPhysicalStockMove caused
> an error with the following message:
> Error with comparison in if-compare-field between fields
> [.orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable] with value [null] and
> [.reservedQuantityLeftOver] with value [1.0] with
> operator [greater] and type [Double]: Left value is null, cannot
> complete compare for the operator greater
>
> I tried adding this, but it just made something of a mess...oops.
>
> --- applications/product/script/org/ofbiz/product/inventory/StockMoveServices.xml (revision
> 6287)
> +++ applications/product/script/org/ofbiz/product/inventory/StockMoveServices.xml (working
> copy)
> @@ -467,7 +467,8 @@
>                      </if-compare-field>
>
>                      <!-- now one other little trick:
> reservedQuantityLeftOver is not empty and if
> orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable is greater than
> reservedQuantityLeftOver, then the difference should be moved -->
> -                    <if>
> +                    <if-not-empty
> field-name="orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable">
> +            <if>
>                          <condition>
>                              <and>
>                                  <not><if-empty
> field-name="reservedQuantityLeftOver"/></not>
> @@ -484,6 +485,7 @@
>                              <env-to-env
> env-name="orderItemShipGrpInvRes.quantityNotAvailable"
> to-env-name="quantityNotAvailableToMove"/>
>                          </else>
>                      </if>
> +            </if-not-empty>
>
> ----
>
> I guess it's just fixing the symptom - I'd be curious to see what the
> real fix is.
>
> --
> David N. Welton
>  - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/
>
> Linux, Open Source Consulting
>  - http://www.dedasys.com/
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users
>

 
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[davidnwelton]

On 12/11/05, Jacopo Cappellato <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I think you have definitely discovered a bug; yes, your patch will fix
> the symptom, I'd like to help you to find the root of the problem and
> fix it as well, but you should give me some more details so I can
> reproduce the error.

Here's what I did:

1) Set up a default install with Postgres, using code from SVN.
2) Ordered something like ten WG-1111's
3) Ordered ten more.
4) Ordered 50.
5) Try to perform a 'stock move' so that it's possible to proceed with picking.
6) Error!

> In general, if you are not interested in warehouse management and want
> to quickly close orders you can do it from the Order Manager --> Find
> Order --> Order detail screen:

We do indeed need warehouse management, but perhaps it is too
different from OFBiz's idea of what warehouse management ought to
be... that's what I need to determine.

> In it you'll find links to approve the order (one of the little yellow
> hyperlinks you love ;-)) and, when orders are approved, a link to "Quick
> Ship Entire Order" (in the "Shipment Information" box).
> This link will take care of creating a shipment and taking items from
> warehouse for you.

Aha!  However: 'taking more items from the warehouse' means what in
terms of picking and packing?

In any case, clicking on the quick ship entire order throws some sort of error:

    *  ERROR: Could not complete the Sub-method used by quickShip
methods to create a shipment
[file:/home/davidw/workshop/ofbiz/applications/product/script/org/ofbiz/shipment/shipment/ShipmentServices.xml#createShipmentForFacilityAndShipGroup]
process [problem invoking the [updateShipment] service with the map
named [packedContext] containing [[shipmentId=10002,
statusId=SHIPMENT_PACKED,
userLogin=[GenericEntity:UserLogin][createdStamp,2005-12-07
15:12:11.457(java.sql.Timestamp)][createdTxStamp,2005-12-07
15:12:11.227(java.sql.Timestamp)][currentPassword,47ca69ebb4bdc9ae0adec130880165d2cc05db1a(java.lang.String)][disabledDateTime,null()][enabled,Y(java.lang.String)][hasLoggedOut,null()][isSystem,null()][lastCurrencyUom,null()][lastLocale,null()][lastUpdatedStamp,2005-12-09
18:13:05.538(java.sql.Timestamp)][lastUpdatedTxStamp,2005-12-09
18:13:05.524(java.sql.Timestamp)][partyId,admin(java.lang.String)][passwordHint,null()][successiveFailedLogins,0(java.lang.Long)][userLoginId,admin(java.lang.String)],
locale=en_US]]: Service target threw an unexpected exception (Type
id-ne not found)]

Beyond that... unless I'm mistaken (a distinct possibility given my
lack of familiarity with the system) that as things stand, this system
is not scalable in human terms:

Instead of having to click on each order, and quick ship entire order,
I think you'd want a list of all orders, with checkboxes, allowing you
to quick ship the entire day's orders.

I noticed this in the 'product reviews' section as well - you have a
drop down menu for each review to select whether to approve it or not.
 Checkboxes with associated 'select all' helpers might allow an admin
to more quickly get a lot of reviews on line, although I guess before
long the problem might become how to manage thousands of reviews...

> If you are processing an order for more product than are in stock, the
> stock will go under zero.

Sure, that makes sense.  What I'd want to have happen in that case is
that the system creates a supplier order, with an associated page
showing all supplier orders, which lets the admin check off orders to
be sent out to suppliers.

Thanks again for the advice, and listening to me thinking out loud!
--
David N. Welton
 - http://www.dedasys.com/davidw/

Linux, Open Source Consulting
 - http://www.dedasys.com/
 
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