Kanban replenishment via WM: always full pallet

[Former Member]

Hi,

We are using classic Kanban where the source is a WM-HU managed storage location.

This is working fine in 80 - 85 % of the cases, but is not working as desired for materials that have alternating sizes of packaging.

The request of the logistics department is namely to always deliver full pallets or boxes.

Example:

Material A has a Kanban replenishment quantity of 200 PC.

In stock we have 3 pallets, removal strategy = FIFO.

Pallet X 180 PC GR date 01/02/2016

Pallet Y 210 PC GR date 01/04/2016

Pallet Z 220 PC GR date 01/03/2016

Replenishment of first container: no problem, you confirm only TO for 180 PC.

Replenishment of 2nd container: since quantity of pallet Z = 220 exceeds the replenishment quantity = 180, the TO cannot be confirmed for the full pallet.This will work only if you activate overdelivery in the storage type, but this is not a feasible solution for us unless we could limit this on material level. Reason is that for some of the materials the pallets contain several boxes for which the replenishment quantity is set to the box quantity.

Allowing overdelivery would result in a big risk that full pallets will be confirmed instead of boxes.

The alternative of working with nested HUs is not an option as it is considered as too time consuming during inventory.

We considered partial pallet quantity and large / small quantities removal strategies, but both does not seem to meet our requirement.

Furthermore we tried to find a way to force the quantity of the TR created by emptying the Kanban container to be equal to the quantity of the next pallet for replenishment. Unfortunately we couldn't find any BAPI, user exit or FM that serves our purpose or that intervene at the right time.

All ideas will be highly appreciated!

Best regards

Geert

[Former Member]

Hi

Have you considered any of the following options ?

1. Use an alternative UoM for the box and replen by box qty's. The downside would be that the replen picker would have to split the pallet.
2. Speak the the Vendor(s) about standard pallet qty's.
3. Repack into 180 pallet qty's during the goods receipt process.

Cheers

[Former Member]

Hi Android,

Thanks for your reply!

1. Interesting approach. So your suggestion would be to set the Kanban replenishment qty equal to the "highest box quantity" (220 in my example) using alternative UoM? At confirmation you would only confirm 180 PC if you have a box of 180 PC and 220 PC if you have one of 220 PC.

Only downside I see is that the picker must be forced to check the box quantity, otherwise a lot of inventory issues will arise. So we might have to develop an extra RF screen which explicitly asks the picker to check the box quantity.

2. This was indeed my first answer to the business, but somehow they do not seem to successfully sort this out with a couple of vendors.

3. We considered this, but this would mean a lot of extra handling in the warehouse that brings no too little value.

Best regards

Geert

[Former Member]

Hi Geert

1) Sorry I obviously misunderstood your scenario. As you mentioned both pallet and box , I assumed that the materials were boxed on a pallet and that the differences in the qty's was the number of boxes so that,

1xBox = 10PC

Pallet X = 18 boxes

Pallet Y = 21 boxes

Pallet Z = 22 boxes

Therefore, set the kanban replen qty the 18BOX rather than 180PC

2) Can be an issue (particularly with duel/multi sourcing.

3) Again based on my assumption for No1 sorry

But I think increasing the kanban qty to 220PC in this example (no need for alternative UoM) would be the simplest solution (providing of course that the kanban can physically hold 220) ??

Cheers