The Shelf Allocation page in the Gelato Connect app is designed to help optimize the packing and shipping process by co-allocating items within an order. This page allows users to visually manage and organize items that have been produced, ensuring that all print jobs of an order are grouped together and can be easily located by packagers.
Main components of Shelf Allocation page
Shelf
Users are able to configure custom shelves on Shelf Configuration page by providing following attributes:
Name of the shelf
Number of rows and columns
Additionally users can activate/de-activate shelves, for example, during peak seasons. Only empty shelves (that don’t have any allocated packages) can be edited, or activated/de-activated.
Box
Each compartment of the shelf is called Box. We use so-called "grid coordinates" notation for boxes in the shelf:
Letters represent the rows (A, B, C, ... Z, AA, AB, etc.).
Numbers represent the columns (1, 2, 3, ... 99, 100, etc.).
Key Features and Functionality
Dynamic Co-Allocation of Items
The page provides a way to assign multiple items from a package to the same box, allowing packagers to gather them all in one place once production is complete. This minimizes the time spent searching for individual items, improving overall efficiency and reducing the risk of shipping incomplete order or wrong items - something that we consider as critical error.
Box Overview
User can easily overview the package assigned to the box and status of included items/jobs by pressing on Box Card.
Packaging Readiness
Boxes on Shelf Allocation page are labeled with following Status Badges:
Ready For Packaging - all items of the package are allocated to the box and ready to be packed and dispatched
Delayed - minimum dispatch date for the package has passed
(To Be Implemented) Shipped - warning indicating boxes with allocated packages that has already been shipped
Allocation process
There are a couple different ways print job can be allocated to the Shelf and Box
Quality Control Station
Any item scanned on quality control station will be allocated to the preferred shelf. The preferred shelf can be selected using the Shelf Selector in one of the following places:
Work Settings
Shelf Allocation Page
Packaging Station
The allocation of the scanned item will be shown in the Item Shelf card on the right side of the page
Shelf Allocation Page
Item scanned on the Shelf Allocation page will be allocated into the currently selected shelf
If item was previously allocated the same box number will be displayed helping users in cases when items are lost or misplaced.
Packaging Station
In many cases print houses will immediately send produced items directly to the Packaging Station. In this case, if package only consists of a single print job, we will not attempt to allocate this package to the shelf as it can be dispatched right away. However, when package consists of multiple print jobs, each scanned item will be allocated to the selected shelf on the Packaging Station Page
The allocation details are displayed in the left sidebar during Packaging Checks, as well as in the right panel on the Packaging Summary Page:
Clearing Boxes and Shelves
The Box is automatically cleared when the status of the package changes to “Shipped”.
There is 3 levels of clearing (removing) functionality
print job
box
shelf
1. Level 1 - Print Job
can be removed from the box on Shelf Allocation Package Details page by clicking button “Remove Print Job“
This action removes selected print job from the box.
There is an optional parameter Reset packaging progress.
Print Job can be reverted if it is in status “Printed“. For other statuses the checkbox is hidden.
Reverting means, that this print job after will obtain “Prepared“ status and be removed from the box.
2. Level 2 - Box
If needed, users can explicitly clear the Box on the Shelf Allocation Page by clicking on “Menu” (three dots) icon on the Box card and selecting Clear Box Allocation menu item
Same functionality is available on Shelf Allocation Package details page
This removes connection between box and package. Package will be not assigned to the box anymore.
There is same parameter to Reset packaging progress. It is applied to every print job in the package, without taking into account if print job status can be reverted. The following is how statuses are going to be updated.
Prepared → Prepared
Printed → Prepared
Shipped → Shipped
3. Level 3 - Shelf
Users can clear all boxes from the selected Shelf by clicking on Clear Shelf button in the top right corner of the grid of boxes on the Shelf Allocation Page. The result of this operation is Shelf with empty boxes.
Same Reset packaging progress is available, when each box on the shelf is cleared (package is unassigned from the box)
Connected parts of application: Explorer cards and Dispatch Overview page
Sorting status shows to the User if print job belongs to shelf (same: is sorted, is allocated)
1. Print Job Explorer card shows if print job is sorted
2. Package Explorer card
3. Dispatch overview page
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