Material Status (Warehouse)

This document outlines the process for placing goods on hold using the Material Status feature, including system guardrails implemented in the Flexe UI and mobile device for warehouses.

IN THIS TOPIC

• Overview of Material Status
• Shipper Usage
• Shipper Request
  • Putting Inventory on Hold
  • Taking Inventory Off Hold
• System Guardrails
  • 1. Waving 
  • 2. Picking
  • 3. Packing and Trailer Loading
  • 4. Cycle Counting

⚠️ Before you start

Make sure your reservation is enabled for this feature by contacting your operations distribution group or [e-mail]. 

Overview of Material Status

The Material Status feature provides shippers with greater control over their inventory within the warehouse. This feature allows them to define rules that determine the allowed operation for items based on their inventory properties such as SKU and lot code. 

Shipper Usage 

Material Status can be used for various purposes, such as:

• Preventing the shipment of defective inventory
• Managing product recalls
• Putting inventory on hold pending review (e.g. environmental hold)
• Managing products for donation or destruction

Shipper Request

1. Putting Inventory on Hold

Shippers should contact their designated operations distribution group or Flexe Logistics Analyst to request an inventory hold. Flexe will be able to view, enable, or disable material status for specific SKUs and/or lot codes upon shipper request. 

The shipper should cite the following:

• Reservations involved
• SKU
• Lot codes 
• Reason for putting goods on hold

As soon as the goods are selected in the system by Flexe, the specific goods affected will automatically be placed on hold and will be blocked from moving forward within normal warehouse operations. 

Note: The warehouse will be informed of these holds by their Flexe Logistics Analyst, and no action will need to be taken on the warehouse as the goods are automatically blocked by the system from getting allocated/waved/picked/packed/shipped out. 

2. Taking Inventory Off Hold

Shippers can also request to take inventory off hold by emailing their designated operations distribution group or Flexe Logistics Analyst. Flexe will be able to take previously held goods and release them to be shipped out as part of normal operations.

Again, the shipper will cite the following when requesting to take inventory off hold:

• Reservations involved
• SKU
• Lot codes 
• Reason for putting goods on hold

As soon as the goods are selected in the system by Flexe, the specific goods affected will automatically be released. 

System Guardrails

Here are the system guardrails the warehouse should be aware of that are implemented throughout various processes to prevent the shipment of inventory placed on hold:

1. Waving 

• Guardrail: Prevents the waving of orders that have on-hold goods allocated. 
• Error message: On Flexe Warehouse UI, under Waves & Batches, Incomplete wave, shipment contains at least one xxx SKU short inventory. 

2. Picking

• Guardrail: Prevents items from being included in pick recommendation and being picked. 
• Error message: A problem occurred, these units can’t be picked, their SKU or Lot is currently on hold.

3. Packing and Trailer Loading

• Guardrail: Prevents packing and the loading of on-hold inventory. 
• Error Message: Error messages will appear when attempting to:
  • Scan a pick cart containing on-hold items

• Building an LPN from an MHE with on-hold goods.

• Loading a freight and parcel trailer with on-hold goods.

Note related to Shelf Life Thresholds:

• While the Material Status Hold prevents further work being done against on-hold goods , there are specific exceptions:

  • LPN Build and Trailer Loading: The system does not block a warehouse from building LPNs or trailer loading goods that they have already picked, even if inventory has a "Material Status Hold" due to the shelf life threshold.

• On the alerts dashboard within “Performance & Reporting”, there is a table showing items hitting their shelf life in 14 days, or that have already passed into their shelf life

4. Cycle Counting

• Guardrail: Displays warning messages when changing lot code status between “On Hold” and Available lots, and vice versa. 
• Error Messages: On the Warehouse UI, under the Cycle Counts screen, the error will be displayed: 
  • An item in this count has had its lot code changed from an on-hold lot to an available lot. Please review to ensure this change was intentional. 

• An item in this count has had its lot code changed from an available lot to an on-hold lot. Please review to ensure this change was intentional.