Cycle Count Process for Item Traceability

This section details the concepts and procedures pertaining to Cycle Count in Uniware.

Applicability

Version: Enterprise version only

Traceability: ITEM only

Purpose

Cycle count is a process by which we sanitize warehouse inventory. In short, we select a shelf, and we start scanning items on that shelf. And at the end, we make sure that the item type inventories of that shelf are in sync with the number of items scanned.

To check that the location (shelf) of every item is correctly mapped.
To verify the physical count of the inventory is same as that recorded in the system.
To reconcile the missing and extra items found on different shelves.

How does it work?
To ensure better tracking, cycle count can be divided into small targets. These targets called sub-cycle counts have their individual shelves which can be added to in numerous ways: Manual/Automatic/Semi-Automatic, which are discussed in detail later in this document.

Note:

Cycle count is a facility level entity.
There should be only one ACTIVE cycle count in a warehouse at a time.
One cycle count has to be completed before beginning with the next Cycle Count.
Until all pending actions like Putaway or pending Order Processing is completed on a shelf, its counting cannot happen.
Cycle Count is done for the Good, Bad, QC Reject inventory.
All the unused shelves are disabled. This is done to make the process of Sub-Cycle count generation more efficient.
No item would be picked for gate-pass or any other process from a blocked shelf.

Procedure

Cycle Count Creation> Scanning/Enter the code> Create putaway list> Shelf assiging> Completion

Navigate to following path:

UI Navigation: Materials > Cycle Counts> {Create}

Create a Cycle Count

Click on ‘Create’ Button to create a new Cycle count. This would be allowed only if all previous cycle counts of this warehouse are closed.

Select the Target Date (by which the Cycle Count must be completed) and click “Create” to see a new entry on the Cycle Count page. This date can be edited during the cycle count as well.

The cycle count screen shows the number of active shelves in the warehouse at that particular instant.

Create Sub Cycle Count

Once a Cycle Count is created, click it to go the next screen of Sub-Cycle Counts.

These sub-cycle counts can be created in following three ways:

Automatic
Semi-Automatic
Manual

Automatic

Each day, for each zone of the warehouse, a Sub-Cycle count would be generated by the system. The Number of shelves in the Sub-Cycle count would be = [(Shelves in the warehouse not yet added to a subCycle count)/ (Days pending in the cycle count duration)].

The list of shelves is chosen in order of Shelf Code, bypassing the ones which have been included in any other Sub-Cycle Count. The target completion date of the automatic Sub-Cycle count would be the next day.

NOTE: You can also auto-create Sub Cycle Counts configuration in Zones both in Series and in Parallel. (System configuration to be done by the account manager as per client’s requirement)

Zones in parallel mean selecting multiple shelves from several zones (not necessarily completing any of the zone)
Zones in series mean selecting one zone, completing it serially then going to another zone, covering it serially, and so on.

Here, the list of shelves is chosen in order of Zone Priority and then by Shelf Code, bypassing the ones which have been included in any other Sub-Cycle Count.

Semi-Automatic

You will be given an option to choose the zone(s) and the number of shelves in those zone(s). The system would generate the Sub-Cycle Count with those shelves of chosen zone(s), bypassing the ones which have been included in any other Sub-Cycle Count(s). The target completion date of the Sub-Cycle Count has to be given manually.

Manual

You have set the target completion date of the Sub-Cycle Count manually. Then you have to scan the shelves to be included in the Sub-Cycle Count. The shelf which has already been included in any other Sub-Cycle Count with its counting not COMPLETED cannot be added.

Shelf status in a Sub-Cycle Count

A Sub-Cycle Count involves counting the contents of designated shelves. During the process, a shelf processes under various states. These are stated as below:

UNBLOCKED: A shelf has been added to a Sub-Cycle Count. It can further be BLOCKED for counting.This action can either be accomplished on the data table or by scanning the shelf code.
Note: The Unblocked shelves can also be REMOVED from the Sub-Cycle (Please see the other option in the image above).

BLOCKED: If pending actions of Put Aways and Pick Lists are found on a shelf, it is sent to the BLOCKED status. Complete these actions to further send it to the READY status.
Note: If you click on the number of “Putaway Pending” or “Pickup Pending” then the system will take you to the respective Putaway or Picklist screen to complete it.
READY: The shelf is ready to start counting. This status can be reached in two ways:
- a. When we take the action “BLOCK” on UNBLOCKED shelves, and the system finds no pending actions on the shelves, it directly sets the status to READY.
- b. When we take the action “BLOCK” on UNBLOCKED shelves, and the system finds pending putaways or picklists or both on the selected shelves, it sets their status to BLOCKED. When all these pending.
- actions are completed, the status of BLOCKED shelves move to READY.
  Note: There is an internal task that runs every 5 minutes to keep checking and sending all the BLOCKED shelves to READY if all pending actions are over.
  You can mark “Start Counting” form the web interface (Uniware) using the Action on the same page.
- IN PROGRESS: The counting on the shelf is in progress. The system allows scanning of items with a hand-held device. This page contains various columns like Expected Inventory, Total found, Total Extra Inventory, Total Missing Inventory and Without Barcode. These columns contain the real-time values as found and synced from the warehouse.
- COMPLETED: The counting on a shelf has been completed and submitted.

Please Remember:

The shelf automatically moves from BLOCKED/READY status to UNBLOCKED status if the Cycle Count is not started within 2 hours of blocking it (this minimum time is configurable).
Also, after the closure of the Cycle Count time (configured during Cycle count creation), all BLOCKED and READY shelves move to UNBLOCKED status. No blocking of shelves is allowed outside this Cycle Count time, which is configurable.

Close Cycle Count

A cycle count can be closed anytime. Closing the cycle count will give an error if any shelf status is COUNT_IN_PROGRESS.

Caution: We do not suggest you to close the Cycle Count until reconciliation is done otherwise you need to scan all the extra inventory again which was not reconciled.