pixi helps you setting up your warehouse as efficiently as possible to optimize storage and shipping processes. Use the pixi Control Center to create storage bins and locations and shipping boxes in pixi. Descriptive examples show the importance of sorting numbers and storage bin descriptions for optimizing the route during picking. If you need assistance with the planning or redesign of your warehouse, our pixi logistics consultants will be happy to help you.

Find more information under www.pixi.eu/services.

Create storage bins

Create storage bins via the Wizard

Open the pixi Control Center and log in with your Admin account.
Switch to the Tables tab and select the Bins table.
Click the button Wizard for bin compartments in the toolbar.
The bin wizard opens:
- Sorting number: Each bin in pixi is assigned a so-called sorting number, which defines the picking route during collective picking. There are usually several bins to collect items when it comes to collective picking. In order to avoid covering longer distances during picking than necessary, these so-called sorting numbers have been introduced. The number specifies the order in which the storage bins are to be processed during picking. The sorting number is always ascending when you create storage locations using the wizard. One and the same sorting number can be assigned to several bins. When using multiple locations, however, avoid to assign the same sorting number for bins located in different locations. If, during the picklist creation, you take several venues into account, you would end up being sent to collect items from bins in completely different locations.
  The sorting number can have maximum 9 digits.
- Location: The term location is always used in connection with a warehouse. If you have several warehouses (separate geographical locations, multi-level warehouse, etc.), you can specify here for which warehouse you want to create bins. As a rule, you can only select the warehouse where your picking process is taking place.
- Maximum number of items per storage bin: The value entered here is not having any effect. It is an outdated function that could not be removed for compatibility reasons.
Click on Next.

Now define the syntax of the storage bin names:

As a rule, pixi divides a bin into 4 sections (deviations possible). Example: A-01-B-2

A	defines the corresponding section of the warehouse, a room or a shelf row
01	defines the (continuous) shelf number
B	defines the level of a shelf
2	defines the subdivision of a shelf level (e.g., several chutes / boxes / sub-sections of a shelf)

If now for example, we consider the first storage bin to be generated: A-01-A-1, and the last storage bin to be generated in the wizard: C-09-F-3. If we divide both storage bins into their respective components, we get the following result:

A to C	Storage bins for areas A, B and C are generated.
01 to 09	9 shelves are generated for each area.
A to F	For each shelving rack to be created, 6 levels (A, B, C, D, E, F) are generated.
1 to 3	Each level is subdivided 3 times again.

This results in: 3 storage areas x 9 shelves x 6 levels x 3 subdivisions = 486 storage bins

Click on Next to view the preview. Have a look at the list to see, if the proposed storage bins meet your requirements. If this is the case, you can print the storage location barcodes directly, by checking "Print labels for all bins created by this wizard" for all bins generated by the wizard, and then clicking Finish.
Repeat steps 3 bis 6, if needed and label the bins accordingly.

Attention: If you deactivate the "Filter Stock Operations With Location" setting in the pixi Control Center > Database Settings > Inventory folder to move stock between locations using a mobile device you must ensure that the storage bin names are uniquely assigned across locations!

Notes on the syntax of storage bin names when using the wizard

The selected starting range begins with a single digit number, but the ending range should be double digits - this input is not allowed. Solution: Extend the starting area to two digits, so you specify specify "01" instead of "1", for example.
The syntax [letter][hyphen][number][hyphen][letter][hyphen][number] is not mandatory. You can use arbitrary numbers or characters according to your own preference, the hyphens can also be removed or replaced by other characters. Please note that special characters and umlauts are not permitted.
Please note that the storage bin names won't run too long, as they may not fit the label when printing and/or can't be read by the scanner anymore.
You want to create shelves with the numbers 01 to 19, but the shelf with the number 10 is always missing: The wizard can only ever count / increment per digit; therefore, pixi calculates only for the first digit from 0 to 1 and for the second digit from 1 to 9, the so-called transfer does not take place. Solution: Create only the shelves from the numbers 01 to 09, complete the wizard and then run it again and enter as shelving area 10 to 19, etc.
Some of the shelves have only 5 instead of 6 levels or some shelf rows are made up of only 8 instead of 9 shelves or less than the partitioning specified in the wizard. These storage bins do not have to be deleted. A storage bin, which physically does not exist, can't be labeled with a barcode. Thus, the putting in stock and the picking of items at these generated places are also not possible. If necessary, remove the redundant bins using the pixi Control Center or simply dispose of those labels that are printed.

Manually create / edit / delete storage bins

Open the application pixi Control Center and log in with via the Admin account.
Switch to the Tables tab and select the table Storage Bins.
In the toolbar, click New Row .
A new window will open. Enter the required data and confirm your entry by clicking the OK button.

Use the same procedure to edit and delete storage bins.

Notes:
- The use of umlauts (ä, ö, ü) can lead to problems when later processing the storage bin name via API calls for example, and should therefore be avoided.
- If you delete a storage bin, the storage history in the pixi Inventory of the deleted storage bin is still retained. A "Deleted" is displayed after the storage bin name to indicate that the storage has been removed.
- The sorting number can have a maximum 9 digits.

Change of storage bin sorting order

If you find during the operation that your sorting of the storage bins is not optimized in regards to the picking path (or after a warehouse conversion), you can edit the sorting order of the storage bin in use. This has the advantage that new storage bins do not have to be created or that goods that have already been stored don't have to be changed.

In order not to have to process every storage bin manually, there is the possibility to edit the storage bins via a CSV list (Excel).

Export storage bins and sorting numbers

You have two export options:

Open the pixi Control Center > Tables tab > Table Bins.
With your mouse click once in the list,
Select all data records with Ctrl + A,
Copy all data records with Ctrl + C,
Paste it into a new Excel worksheet with Ctrl + V and
Delete all columns past column D.

Open the pixi Control Center > Tables tab > Table Bins.
Click the CSV Export button in the toolbar.
Save the file.

Adapt sorting numbers

Now you can adapt the sorting number (column D) using different Excel formulas. For example, in D2, enter the following formula: =D1+5. This increases the increment between the storage bins to 5.

When you have finished editing the CSV file, please contact pixi Support so that the data can be copied to the database. The update is an add-on option subject to a charge, which is billed according to the effort invested.

Create storage areas for the picklist

Especially mail order businesses working with several storage locations or different storage areas with several employees, often find the implementation of efficient shipping processing a particularly big challenge. You can therefore group the storage bins of a warehouse location in pixi into so-called storage areas, which can then be selected when the picklist is created. See also: Picklist generation

In the case that you are dealing with different item sizes with small parts chutes, classic shelf racks, a high-level warehouse, and you have permanent personnel responsible for the respective areas, you can take account for this in pixi.

In the following example, we would like to explain the necessary settings in pixi.

Storage areas:

Small / spare parts (small compartments)
Books (Classic shelving for books)
Clothing (clothing: partial hanging garments, partly lying in shelves)

You could now create a picklist for several orders across all storage areas. In our case, create a picklist for several orders that are divided into the above storage areas. This means that the items that are to be picked can either be shared among various warehouse staff (pickers) or, if resources demand it, items could be picked in succession from the different areas in picking carts varying in their size.

When the picklist is created, the areas are also displayed for the single item lines:

In the pixi Control Center application, the areas can be defined as follows: In the Tables tab go to Bins and double-click on a storage bin:

The picklist is then created by storage areas on separate pages:

Note: The setting up of new storage areas is only possible via the pixi Control Center. If you would like to allocate a large number of storage bins to a certain storage area at once, this can be requested via our pixi Support.

Special Storage Location

pixi presents you with the option to define several warehouse locations. This is useful, if you have two warehouses in different geographical locations. Furthermore, a location can be defined to separate a specific storage area from the daily procedures with pixi.

The "Special Stock" location is not exported into the shop, i.e. the stock of items of all storage bins in a special stock location, is not added to the inventory in the shop and is therefore completely independent.

This causes the following changes in your daily routine with pixi:

Case A: pixi is connected to a normal location

Sum Q: This displays the sum of items across all normal locations. Special storage areas are not considered.
Loc Q: Displays the quantity of items that are stored solely in the current location.

Example: the following values are displayed in pixi Customer Service in Item Search:

Sum Q: 10
Loc Q: 4

This means: The item is available in a total of 10 times and in the current location there are still 4 items available. Click on the item info to see, in which location the remaining items are located.

Case B: pixi is connected to a Special Stock Location

Sum Q: You will see the sum of the items from all locations, including the stock of the special storage location.
Loc Q: You will see the item quantity of the special stock location.
The item search and item info in pixi Customer Service, pixi Buying (=Purchasing) and pixi Inventory work like with any normal location.
In pixi Buying, the special stock levels are not taken into account during the automated order proposal.

FAQ - Frequently asked Questions

What's the process of changing the location of a bin that's not empty?

The location of a bin can not be changed, in case the bin still contains items. Before you can change the location, the bin has to be empty.

One possibility to change the location of such a bin is described as follows:

Relocate the entire bin to another, empty bin using pixi Mobile (on the same location) to store then intermediately.
See: Relocate an entire Bin
Change the location of the now empty bin to the desired, new location.
Relocate the items back to the original bin from the intermediate bin using pixi Mobile.

Note: The database setting Filter Stock Operations With Location (pixi Control Center > Database Settings > Inventory) needs to be disabled, so stock movements can be done across locations.

Why is my newly created bin not visible?

Newly created bins are usually visible within 3-4 hours. In some cases, bins may be visible on the next day, as the bins are not synchronized continuously.

If the bin is still not visible on the next day, it may help to clear the cache of the pixi Mobile application.

We released the option to force update the bins immediately on the web and in pixi mobile.

Configuration of Storage Bins

Create storage bins