Outbound section
Outbound is how goods leave the warehouse. In the client app, picking runs in one of two modes, chosen by the warehouse picking policy:
- Wave-based — orders are grouped into a wave and planned and released together. Start with the wave-picking flow.
- Direct (without waves) — orders are planned one at a time, with no wave. Start with the direct-picking flow.
Whichever mode a warehouse runs, a second switch decides whether picks reserve the stock behind them — see free picking without reservation.
In both modes, the client app is the planning-and-monitoring cockpit: a supervisor plans the work from a workstation and watches it progress, while the hands-on picking is done on the handheld terminal.
Issuing goods without a plan
Separately from the two modes above, a warehouse can turn on unplanned picking — a manual way to issue goods to an external destination with no order, wave, or plan. It is an optional flow an operator starts on the spot, and it runs alongside wave or direct picking rather than replacing either.
How a wave is shaped
When the warehouse uses waves, a wave follows a wave picking policy — a reusable set of rules that decides which optional steps run and how orders are grouped into pick work. The grouping strategy is the picking methodology:
- Discrete — one pick document per order.
- Batch — pick many orders together, then sort.
- Cluster — pick straight into per-order containers on a cart.
Direct picking always uses the Discrete methodology.
Shipping goods out
Once goods are picked, they leave the warehouse through a delivery plan — a document that gathers the orders going out on one vehicle, sets their loading order, and tracks the load through to dispatch. The hands-on loading is done on the handheld terminal; the client plans the load and monitors it. Orders the customer collects themselves ship without a plan.