Yoink
Inventory

Enable your team to quickly locate inventory and fill orders.

Generate QR codes for bins, shelves or other stashes


How do I use this tool?

This tool helps you generate labeled QR code address/identifiers for each distinct storage location or 'stash' in your warehouse. Each identifier needs to be unique but should also be easy for a person physically searching through the warehouse to locate.

Perfectly uniform warehouses probably don't exist for very long. Shelving acquired at different times may come in different sizes. Different rooms might have different architectural features to work around, leading to varying aisle lengths, etc.

Although different sections of the warehouse may differ from each other, particular sub-sections might have a fair amount of uniformity within them. E.g., each shelving unit of a given make and model will have the same height and width. You might even have multiple uniform aisles all composed of the same shelving units. This tool allows you to quickly and easily express a range of needed address-identifiers for patterned/repeated sections of your warehouse while also giving you the flexibility to define differing sub-sections independently.

Stash Dimensions Example

Figure 1

In figure 1, we can see that each set of shelves divides nicely into six (6) rows and four (4) columns of stashes. We also see that each aisle is divided into a number of stations. We can define each station as having two (2) sides--a left side and a right side*.

Next we notice that one aisle is longer than the other, having five (5) stations instead of three (3). We have two different aisles that we need to describe separately. We can do this by submitting the form above twice, once each with one of the following Stash Dimension specifications:

  • 5x2x6x4
  • 3x2x6x4

We want the values corresponding to more general, further-flung entities earlier in the specification, ahead of the more specific/localized ones. Like a hotel/resort where individual room numbers may be preceded first with the building number, then the floor number; this address format can guide handlers through the physical space of the warehouse, bringing them closer to an indicated stash as they read through the text of one of the address-identifiers.

The first entry above will generate (5 times 2 times 6 times 4 equals) 240 QR code labels for us. The second submission will generate (3 times 2 times 6 times 4 equals) 144 distinct labels that can be printed. Longer addresses are taller and wider but even with moderate length, we can fit at least six labels on a standard 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. To print all the labels for the example would take up to 64 sheets. Note, the generated IDs won't actually be added to the database until and unless some inventory items are associated with the respective stash via e.g., Yoink Mobile.

* Alternately, we could group the whole left side of each walkway as a distinct aisle from the group on the right side--that might be preferable e.g., if the sides are too far apart for people to easily browse at the same time.

Prefix Example

We need to supply one other piece of information before we can generate QR code labels. Also, the difference in aisle length might not be the only non-uniformity in our warehouse. One way to think about such a divergent warehouse is as a hierarchy/tree with different stratums/branches representing the differing storage areas. Again, we place the more generalized/further-flung entities closer to the root/trunk and more specific/localized ones out towards the tips/leaves.

Figure 2

E.g., the West Cityopolis Warehouse might be divided as in figure 2. The prefix we provide in the form should be a comma-separated set of numbers that will make up the first part of every address-identifier generated. E.g., if figure 1 depicts a space on the the third (3) floor, room number seven (7) then we'd submit the following prefixes corresponding to the dimension entries above:

  • 3,7,1,1
  • 3,7,2,1

In the first submission, we specify '1' in the 3rd position indicating aisle 1. In the second submission, we specify '2' in the 3rd position indicating aisle 2.

Both submissions have '1' in the 4th/last position indicating that we're starting from station 1 in both aisles:

The last position of the prefix and first position of the dimensions both refer to the SAME level in the hierarchy/tree (e.g., floors or rooms or aisles or shelving units, etc.).

The last position of the prefix indicates which number to start counting from--allowing you to resume/extend the address-identifier range of a space at later date.

The first position of the dimensions field indicates how many different numbers should be used at that part of the address (each successive iteration adds one).

Combined Example

E.g., if the prefix is '2,1' and the dimensions are '3x1', the following addresses would be generated:

  • 2,1,1
  • 2,2,1
  • 2,3,1

...later you could extend this by entering '2,4' for the prefix and '3x1' for the dimensions which would produce:

  • 2,4,1
  • 2,5,1
  • 2,6,1

When you distribute labels...

...it's a good idea to have physically lower (closer to the center of the earth) positions use lower numbers. E.g., use 1 for the ground floor but also for the shelf closest to the floor at any position (you can use negative numbers for underground floors). The address-identifier numbers shouldn't necessarily imply any horizontal (North/South/East/West) direction, though. Try to order the counts to favor continuous, horse-shoe paths that avoid backtracking. When order pick lists are fetched, the system will try to order the recommended stashes accordingly. Future versions may use even more sophisticated path optimization algorithms.