What is a work order?
A work order is usually a task or a job for a customer that can be scheduled or assigned to someone. Such an order may be from a customer request or created internally within the organization.
NOTE: Please take a look at the Special project billing.
ShipHero Work Orders
For this version of the feature, we have two work order options:
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Kit Assembly
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Custom Work Order
The Kit Assembly Work Order guides users through assembling SKUs. Let us look at an example:
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Your store sells a box of different flavored dog treats.
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You could make this SKU a kit, but your pickers must pick each flavored treat and the customized box separately. Then your packers will need to assemble the box and pack each item.
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Instead, you can use a work order to pre-build this box with the flavors already packed. This is now only 1 item to pick and pack.
The Custom Work Order is an empty field that allows the user to upload attachments or write instructions for a task.
Creating an Assembly SKU
To mark an SKU as an assembly, go to the product details page and select the edit icon. Select the setting "This is an Assembly SKU used in Work Orders" and click "Update.”
Once an SKU is marked as an assembly SKU, you can add assembly SKU components:
Important things to note:
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An Assembly SKU cannot be a KIT. Why? Kits cannot have locations or an on-hand; an assembly sku can have locations and an on-hand quantity.
- An assembly SKU must have at least 1 component.
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You can change the components of an assembly SKU, but it will not update on an existing work order. Why? This was intentional to support use cases like the following:
- You create an assembly SKU with the components: 1 hat, 1 shirt, and 1 blue sticker. You do not have enough blue stickers and decide it is ok to use a different sticker but have the same assembly SKU.
- You can edit the sticker component SKU and make another work order with the new sticker. The first work order will use your blue stickers, and the new one will have the new sticker SKU.
How to create a Work Order?
Work orders can be created in the 3PL, 3PL client account, or on the brand account.
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Select "Create Work Order"
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Choose 3PL (if applicable), Warehouse (if applicable), and the Requested due date.
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Name your work order and choose the work order type (Assembly or Custom)
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If you select an assembly work order, you will be prompted to choose an assembly SKU. If you like a custom work order, you will skip this step.
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Assembly work order only: After selecting the assembly kit, please just input how many you want to create.
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For custom work orders, you will have the option to type in instructions manually (optional):
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For assembly work orders, you will have the opportunity to type in packing and assembly details (optional)
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For both assembly and custom work orders, you will be able to upload attachments (optional):
We support several file types: PDF, png, jpeg, jpg, doc, xlsx, xls, ppt, pptx, and mp4 (videos)
Walkthrough of a Work Order:
Once a work order is created, the 3pl (or brand) can follow the steps to complete the work order.
The process for an assembly work order involves the following statuses:
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Awaiting Approval (3pl/client only)
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In Progress - The work order was approved but has not been picked yet
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Ready to Pick - The user selects the pick locations for the components as well as the staging location
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Assembly in Progress - The components are deducted from the pick locations and moved to the staging location. The kits are built and can be transferred to the receiving location during this step
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Done - All of the assembly sku were made and received - the work order was 100% completed.
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Closed - The work order was not fully received, but you are closing it as "partially done". If a 3pl, the client can be billed for the work done (even if not 100% complete)
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Canceled - The work order is canceled. No editing can be done.
The custom work orders do not have the ready-to-pick or the assembly-in-progress steps.
Picking the components:
In this step, you will select which locations you will pick the items from. You will also choose the location where the components will be moved to.
- You can update the kits to create as well as your pick quantities.
- Components can be picked from multiple locations.
- If an SKU has a lot of code, you can only pick the same lot/expiration for that SKU. We do not support mixing lot codes for the same SKU.
If the lot code matches, you can choose different locations for the same SKU.
Once all the picking locations are selected, print the pick sheet:
The quantities can still be updated as needed - so if you need more on hand, you can change the quantities.
Once everything is picked and moved to the staging location, you can update the status to "Assembly in Progress."
- We suggest using the putaway feature if you need to return items after they are transferred to the staging location. Scan in the staging area, which will list all the items there. Then you can move them back using the inventory transfer feature.
Assembling the components
Once in the Assembly status, your team will build the assembly SKU according to the instructions on the work order. The attachments can be downloaded and viewed at any time.
As the SKUs are completed, they can be received at the receiving location.
Transfer the completed assembly SKU to the receiving location:
You can receive all at once or receive as you go.
Printing Assembly Sku Barcodes
You can print barcodes for your assembly SKU during any of the phases.
They can be printed after the SKU are assembled or you can pre-print them once the work order is created.
Completing a Work Order
You have 3 options to finish a work order: Done, Close, or Cancel
Done - This will mark the work order as 100% complete - all items are transferred from staging and moved to a receiving location. Ad hoc charges will be sent to 3pl billing once the work order is marked as DONE.
Close - This is for partially complete work orders. For example, you created a work order for 5000 assembly sku, but after building 4500, you want to close the work order. All of your progress is saved. Ad hoc charges will be sent to 3pl billing (to charge for the work done). Items in staging that were not built will remain in the staging location.
Cancel - All editing will be disabled, and the status will show canceled. Any inventory transfers will need to be moved back using putaway. Cancelations should be done before the assembly stage.
3pl Billing
If the customer is a 3pl, they will have the option to add ad hoc charges.
Add Hoc charge options: per unit, per hour, and per work order
Charges send to 3pl billing after the work order is marked as DONE or CLOSED
Creating Assembly SKU Lot Codes:
For this version, the assembly sku lot code will need to be created in app.shiphero.com.
- Go to https://app.shiphero.com/dashboard/lots
- Create a lot for this Assembly SKU, including the expiration date:
Once your lot is made, you can assign the lot code to the location where this SKU was received by.
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Search location and click “Edit Lot”
Notes:
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You'll only need to do this once per location - ex. if you receive all of these to location “Receiving WO”
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You must assign this lot code to each location if you receive multiple locations.
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You do not need to make a new lot code each time since all of these SKUs in the work order should have the same lot code.
Extra Features:
Work orders can have a requested due date and a scheduled date. The scheduled date is when the 3pl would like to start working on this work order.
