.. _locations:

#############################
Building Locations
#############################

Locations Purpose
=============================

A **Locator** uses a list of places where goods may be stored in and around a 
warehouse building. These locations may include:

*  Yards and Parking Lots
*  Dock and Staging Areas
*  Building and Room Divisions
*  Aisles and Bays
*  Pick Lines
*  Mezzanines, Racks, Shelves
*  Stationary and Moving Vehicles

The locator posts movements of goods into and out of locations, so that it can 
determine and direct the utilization of storage space.

Setup Facilities
=============================

Locations are defined in the context of a physical building or warehouse 
facility address. Before locations can be setup, an address record of type **B** 
for the building must be entered. Use the :guilabel:`Add New Facility` button 
to start a new facility record, or use :guilabel:`Delected Selected` to remove 
a building.

Editing a Facility Address
-----------------------------

Click the :guilabel:`pencil` icon on a facility to edit the building address.

.. note::
   The Edit (pencil) option on a facility should go straight to the Contacts 
   update form, eliminating the intervening "New Facility" page.

Warehouse Layout
=============================

Click the :guilabel:`layout` icon to start defining building locations.

Before locations can be defined in software, the warehouse layout has to be 
determined. This will include calculations and measurements for the following:

.. sidebar:: Warehouse Layout

   .. image:: _images/location-bays.png

*  Dock door spacing
*  Front staging area depth
*  Aisle widths for turning
*  Bay widths, depths, and height
*  Number of aisles in warehouse
*  Number of bays per aisle
*  Rack storage area design
*  Empty pallet exchange areas
*  Column and overhead interferences

Part of a very basic warehouse layout schematic is shown in the sidebar. This 
Google Sheet shows how easily a building grid can be described, providing that 
the building is rectangular, the interior plan is regular, and there are few 
interferences.

For this example, the first building, building **1**, might be described as:

+------+----------+-----------+-----------+
| AREA | Feature  | Code      | Code      |
|      |          | Start     | End       |
+======+==========+===========+===========+
|      | DOOR     | DOOR-A    |           |
|      +----------+-----------+-----------+
| A    | STAGING  | STAGE-A-1 | STAGE-A-2 |
|      +----------+-----------+-----------+
|      | BAYS     | A-01      | A-16      |
+------+----------+-----------+-----------+
|      | DOOR     | DOOR-B    |           |
|      +----------+-----------+-----------+
| B    | STAGING  | STAGE-B-1 | STAGE-B-2 |
|      +----------+-----------+-----------+
|      | BAYS     | B-01      | B-16      |
+------+----------+-----------+-----------+
| ...  | ...      | ...       | ...       |
+------+----------+-----------+-----------+
|      | DOOR     | DOOR-L    |           |
|      +----------+-----------+-----------+
| L    | STAGING  | STAGE-L-1 | STAGE-L-2 |
|      +----------+-----------+-----------+
|      | BAYS     | L-01      | L-16      |
+------+----------+-----------+-----------+

Setup Location Codes
=============================

.. sidebar:: Warehouse Location Codes

   .. image:: _images/location-codes.png

after the warehouse layout is determined, Location codes for a building can be 
setup on the Location Setup page. Location codes corresponding to the building 
shown above might be entered as follows:

+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
| Feature  || Code     |      || Code     |
|          || Start    |      || End      |
+==========+===========+======+===========+
| DOORS    | DOOR-A    | thru | DOOR-L    |
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
| STAGING  | STAGE-A-1 | thru | STAGE-L-2 |
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
| AISLE A  | A-01      | thru | A-16      |
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
| AISLE B  | B-01      | thru | B-16      |
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
| ...      | ...       | ...  | ...       |
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+
| AISLE L  | L-01      | thru | L-16      |
+----------+-----------+------+-----------+

For this example, the sidebar presents possible location code definitions for 
all the doors and the adjacent staging areas right and left of the doors.
Additional entries describe the storage bays on the right and left of aisles 
**A** through **L**.

Staging used two levels of ranges, configured to match the area letters **A**
through **L**. WARES locator provides up to four ranges which may use either 
letters or numbers. For example, a rack area might have Area = **RA**, First 
Range **1** thru **8** (eight rack rows), second range **1** through **12** 
(twelve slots), and third range **A** through **D** (four shelf levels). This 
rack area would hold 384 pallets.

Location Setup Options
=============================

The Locator needs an accurate measure of capacity for each storage location. 
Use features described below to improve storage and labor efficiency, and to 
implement advanced capabilities such as directed inventory movement. 

.. sidebar:: Location Setup Page

   .. image:: _images/location-setup.png

*  **ZONE** -- The warehouse company may zone a building into various areas, and 
   specific customers or products can be restricted to applicable zones only.
   For example, the warehouse may have DRY and COOL zones, but also partitions 
   for customers ADF and OCI. Locations within ADF and OCI partitions could be 
   updated to reflect the associated zones. A default zone list is at 
   :ref:`zone-list`.
*  **ACCESS** -- Determines the sequence of fill and retrieval for a location. 
   In the previous layout example, the bay locations are **LIFO** because the 
   first pallet placed in a bay will be the last to leave. However, Bays 
   **A-01** and **B-02** back up to each other. Defining location **AB-0102**, 
   where pallets are loaded from Aisle **A** and removed from aisle **B**, 
   would provide **FIFO** storage -- without restriping the floor. The Access 
   options list is at :ref:`access-list`.
*  **A/B/C** -- Locations can be rated by speed of access, from **A** to **C**. 
   In the warehouse example, bays 1 through 6 might be **A**, 7 through 12
   could be **B**, and 13 through 16 would then be **C**.
*  **MIX BY** -- Locations and pallets may be of the same lot, same date, same 
   product, same account, or unrestricted. Setting **Mix** for a location will 
   promote locations matching the requirements of products being stored. Mix 
   options are listed at :ref:`mix-list`.
*  **PLAN**, **STACK**, and **VARIANCE** -- These three measures determine the 
   storage capacity of a location. For our sample warehouse, the bays are eight 
   pallets on the floor (Plan), with three pallets high (Stack), and no variance 
   due to interference.

The **Location Setup** form creates, updates, or deletes multiple warehouse 
locations in a single step. 

.. warning:: 
   An update or deletion of locations in the setup will not affect location 
   entries on existing product.

Locator Database Schema
=============================

Each warehouse location has a record in the Locations table. The database schema 
for Locations is found at :ref:`locations-schema`.

Excluding location transfers, locator transaction lines are identically the 
inventory document line transactions. The database column layout for these 
transactions is available in documentation resources at :ref:`lotlines-schema`.