Tracking finished goods as they are moved between storage locations and manufacturing areas in a high volume environment are difficult at best.

In many instances products are moved from a production line and into storage without being recorded properly. Sometimes product is staged in the midst of other product simply due to the lack of adequate time to handle the product or storage space. This mixture of products may cause similar lots to be separated or differing lots to be mixed together causing subsequent picking/shipping problems later in the operation. The lack of consistent recording of product as it is produced can also cause unnecessary requests for the creation of more products. Lack of this visibility also affects storage requirements.

As products arrive from an external source they are received against a Bill of Lading or ASN (if you are lucky). Products are then moved into the facility for storage. Many facilities do not track product by individual locations. The result is that product is simply placed wherever there happens to be room. This can cause product to be buried by new inbound product. The more product that is buried the more product is considered lost. Unnecessary requests for more product follows.

Affixing bar coded labels to pallets or containers of product before it is received in to a facility stored provides a means to scan those containers as they arrive. As containers are moved through various areas of the facility the label may be scanned to track where the containers have been moved. As containers are emptied the labels may be scanned to signify that the product has been used. The containers can then be refilled and labels reassigned to other product.

The use of hand held readers can augment this by allowing the users to record labels that are in the storage areas for spot checking and QC purposes.

Because of the increased visibility provided by the use of this technology the need to run frequent physical inventories in these areas is reduce dramatically or eliminated.