Managing Bin and Zone Locations

What are Zones and Bin Locations?

Zone and bin locations are used for tracking stock within a given depot. Zone and Bin locations can be configured within a Depot location. To create a Depot location, see Manage Locations.

Zone Location: Zone location is an area or a room within a warehouse that contains multiple bins. For example, in a warehouse with a separate cold room, the zone for cold chain items might be "Cold Room 1", and within that room, each bin might represent a shelf.

Bin Location: Bin location is a location that designates a particular shelf, pallet position, or bin within a given depot. There are different bin location types under which the bin locations are created. For Bin Location Type information, please see Bin Location Types. 

For easier understanding, the hierarchy of the zone and bin locations in OpenBoxes goes as follows:

Depot > Zone locations > Bin Location Types > Bin locations

Create Zone and Bin Locations

You need to follow the same steps to get to the page where you can create zones and bin locations. Here, you will see instructions on how to get to the creation page. Then, you will see instructions on creating zones and bin locations separately.

1. Hover over Configuration and click "locations." 

   

2. This will direct you to the locations list.

   Search for the desired depot location where you want to add zones or bins. You can use the filters to search for the location or scroll through the locations list. 

   

3. Select your desired location by clicking on the location name.

Now that you have selected your desired location, please see below for specific Zone and Bin location information. 

Create Zone Locations

• After completing steps 1-3 above, you will be re-directed to the location details.

• On the Locations Details page, click on the "Zone locations" tab and select "Add Zone Locations."

  

• Type a name for the Zone location and click save. 

Create Bin Locations

• Follow steps 1-3, and you will be re-directed to the location details.

  Here, you can either add Bin locations one by one by using the Add Bin Location button or add multiple Bin Locations at the same by using the Import Bin Locations button. This section talks about the Add Bin Locations button. Go to this section for the Import Bin Locations button.

  If you want to create a Hold Bin Location, a type of Bin Location, see this document.

• Click on the "Bin Locations" tab and click on "Add Bin Locations."

  

• A pop-up will appear for you to select the "Location type" and enter name. From the dropdown, select the appropriate location type and enter a name. 

  

• You should see the bin location you just created on the bin locations list. To search for the location, use the Search Bar on the right-hand side. 

  

Edit Zone Locations

• On the Locations Details page, click on the Zone Locations tab.

• Search for the Zone location that you want to edit, and click on edit or delete. Note: If a zone has been used in the system before, you cannot delete the zone. However, you can deactivate the zone. See below.

  

• On the Edit Location page, you can edit various information for the zone.
  • Under the Location tab, you can update Name, Location Number, Parent Location, Organization, Location Type.
  • Under the Configuration tab, you can mark the zone as active or inactive.
  • Under the Bin Location tab, you can add Bin locations in the Zone. You can add Bin locations one by one by using the Add Locations button. You can also import multiple Bin Locations using the Import Bin Locations button. For existing Bin Locations, download the bin locations using the Export Bin Locations button.

  • Under the Forecasting tab, you can add information for forecasting.

    Don't forget to save changes on each tab!

    

Edit Bin Locations 

• On the Locations Details page, go to the Bin Locations tab.

  

• To search for the desired bin location, either scroll through the list or use the Search Bar on the right-hand side. 
• From the Bin Locations list, you can see which Bin Location you want to edit and click on Edit button under the Actions column. You can also delete a bin location if it has not been used anywhere in the system before. Note: If a Bin Location cannot be deleted, it can be deactivated. See below.
• On the Bin Location Edit page, there are various tabs where you can update information.
  • Under the Locations tab, you can update the Name, Location Number, Parent Location, Zone Location, Organization, and Location Type.
  • Under the Configuration tab, you can mark a Bin Location as Active or Inactive.
  • Under the Contents tab, you can see existing inventory in the Bin Location.

  • Under Forecasting tab, you can add information for forecasting.

    Don't forget to save changes in each tab!

    

Import Bin Locations 

To create or edit multiple bin locations at once, we can use the Import Bin Locations function.  Through this import function, we can perform the following actions:

• Create a new Bin Location
• Assign a Zone location to an existing bin
• Unassign a Zone location from an existing bin

• Change the Zone location to an existing bin

  Note: You cannot create new Zone Locations through this Import.

  

To Import Bin Locations, navigate to the Locations Details page and click on the Bin Location tab. 

On this tab, we have the option to Import Bin Locations. To import a file, we must first set the template file. Please see below for instructions on the import file:

• Open an excel file.
• In the excel file, we will use two columns with the headers: Bin and Zone.

• Enter the details of the bin location and zone locations in the respective columns.

  In my template file, I have assigned Bin Locations bin 1 and bin 2 to Zone 1. Bin 3 is a new bin that will be created without a zone location.  

  

• After the data entry is complete, save the file in .XLT format. Click on File > Save As > Select the destination. Under the Save as type, select Excel 97-2003 Workbook. 

  

• Now, you can go back to OpenBoxes, to the Locations Details Page. Click on Import Bin Location. Choose the saved file and click on Import Bin Locations. Notice how the format is .XLT below.

  

• Once you have selected the correct import file, click on Import Bin Locations.

You will have successfully imported new Bin Locations or updates!