Operations guide · Stock model

Pallet, Case and Location-Based Inventory Management

A location is the address where stock sits; pallets and cases are the physical units stock moves in. A solid WMS model answers not only “which item is where?” but also “inside which handling unit, and with which sub-units?”.

The pallet–case–location hierarchy

Example: Location A-01-02 → Pallet P100 → Cases K10/K11 → item, lot and quantity. When the pallet moves to another location, the relationship is kept without moving each case one by one. When a case leaves the pallet, only that sub-unit's link changes.

Software may call it a License Plate Number (LPN) or a Handling Unit (HU), but the aim is the same: give each physical handling unit a unique identity.

How much detail do you need?

  • Location + item: simple, bulk stock, when case identity is not needed.
  • Pallet ID: operations that receive, transfer and ship full pallets.
  • Nested pallets/cases: when mixed pallets, partial cases and customer-labelled cases are tracked.
  • Unique serial: when devices or high-value items are tracked unit by unit.

Too much detail increases the scanning workload; too little loses the trail in splits, merges, returns and counts.

Core movements

  1. Creating and labelling a new pallet/case
  2. Adding items to, or removing them from, a handling unit
  3. Transferring a handling unit between locations as a whole
  4. Splitting a pallet, merging two units and repacking
  5. Verifying contents, locations and parent–child links with counts

For every operation, the old and new IDs, user, time and reason code must be auditable.

Master data and integration

Unit conversions (each–case–pallet) should be managed per item and packaging type; variable realities such as “1 pallet is always 40 cases” should not be hard-coded. Not every internal handling unit needs to be sent to the ERP; the ownership boundary is set in the WMS–SAP integration and movement mapping design.

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