Order Fulfillment

The Fulfillment module in Pallet handles the movement of goods into and out of your Warehouses.

It provides the tools necessary to manage both inbound stock (receiving goods from suppliers) and outbound stock (picking and packing orders for customers).

Inbound Fulfillment (Receiving)

Inbound fulfillment is the process of receiving new inventory into a warehouse.

This process is typically driven by a Purchase Order.

1. You create a Purchase Order to request goods from a Supplier.
2. When the goods arrive at the warehouse, a worker uses Pallet to "Receive" the Purchase Order.
3. The worker verifies the quantities received against the quantities ordered.
4. Pallet automatically updates the Inventory levels, adding the new stock to the designated receiving Bin.
5. The stock can then be transferred from the receiving dock to its final storage location.

Outbound Fulfillment (Shipping)

Outbound fulfillment is the process of picking, packing, and shipping goods to fulfill a customer's order.

This process is driven by a Sales Order.

If you are using Storefront, a Sales Order is automatically generated in Pallet whenever a customer completes checkout.

The outbound fulfillment process involves several steps:

1. Order Allocation

When a Sales Order is created, Pallet checks the current Inventory levels. If sufficient stock is available, Pallet "allocates" the stock to the order. This prevents the same item from being sold twice.

2. Pick Lists

Pallet generates a Pick List for the warehouse workers. The Pick List details exactly which items need to be picked, and crucially, where they are located (Zone, Aisle, Rack, Bin).

Pallet optimizes the Pick List to minimize the distance the worker needs to travel through the warehouse.

3. Waves & Batches

For high-volume operations, Pallet supports Wave Picking and Batch Picking. Instead of picking one order at a time, a worker can pick items for multiple orders simultaneously, significantly increasing efficiency.

4. Packing & Shipping

Once the items are picked, they are brought to a packing station. The worker verifies the items, packs them into boxes, and marks the Sales Order as "Packed".

At this point, the order is ready for dispatch. If you are using FleetOps, Pallet can automatically hand the order over to the dispatch engine to assign a driver for final-mile delivery.