Many items you use on an everyday basis are delivered in a box containing multiple items. Some might include three items, others five, or perhaps even ten. The box will contain a label that looks very similar to the label you recognize from the actual item packaging, including things like reference number, item name, a barcode, etc.
One of the primary issues with these boxes is that vendors often give the box a different item number than the items it contains. As such, a barcode scan of a box will perform differently than the barcode scan of an actual item’s packaging.
Let’s look at how this data works within AMSHub. Every item in AMSHub has its item number, which is a unique indicator for this type of item. In the case where an item comes in a box of more than one, and that box has a unique number, we attach the box number to the item along with a quantity. So box number and quantity is just another value related to an item similar to reference number, name, etc. What’s unique about the box number is how we use this data.
Since we recognize a user might scan a box in addition to scanning an actual product, the search fields throughout AMSHub will recognize either number and return the item. So if item 1234 has box number 2234, scanning a barcode with 1234 will return item 1234 and scanning box number 2234 will return item 1234.
The second way the box information is used to leverage our knowledge of box quantity is when processing a delivery or when ordering. When you receive a delivery of an item you’ve ordered that comes in a box of multiple items, scanning the box barcode will automatically add the quantity inside the box to your inventory. Using the previous example, lets assume box 2234 of item number 1234 contains 5 items. If you receive a delivery and scan box number 2234 AMSHub will automatically add five 1234 items to your inventory. If you were to open the box and scan the label from an individual item it would only add one item to your inventory since only the box number has a quantity associated to it.
When working with orders, we use the box quantity data to help effectively create new orders. Let’s use our item 1234 example again. If we use two items and our on-hand level of this item falls below our low par level by one, item 1234 will show up in our new order report automatically telling us to order more items to restore our high par level. However, we know this item only comes in boxes of five, therefore the reorder report will tell you how many boxes to order and display an item order count in increments of five. So if your high par level is 5 and low par level is 3, having 2 on hand for an item that does not come in a box would tell you to order 3 to bring your level back to 5. But with item 1234 coming in boxes of 5, AMSHub will automatically indicate a box order of 1 and an item order of 5.