This step is automatic. It creates a quantity of a packaging item - a box, a crate, a pallet - so the work order has something real to pack into.
It appears in the Add Step list as Create Package.
| Automatic? | Yes - it creates the packaging itself |
| Who does it | Nobody, though you say whose inventory it lands in |
| Needs first | Which packaging item, and how many |
| Produces | The packages it created, each with its serial where the packaging item is serialised |
| Where you work it | The work order page |
What it does
Packaging is a genuine problem for a work order: you cannot ship a crate that does not exist on the system, but you also do not want made-to-order crates cluttering up sellable stock.
So this step mints them. The packages are created as non-stock external stock, earmarked to this work order, and they never reach the ERP - but they behave like ordinary stock for everything else, so they can be moved, packed and shipped.
You choose whose personal inventory they land in, normally the person who is going to pack them. Leave it blank and they go to the work order's own holding.
Completing it
- It completes as soon as the packages are created. There is nothing for a person to do.
- Each package is a unit of the packaging item, and where that item is serialised each one gets its own serial.
When not to use it
- The packaging is ordinary stock you already hold - fetch it with a Move Order instead of minting more.
- You want to record how something was packed for a shipment - that is packing, done on the shipment itself, not this step.