A composite article is, as it were, a bundle of articles, where the mutual coherence of the articles is preserved. In the Magento2 webshop, for example, we see a so-called ‘grouped product’ below. The fruit basket consists of a basket with a number of pieces of fruit.
Components
Within this category, there is the possibility to sell components separately or not. When the components are also sold separately as an article, this naturally results in a decrease in the number of fully deliverable fruit baskets. It therefore remains a strategic choice. This choice also has consequences for the composition of the end product.
Assembled in stock
There are 2 options for assembling the final product: With ‘assembled to stock’, the items are first produced before they are included in the stock as a whole. In production logistics, this is also called ‘kitting’. When an order is created, the picking slip or scanner only asks for this assembled item and not for the components. The stock that is kept is that of the assembled item.
The blog image shows all pre-produced fruit baskets. These are sold as a whole, the components cannot be sold separately, unless the process of ‘de-kitting’ is applied. Then the fruit baskets are divided again into the separate components and the fruit baskets are written off from the stock. The separate components are then booked back into stock.
Assembled at picking
In addition, there is the possibility to only assemble a composite article when executing an order picking assignment. This composite article is never taken into stock as such. At the moment an order is executed, the components are called off. The picking slip or scanner then shows a component list with the composition of the composite article.
In addition, there is the choice of showing the component on the packing slip or not. With a separate manual that is added to a smartphone, it may be neater to hide it on the packing slip, but with the fruit basket, the components do add value.
“The real challenge comes with multi-collo items”
‘Multicollo’ articles
Ultimately, the above can be well designed in the software, at least for a WMS. The real challenge comes with so-called ‘multicollo’ articles. These are articles that consist of multiple boxes. This is possible, for example, when selling a garden set, consisting of the component ‘garden table’ and 4 times the component ‘chair’. Suppose the component ‘table’ consists of 2 boxes containing the table top / legs. The component ‘chair’ consists of 2 boxes each, with the seat and the frame. Preferably, each box is scanned during order picking / order checking to prevent errors. From a logistics perspective, each unit must be published as stock.
However, this is not desirable for inventory management. The danger when the legs, the table top, the seat and the frame are included as an additional component is that the linked package (the ERP or the webshop) will see these parts in the stock, while you obviously do not sell them separately. In the WMS you will therefore have to suppress these items. The actual component ‘table’ and ‘chair’ must be linked back to the external package by the WMS, so that the stock of the garden furniture is correct. For printing the Track & Trace labels it is in any case useful to be able to choose how many shipping labels are required. A mature Warehouse Management System normally takes this into account.
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