The picker walks through the warehouse with a printed delivery note, looks for the item, counts, ticks it off. In the office the delivery note is booked. Between those two steps happens what happens in every warehouse: the similar-looking item was picked, the quantity is off, the box was not where the list expected it.
Barcodes and scanners change two things. The item is no longer recognised by eye but read. And the booking happens where the goods are moved - not later in the office. That sounds like technology. In practice it is mostly a matter of order, in the warehouse and in the data.
The codes that exist
- EAN/GTIN: the worldwide item number on trade goods. The manufacturer assigns it and it is already printed on the packaging. If you stock trade goods, you can often start without labels of your own.
- Your own item numbers: for own products, semi-finished parts, raw material, cut pieces. Printed as a code on a label and applied at goods receipt or in production.
- Batch and serial numbers: where traceability is required, in addition to the item. Often as a 2D code (QR or DataMatrix) because more fits in.
- Location labels: every storage location gets a code. Only then does the system know not just what is there but where.
- Document codes: delivery note, order or pick list with a code, so the scanner knows which transaction it is booking against.
Handheld scanner or phone
| Handheld scanner (mobile data terminal) | Phone or tablet with camera | |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | fast, copes with poor labels, works at a distance | slower, needs light and proximity |
| Robustness | drops, gets wet, keeps working | needs a protective case |
| Handling | keys, works with gloves | touchscreen |
| Software | the vendor’s or your own | app or browser |
| Suits | warehouses with many bookings | goods receipt, stocktaking, small warehouses, field staff |
Many businesses start with phones and buy dedicated devices once the warehouse justifies it. A clip-on scanner for the phone sits in between.
What changes
Goods receipt
Scan the delivery note, scan the item, confirm the quantity, scan the location. The goods are booked before they are on the shelf. Deviations from the purchase order show up at once - not at invoice checking.
Picking
The scanner leads to the location, the item is scanned, a wrong pick is rejected. The paper pick list disappears, and the delivery note is generated from what was actually packed.
Moving stock
Goods that are put somewhere else are rebooked. Without a scanner this is the step nobody does - and the reason the stock in the system does not match the shelf.
Stocktaking
Scan the location, scan the item, count. No count sheets, no typing up, differences visible at once. Perpetual inventory becomes realistic: one part of the warehouse after another instead of everything on one cut-off date.
Dispatch and traceability
Parcel number on the order, batch on the delivery note. When a complaint comes in, you know which batch went to whom.
What has to be in place
The scanner does not create order. It relies on it.
- Clean master data: every item has exactly one number, the EAN is maintained, the units are right (piece, box, pallet). Duplicates surface at the first scan - better to find them before: master data in one place.
- Named locations: a scheme of aisle, rack, shelf and level, labels on the location, and the system knows the locations.
- Label printing: a label printer at goods receipt and a format the scanner reads reliably.
- A defined workflow: who scans when? Who books differences? What happens to goods without a label?
- Training on the floor: the workflow is worked out with the people in the warehouse, not designed at a desk.
When your inventory system already does it
Most inventory management systems and ERPs include scanning or offer a module for it: a warehouse app for the handheld scanner or the phone, storage locations and barcodes on the item. Check first what your system can do - how an inventory system differs from an ERP is explained in inventory management or ERP.
The limits usually show in three places. The workflow in your warehouse does not match what the vendor’s app prescribes, for instance with cut pieces, picking for installation jobs or loan equipment. Or the app is designed for a different kind of warehouse from yours. Or the warehouse is not in the ERP at all but in a spreadsheet. Then an addition is needed: a warehouse app of your own that exchanges bookings with the inventory system where possible. We build such additions on ElbDesk, the foundation we build on. If you have an ERP, it stays - accounts and warehouse stay out, and the addition reports the movements back there where possible.
If your fitters book material from their vans, scanning belongs in the same app as the job sheet: capturing orders on a phone.
Questions before you decide
- Does every item have a unique number, and is the EAN maintained?
- Are the storage locations named and labelled?
- What can your inventory system do today, and which app does the vendor offer?
- Which booking is most often forgotten today?
- Who in the warehouse would help design the workflow?
Start with goods receipt. That is where the order begins that every following step depends on.
