Inventory received into a designated receiving staging location is automatically scheduled for put-away.

Four standard put-away options are supported as well as a "Cart Put-away" option if required by the site.

In the first of the standard options, the system allows the hand-held operator to make the choice regarding the receiving location and product to be put away as well as where to put it.

In the second of the standard options, the system allows the hand-held operator to make the choice regarding the receiving location and product to be put away, but directs the operator to the put-away location.

In the third of the standard options, the system directs the operator to the receiving location and product to be put away, but allows the operator to make the put-away receiving location choice.

In the fourth of the standard options, the system not only directs the operator to the receiving location and product to be put away, but also directs the operator to the put-away location.

The operator may select multiple products/quantities at the receiving location before beginning the put-away route.

The directed put-away logic checks the Products Table to see if there is a preferred zone for put-away of a given product in order to accommodate forward picking areas or control storage. If the preferred zone is a forward picking area, the system will direct put-away to the correct location, space permitting. Otherwise the system will select the same location as was mostly recently used for put-away where the product can currently be found, or to an empty location closest to the receiving location if the product is not in inventory.

When multiple products are picked up in the receiving location before beginning the put-away route, the system will direct the operator through the warehouse in an optimum route, according to the optimum route pattern set up by the warehouse supervisor.

When the user arrives at a put-away location, if the system-directed action is acceptable, he/she scans the put-away location bar code, scans the product bar code, and enters the quantity, all to confirm the accuracy of the action taken. If the user entries are different from the system-directed action, the system will accept the user changes after requesting validation. In this way, the user can override system-directed action and put any quantity of any product in any location.

The special Cart Put-away option is provided for sites which store small items and use carts for put-away. Location bar codes are assigned to carts, and inventory is received directly to the cart. During put-away, if the user selects Cart Put-away, he/she then scans the cart bar code and the system goes immediately to the directed put-away mode. All products on the cart are considered "picked-up" by the operator without further effort.