[Feature Discussion] Enhancements to the Packing Slip workflow

ERPNext Feature Requests
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Hello,

I wanted to open a discussion for improving the current workflow for packing and delivering items in ERPNext, and getting more thoughts on it from the community.

The current packing and delivery process goes as:

  • A draft Delivery Note is created with the required items to be shipped.
  • Using that draft document, a Packing Slip can be created to indicate package(s) with the items that need to be shipped out.

The main problem with this approach is that a Delivery Note document summarizes the list of packaged items that are out for delivery. As such, creating downstream Packing Slips causes a disconnect for the people using the system.

Considering that, I want to propose a more intuitive approach for packing, as follows:

  • A submitted Sales Order is received by the packing / inventory manager with the list of ordered items that need to be packed for delivery.
  • The packing / inventory manager creates Packing Slip(s) from the order by scanning available items (using the existing Scan Barcode functionality in other stock documents).
  • When the Packing Slip(s) are verified and submitted, a draft Delivery Note can be created against all the Packing Slips for an order.
  • Delivery Trips now also pull draft Delivery Notes, and submitting the Trip will also submit any connected draft Delivery Notes (indicating that the driver has picked up the packages and is out for delivery).

A visual representation of this new flow:

image
image1164×820 93.1 KB

We worked with a single distribution company for this, but I’m curious as to what the community thinks about these changes.

Related discussions where people are getting confused by the current flow:

Thanks for reading!

2 Likes
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1st two steps are implemented in other ERP Systems using Picking Lists.

  1. Packing / Inventory Manager issues Picking List from Submitted Sales Order / Material Transfer Order
  2. The items are picked from respective Locations(Manually or Automated Pickers) and brought to Staging Area for Packing. Bar code scanning can be done when picking manually. Picking list displays item location, which can be very helpful in a busy warehouse. It also helps track what items are pending to be picked, when the list is long.
  3. Packing Slips are created (directly from Picking List) along with Box Numbers
3 Likes
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This is exactly the workflow in real-life. Have you had in success in implementing this as a custom integration?

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@abidomar Sorry, unfortunately we had to stop working on this feature due to limited resources.

Since it’s been a while I made this post, Frappe could have added some of these features in ERPNext. Someone could do another gap analysis here and see what’s missing from the latest develop branch.