Various systems and methods exist for stowing inbound products and reporting any errors that may arise while stowing the inbound products. For example, as inbound products arrive at fulfillment centers, stowing workers manually scan identifiers associated with the products, such as stocking keeping units (SKUs) and manually fill out reports for each error, such as product damage, barcode damage, incorrect products, or the like. Then, the stowing workers gather the inbound products with errors and deliver these products back to the manufacturers for reshipment. While these conventional systems and methods may be effective in reporting stowing errors, there has yet to be an efficient method for stowing products that efficiently provides location recommendation for stowing the products once the products are scanned and automatically reports any stowing errors to be resolved.
Errors that arise during stowing inbound products can significantly delay the shipment and delivery of products to customers. As one example, stowing workers may make mistakes in calculating the quantity of inbound products and, as such, physical quantity of a certain product may be different from the expected quantity of the product. Moreover, stowing errors may also arise at the manufacturers. For example, the manufacturers may make mistakes when sending inbound products to fulfillment centers for stowing. For example, manufacturers may send less than an expected quantity of a certain product. As such, when the stowing worker is stowing the product in a fulfillment center, the physical quantity of the product may not match the expected quantity of the product. Since errors that arise during stowing inbound products are inevitable, it is crucial that the stowing errors are reported and resolved quickly and efficiently in order to reduce delays in shipment and delivery of products to customers.
In addition, conventional systems and methods for stowing inbound products stow products in fixed locations within a fulfillment center. For example, conventional systems and methods may be configured to designate different types of products to a predetermined location within the fulfillment center for stowing. Furthermore, based on certain restriction rules, conventional systems and methods may determine a location within the fulfillment center for stowing products. By way of example, based on the restrictions rules, all products with the same SKU may need to be placed in a fixed location within the fulfillment center, and all products with the same expiration date may need to be placed in another fixed location within the fulfillment center. While providing a fixed location for stowing each product may be helpful in organizing the inbound products within the fulfillment center, this may significantly delay the shipment and delivery of products to customers. Especially for large companies, fulfillment centers and warehouses may be extremely large, and thus, it may take increase the time it takes to stow each product in its fixed location within the fulfillment center.
Therefore, there is a need for improved systems and methods for stowing products. In particular, there is a need for improved systems and methods for stowing products that is capable of predicting a location within the fulfillment center for stowing inbound products when an identifier is scanned. In addition, there is a need for improved systems and methods for stowing products that receives notifications of stowing errors associated with an inbound product and automatically reports stowing errors to be resolved to a remote device.