Introduction
Allows customers to handle replenish orders for kiosks. A replenish order consists of how many products that can be restocked to the kiosk. Replenish orders are handled from WebAdmin and the status of each order can be easily followed. When an order is created, it can be configured to be emailed to merchandiser(s). This can be customized for each kiosk.
This system works on all systems that utilize the restock report in admin. For SNG, there will be a plus and minus button for the stocking procedure.
Prerequisites
For the system to work you need to enable it and make sure certain values are configured correctly for the kiosk. Such as:
- Preferred Stock Level
- Min Count
All this is explained further in the WebAdmin chapter.
Versions required:
- InventoryOS 1.143+
- DataService 0.394+
Generation
The replenish reports are created through something Instant Systems refer to as batchjobs. These are configured by Instant Systems upon request. The options you have for the configuration is when the replenish order creation should run. The recommended value and the default value is once every hour.
An order will be generated when a kiosk’s product count is below or equal to the set min count for it.
Note that orders will not be generated for kiosks where the current inventory has not been uploaded for the day. Meaning if the kiosk is offline, we cannot be sure if it has already been stocked and what it needs.
WebAdmin
The replenishment system can be found in admin by navigating to:
- Network -> Inventory -> Replenish Orders
Statuses
There are different statuses for the orders to help the user keep track of what is going on:
- Ordered: The state the order is in after it’s been created.
- PartiallyStocked: Happens when an order has been submitted from the kiosk with stock changes but no products has been finished. Example:
- PartiallyFinished: Occurs when an order has been submitted from the kiosk with at least one product set as finished. Example:
- Finished: When all products have been set as finished or the order has been set as finished.
Edit/View Order
In order to view the individual products that the order consists of you can click on the edit symbol on the order row:
The edit menu provides the option to either Finish/Unfinish or delete the order. If the order is already set to finished there will be a unfinish button available and vice versa:
There is also an option to change the Identifier and Note:
- Identifier: This is the unique identifier for the order. It will appear on the kiosk so you know which order you are looking to stock. This identifier is included in the email sent to the merchandiser upon order creation.
- Note: This is a field to add information to if needed. It can be edited in admin and on the kiosk by merchandisers. They can for example add information about why they were unable to fully complete the order.
Grid Buttons
In the top right corner of the order grid, there are three buttons:
To Restock Report
This button navigates the user to a new page where the Min Count and Preferred Stock Level can be set for each product/kiosk.
- Min Count: When the product count goes below this number, it will trigger an order for this product to stock it to the preferred stock level.
- Preferred Stock Level: This is the maximum amount of stock for the product that you can fit in the kiosk. This is the amount that the order will look to reach to ensure that the kiosk is full of products.
To avoid having to set values for each product on each kiosk. You can instead override the default value. To do this you filter on the kiosk ID 1:
Then edit the Min Count and Preferred Stock Level for each product on Kiosk ID 1.
The restock report is per product. So, if you have multiple slots in a kiosk with the same product on them. Then the sum of those products will be uploaded as the product count.
Therefore, it is important to know that you need to specify the total amount of that product that fits in the entirety of the kiosk in the preferred stock level field. The same goes for the min count. So these fields are per product per kiosk, not per slot.
Edit Default Settings
There are 4 different default settings:
- Is Generating: If enabled, will start generating orders according to the batchjob information set by Instant Systems.
- To Email: To whom the orders should be sent.
- Is Emailing: Whether or not the orders should be sent by email.
- Include Test Kiosks: Decides if orders should be generated for kiosks that do not have the status LIVE.
Edit Kiosk Settings
This is the place to override settings for specific kiosks. Search for a kiosk from the filter and click on Add Kiosk. That kiosk will now be added to the list below, by clicking on the row in the table, options will appear to edit that kiosk. Once the edits are made, click save to store it.
To remove a kiosk from the override list, simply click on the trash icon and that kiosk will fallback to the default values set.
Let’s say the default values are set to Send Emails and Generate orders, but there are certain kiosks that you wish to not create orders. Then add those kiosks, click on them in the list and disable Is Emailing and Is Generating. The same can be done if you want to have the default generation value set to disabled, and only start the generation on certain kiosks:
To test out the system on only a test kiosk, do the following:
- Set the default setting value for “Is Generating” to false (uncheck it).
- Set the default setting value for “Include Test Kiosks” to true (check it).
- Edit kiosk settings and add your test kiosk.
- Set that kiosk to “Is Generating” true (check it).
- Wait for orders to be created according to the frequency set for the batchjob.
Units per Package
Units per package can be set for each product in Admin from:
- Network -> Inventory -> Product Search
Let’s start by explaining what units per package does in the replenishment system.
Imagine that you have a product with the following current data in a kiosk:
- MinCount: 2
- Preferred Stock Level: 15
- Current product count: 1
If units per package is set to 1, then an email will be sent to the merchandiser with the information to stock 14 products.
If units per package is set to 4, then an email will be sent to the merchandiser with the information to stock 3 packages. This is because the package contains 4 units, hence 4units*3packages = 12products. This is the total amount of packages that can be ordered and stocked. If instead 4 packages was ordered, then it would result in 4units*4packages=16products, and that is more than what fits in the kiosk. That would be both over the preferred stock level and about the expected stock count of: preferred stock level (15) - current product count (1) = 14 products to stock.
Subcontractor
Navigate to Administration -> Account -> Ingress and create or edit a group. Here you can assign products to a subcontractor. Let’s say a kiosk has products that belong to a subcontractor and products that do not. Products for that subcontractor will be emailed to the email specified for the subcontractor:
The other products (no ingress/subcontractor) will be emailed to what is specified for that kiosk or the default values. You can have multiple subcontractors for a kiosk.
Kiosk
Merchandisers can find the replenishment system on the kiosk by logging in and navigate to the Replenisment tab:
This tab will only be visible if the kiosk has any orders available. The kiosk will look for new orders to sync every 5 minutes.
From here the merchandiser can choose to either search for an order by clicking on the textbox above the grid or Inspect the selected order.
In this example order, there are currently 1 unfinished product and 1 finished product as seen in the two tabs. These tabs are clickable in order to navigate between the different statuses:
The system will count up the quantity for each product the merchandiser puts into the kiosk. Above 1 out of 11 Coca Colas have been stocked to the kiosk. If the merchandiser only brought 1 Coca Cola to the kiosk, the merchandiser can choose to finish the product anyway by clicking the red FINISH button. The item will then be moved over to the Finished tab:
This means that the order is finished but a new order will be generated again the following day if the product count is still below the Min Count set.
In case the merchandiser finds an extra Coca Cola, they can choose to undo the completion by clicking on the green UNDO button and then stock the 2nd Coca Cola.
The merchandiser has the option to include additional information if necessary and that can be typed into the notes field:
Further more, the merchandiser has the option to complete the order regardless of the status of the products. To do so, they can check the Is Finished checkbox available:
This checkbox will automatically be checked once all the products has been marked as finished:
When finally submitting the order, it will inform you if the order is not fully completed. An unfinished order can be submitted but it will remain on the kiosk so that you can finish it later.
If the order is fully completed on the kiosk the merchandiser will be informed of that when submitting as well:
When an order is submitted, regardless of it being finished or partially finished. The order status in admin will shortly afterwards be updated so that you can track the progression.
Keep in mind that no tracking data is stored for the order unless the merchandiser submits the progress that was done during the stocking procedure.
The email received by the merchandisers will have the following format:
It includes the kiosk ID and the full address to the kiosk (if specified for the kiosk). It will also provide the order information so that you can look the order up in admin and know which order on the kiosk it is with the help of the identifier.
It provides a visual table that shows what can be stocked as well as a CSV (comma-separated values) that can be copied and imported into excel.
App (Instant Inventory)
You will find the Replenishment page from the Inventory tab:
This system works the same way as it does for the kiosk. You first begin by selecting the replenish order that you intend to complete:
Afterwards you can navigate between the unfinished and finished items. You can click on the red FINISH button to complete the item. The stock count will increase when you put an item into the kiosk. If it is a SNG kiosk then there will be a plus and minus button to change the inventory.
A note can be written to include information about the order. When finished, make sure the Is Finished checkbox is checked and click on SUBMIT: