How WIPtracker tracks Nested Containers with Multiple Different Parts

An important aspect of work-in-process tracking is the ability to track totes, pallets, and carts which contain multiple different parts.

WIPtracker/BellHawk can track nested containers, with each container in the containers table having a parent container. This enables BellHawk to track multiple different WIP materials in a container, such as a tote or box, and to track multiple boxes on a pallet or multiple totes on a cart. This then enables tracking movement of the parent container, and all its child containers, using a single barcode or RFID scan of the parent container barcode or RFID tag.

Another capability that makes WIPtracker/BellHawk unique is the ability to track WIP parts without creating special part numbers for each WIP material stage that a product goes through in its transformation from raw materials to finished products.

Here, BellHawk uses the finished product part number but adds a WIP flag to indicate that this is not a finished product and also tracks which operation/route step was used to make the WIP materials.

This enables recording WIP out from an operation in a route, without needing to create a special part number. Here the container is marked a containing WIP materials with a record of the operation/route step that produced it. If a subsequent job uses the same WIP materials, then the left over WIP materials can be assigned to the new job, just like any other inventory.

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