Glossary
Pallet
A pallet is the unit the forklift moves. In a warehouse system it is a container with an identity, a location and a list of what sits on it, not a count somebody remembers.
What it is
A pallet is the physical unit of storage and movement for anything larger than a hand can carry. Cases are stacked on it in a pattern, it is wrapped, and from then on the forklift moves the whole thing. A warehouse that thinks in pallets moves thousands of units with one lift.
In a system, a pallet is a container record: an identity, a current location, and the lines it holds with their quantities and lots.
Why it matters
If the system only knows product totals, every pallet move is a guess about which units moved. If the system knows pallets, a move is one scan and the units follow. Bulk storage, replenishment and cycle counts all get simpler when the answer to “where is it” is “on that pallet, in that bay”.
A worked example
A receipt of 48 cases of a hand cream arrives as two full pallets of 24 (TI 6, HI 4). Each pallet is labeled at the dock and put away to a bulk bay. A week later a pick face runs low; replenishment takes 4 cases from the first pallet, which now holds 20. The count on that pallet is a fact the system wrote when the cases left it, not something an operator reconstructs later.
How DockingWare does it
DockingWare creates pallets at palletize, right after receiving, and gives each one an LPN. Pallet types carry TI and HI so a full pallet is a known quantity. Putaway, transfers and replenishment move pallets or take from them, and every movement writes a ledger row that names the pallet, the product and the quantity.
Questions
- What is the difference between a pallet and an LPN?
- The pallet is the wood and the goods. The LPN is the label that names that pallet so the system can track it. Every tracked pallet carries one LPN; a tote can carry one too.
- What are TI and HI?
- TI is how many cases fit in one layer, HI is how many layers high. Together they describe a standard full pallet for a product, which is what receiving expects and what a bulk bay is sized for.
- Can one pallet hold more than one product?
- Yes. A mixed pallet is normal at receiving and in returns. What matters is that the container knows its contents, so a move of the pallet moves every line on it.