What are Location Roles?

Think of this like the status for an Item on a Shelf. A shelf can contain multiple Items; each unique Item on the Shelf has its own Location; each Location can have its own Role.

A Shelf cannot contain multiple Locations for the same Item, but different Roles.

Example

Shelf 01-AA-01-01 has 1 unit of WATER-BOTTLE that's Pickable and 5 units of TSHIRT that are Damaged. The Shelf has 2 Locations.

We can add more Pickable WATER-BOTTLES and more Damaged TSHIRTs, or a different SKU.

Definitions

Pickable

The "base" or "default" Location Role. Batches can send Pickers to these locations. Items count toward sellable stock.

Backstock

Items count toward Sellable stock, but are not used for Picking. Backstock can be promoted to Pickable via Replenishment.
Enhanced pick efficiency—send pickers to the low shelves before the wrapped pallet of Backstock 20 feet up.

Reserved (Currently Unavailable)

Items are in open orders, waiting to be picked. They don't contribute to sellable stock.

Pending

Pending locations don't contribute to sellable stock. Items have been received in Returns, but are Pending when there is still Post-Processing work to do. The only way to assign a Pending location role is if it's enabled in Customer Preferences (please note, this option is only visible to Administrators). 
This enables Returns to be completed, but their stock to not be made immediately sellable. The warehouse then has the time to recondition and re-shelve items.

Expired

Expired locations don't contribute to sellable stock. Items are Expired when they have Lot Control on, and are in a Lot that's past its expiration date.  

Damaged

Damages aren't sellable. Items enter Damaged locations during Returns or Ship Notice receiving.

General Information About Location Roles

• Orders can't be directly created from a Location Role; they can instead be Batched favoring a particular set of Location Roles.

• One physical shelf could have multiple Location IDs with the same Name. For example, Location 01-AA-001-001 might have 2 units of SKUABC and a role of Pickable. When an order is placed for 1 unit of SKUABC, there are now two Location IDs with the same name. One of them is Pickable, one is Reserved. This only applies to Pickable and Reserved.

• Inventory Exports and the Inventory Snapshots include stock levels for each role.

Hierarchy

• Damaged
• Expired
• Pending
• Reserved
• Backstock
• Pickable