Order Filters

In traditional warehouses, the picking process is often managed in "waves." This involves grouping or batching orders by order content, cut-off times, warehouse zones, or product category. While this method works, it can be quite complicated and costly to implement in an organized way.

Pio simplifies this process with Order Filters, offering a flexible way to tailor your workflow based on what truly matters to your business. With Order Filters, there's no need to manually manage waves. Simply choose your filter, and you're ready to go.

Examples and use cases for the order filters

There are many use cases for when to add an order filter. Here are some examples of order filters from Pio customers:

Shop: When multiple order channels are connected to your Pio grid, a picking filter per shop is added automatically.

Shipping method: Tag the orders with the shipping method name, and you can add a picking filter for the specific shipping method. Avoid mixing up the carriers when packing and shipping. 

B2B orders: B2B orders are often larger containing many order lines, and require a different packing setup at the workstation. Add an order tag to all B2B orders and set up a picking filter using the tag for B2B orders. 

In-store pickup: Prioritize the orders for the in-store pickup customers. Filter the orders by adding an order tag and pick the orders for warehouse pickup at your earliest convenience.

VIP orders: Treat your best and returning customers with a extra goodies when packing the order. Use an order tag to filter the VIP customers, and you can pick and pack these orders separately from regular orders.

Watch the video first, and read the details in the sections below on how to add and use the Order Filters:

Select order filters

Order filters in Pio provide a flexible way to filter the orders to pick. When you select the 'Pick' button, you'll see some pre-defined workflows to choose from: 'Everything', 'Grid only', 'Shelf pick', and 'Consolidate'. The number in the bottom right corner shows the number of orders in each. 

To further narrow down the available orders within each workflow, select an order filter from the 'Select filters' dropdown. If you leave the 'Select filters' dropdown empty, all orders in the backlog will be available for picking.

Everything: This option will give you a workflow of all available orders for the given filter, including orders with items stored both in the grid and on shelves.

Grid only: Choose 'Grid only' to limit your workflow to orders with products stored in the grid. This option allows you to start picking in port while excluding orders that contain shelf items. 

Shelf pick: Select 'Shelf pick' to create a list of orders to pick from shelves or other locations outside the grid. Picking from shelves is described in this article: Shelf picking - items in Pio stored on locations outside the grid

Consolidate: Manual orders are picked from the shelves and placed on a trolley or a temporary location. Select the 'Consolidate' workflow to start packing and consolidating orders.  

Add a new order filter

Navigate to Pio Admin > Orders > Filters to add a new filter. 

Select the '+ Create filter' button in the upper right corner to add a new filter.

Enter a name to recognize the filter in the app and select the required filter options. You can filter by Shop, Order Tag, or both. By adding multiple tags in the same filter, the picking filter will match orders with any of the tags specified.

Order tags must be added to the orders from your e-commerce platform (like Shopify), ERP, or WMS. A filter can have multiple order tags and be applied in multiple stores.

The top right corner shows how many orders are matched by the selected filter settings. This can be used to quickly check that the added filter tags match any of the orders in the backlog.

When the picking filter settings are ready, select the 'Create filter' button, and the filter will be automatically enabled upon save.

Enable or disable a filter

A picking filter can be disabled by using the toggle to the left of the filter name:
 

You can see all the enabled or disabled picking filters by selecting the respective tabs above the list.

Edit a filter

A filter can be edited and changed after creation. Select the three dots to the right to 'Edit filter'. Make the appropriate changes to the filter, and confirm them by selecting 'Save'. 

Delete a filter

In the Order Filter overview, click the three dots to the right and select 'Delete filter'. A filter that is not in use, should be deleted in order to keep the list of filters as short and clean as possible for the Port workers. 

Prioritization rules and order filters

If the order filter is based on prioritized orders, a prioritization rule must be added. This is to make sure the robots prioritize preparing the bins for these orders.

Picking by order filters

Use the dropdown menu to 'Select filter' and filter the orders for each workflow. The numbers next to the filter names reflect the order backlog for the filter.

Continue reading: How to pick orders in Pio