In a warehouse run by two people, nobody needs a map. Everyone knows the blue connectors are on the shelf behind the door. The system breaks on the day one of them is on holiday, or the day the warehouse has eight people instead of two, or the day the connectors are moved and nobody mentions it.
Shelf positions, also called bin locations, replace memory with an address. Every shelf has a code, and the system records how many units of each product sit on each one.
What a position is, and is not
A shelf position is a breakdown of the stock a location already holds. The warehouse holds 500 units; shelves A-01 and B-03 hold 300 and 200 of them. The positions do not add stock, remove stock or change what it is worth. They say where it is.
That is why a position is not a second location. A location is a place with its own stock figure, its own counts and its own deliveries. A shelf is an address inside one.
Coding the shelves
A good shelf code reads like a route: from the aisle to the bay to the level, in the order a person walks.
| Code | Reading |
|---|---|
| A-01-1 | Aisle A, bay 01, level 1 (floor) |
| A-01-2 | Same bay, one level up |
| A-02-1 | Next bay along, floor level |
| B-01-1 | First bay of aisle B |
A few rules keep the codes usable for years:
- Pad the numbers. 01 to 99, not 1 to 99, so that lists sort in walking order.
- Letters for aisles, digits for bays and levels. Mixing them in the same segment makes codes hard to read aloud.
- Number bays in walking order. Odd numbers on one side of an aisle and even on the other is the usual convention, so a picker walking down the aisle counts upward on both sides.
- Leave gaps for growth. If an aisle has 12 bays, numbering them 01 to 12 means a new rack at the end becomes 13, which is fine. A new rack in the middle is not. Number in steps of two if the layout is likely to change.
- Never encode the product. A shelf called CONNECTORS is wrong the day the connectors move.
Print the code on the shelf edge, large, with a barcode if you scan. A code that exists only in the system is a code nobody uses.
Which products to track by position
Not every product needs a position. Tracking positions costs a few seconds on every movement, and for some stock that is wasted.
Track by position when a product is stored in more than one place, when it is picked by someone who did not put it away, when it is small and easy to lose among similar items, or when it is valuable enough that a search costs more than the record. Skip it for bulk stock that lives on one pallet in one obvious place, and for products a single person handles from arrival to use.
Start with the products that cause searches. Add the rest if and when they do.
Keeping positions true
A position record is only useful while it is right, and it goes wrong in three ways.
Put-away without a record. Goods arrive, go onto the nearest empty shelf, and the record says they are unassigned or still on the old shelf. Choose the shelf when you receive, as part of the same step.
Moves without a record. Someone consolidates two half-empty shelves into one on a quiet afternoon. Make moving between shelves as quick as moving the box, from a phone, or it will not be recorded.
Picks from the wrong shelf. The system says take 10 from A-01, the picker takes 10 from A-02 because it was nearer. Both shelves are now wrong by 10, and the total is right, so nothing flags it. Shelf-level counts, one aisle at a time, catch this.
A short cycle count by shelf, rather than by product, is the natural way to keep positions honest: walk the aisle, count what is on each shelf, compare.
How StockBold does it
In StockBold, shelves belong to a location and are added in its settings by pasting a list of codes, one per line or straight from a spreadsheet column. The aisle is read from the code, so A-01 and A-02 are grouped under aisle A, and codes are unique within a location, ignoring case. Shelf positions are switched on product by product; the other products work as before.
Stock-outs, transfers and deliveries state which shelves the goods leave and land on. On a stock-out the shelves are pre-filled from the fullest shelf down. On a delivery you choose the shelf as you receive. Stock that is in a location but not yet on a shelf shows as units waiting to be put away, and you move units between shelves from the shelf list or the product page. On a phone, Scan & Move asks for the shelf when you record a stock-out.
Shelves never change the quantity or value of your stock, and they are included in every paid plan.
Read more about shelf positions, or the help guide on setting up shelves in a location.