Location 14-C-3 is empty, so where is the pallet?
A picker has a list of pallets for tomorrow's first delivery. The system says one is in 14-C-3. It is not. The reach truck driver remembers moving some pallets on Tuesday night to make room for a big intake. Which ones and where to, nobody wrote down.
So the picker searches, in the freezer, with gloves on, checking labels on pallets in the aisles nearby. Breaks from the cold are needed, the search takes longer, and the load is late off the dock.
Why cold store locations drift
Location accuracy is hard in any warehouse, and cold conditions make every shortcut more tempting. Nobody wants to take gloves off to tap a screen at minus twenty-five.
- Handheld devices struggle with cold, condensation and gloved hands.
- Pallets are moved to make room during busy intakes and not recorded.
- Labels frost over or come off, so scans fail and are skipped.
- Moves between chiller and freezer chambers are logged on paper.
- Nobody checks locations until a pallet cannot be found.
What lost pallets cost
Time in the cold, which matters to your staff's welfare and to how many hours you can plan per shift. Door openings and time with pallets in the aisle. Late loads, missed delivery slots and customers asking why their stock took so long.
Occasionally a pallet stays lost long enough to go past its date, which becomes a claim and a difficult conversation with the stock owner.
How we keep locations accurate in the cold
- We use rugged, cold-rated scanners or vehicle-mounted terminals on reach trucks, with screens and buttons designed for gloved use.
- Pallet and location labels are chosen for freezer conditions, and location labels are placed where a truck-mounted scanner can read them.
- Every putaway, move and pick is a scan of pallet and location. A move without a scan is not possible through the system, and missed scans are flagged.
- During busy intakes, temporary locations such as aisle ends are also labelled, so short moves are still recorded.
- A daily check lists locations where the system and the most recent scan disagree, and a short cycle count task is created for them.
- If you already run a WMS, we connect this to it rather than replace it, feeding scans and correcting locations through its API.
| Movement | Recorded by |
|---|---|
| Putaway | Scan pallet, scan location |
| Move to make room | Truck-mounted scan of both |
| Transfer between chambers | Scan at both ends |
| Pick | Scan pallet and confirm location |
We look at your existing WMS first. If its scanning is fine and the problem is devices or labels, that is what we fix.
What pickers find after
Pallets where the system says they are. When one is not, the last scan shows where it went. Searches in the cold become rare, and the daily check keeps drift small instead of letting it build up until the next stocktake.
Are pallets going missing in your freezer?
- Pickers regularly search for pallets not in their location.
- Moves during busy intakes are not recorded.
- Scanners fail in the cold or with gloves.
- Labels frost over and are unreadable.
- Location errors are only found at stocktake.