Set icons and classifications for specific products
Product classifications make it easy to assign the right deliveries to the right runs and pick the right vehicles.
Planning delivery and collection for multiple types of order can be frustrating when you realise you’ve put chilled and ambient goods on a vehicle with only one chamber, or assigned a driver who doesn’t have the certification to deliver controlled substances.
Our latest release means transport planners can see at-a-glance if there’s any specific classification of products on an order and assign runs, vehicles and drivers accordingly.
Ensure goods are kept in the right state and that the right safety precautions are taken, particularly for things like food or pharmaceuticals which need to be kept at a specific temperature.
This avoids mistakes that would mean time is wasted on emergency last-minute vehicle changes – or worse, that products go to waste when they’re not kept at the correct temperature.
How can you use product classification icons
Using icons is very flexible and can be used in a variety of different ways. Let’s run through a few scenarios to give you an idea of how icons can be used in Stream.
Orders with temperature-controlled requirements
Many goods need to be kept at a specific temperature, from chilled and frozen foods to temperature-controlled medications. To keep goods at the right temperature throughout the supply chain, chilled and frozen items need to be transported on vehicles with the right temperature-control compartments.
For a company delivering pallets of both chilled and ambient medications, for example, they can assign the snowflake icon to chilled pallets. Planners can then clearly see what vehicle type they need to assign, based on whether they’ve planned chilled goods or not.
Alternatively, they could also add specific temperature requirements (ambient, chilled or frozen).
Stream can be configured to give a pop-up warning if, for example, both chilled and ambient goods are assigned to a vehicle with only one compartment. This is flexible, so you can use icons only or specify the temperature requirement, or use both.
Ensure only the right drivers handle specific substances
In the case of toxic or hazardous products or controlled goods, where only certain drivers are trained to handle them, classification icons mean you can quickly see what type of goods are on a particular order or run.
It is then easy for planners to assign the driver you know has the qualification or training to handle those goods.
Ensuring safe storage / manual handling / transportation
You can also specify the type of storage or manual handling an item will require, for example, if a certain item is a biohazard, or is particularly heavy.
In another scenario, you may be transporting a highly flammable items (an aerosol-based cleaning product for example), so you’d assign the flammable icon to those products. In the same order, there might be some fragile items (glass bottles for instance). In this scenario, icons would stack next to each other in Advanced Planning, so you can see all the classification icons that apply to each order.
Classification icons available
In product maintenance, select a specific product and then choose an icon. There are six icons you can choose from currently, with plans to add more icons in due course to offer greater flexibility:
- Biohazards
- Frozen or chilled goods
- Flammable goods
- Fragile goods
- Medical products
- Radioactive or harmful goods
How to add your icons
You can add the classification icons through ‘Product Maintenance’ which you access through the main menu (note: you can read a little more about the updates we’ve previously released here).
In the Product Maintenance screen, you’ll see that in the middle column there is now an option to add and change icons associated with a specific product (which you select in the left hand column). Once you’ve picked the appropriate icon, simply press ‘Save’.
Stream saves the icon classification, so the next time you log in, any order with that product on it will automatically display the icon in Advanced Planning. By default, products have a ‘blank’ icon associated with them.
After you assign a classification icon you will see the icon displayed in Advanced Planning next to any order number containing that item. In the example below, there’s a couple of orders in the list that have chilled or frozen products in them, plus one flammable. If an order contains products with multiple icon classifications, all the relevant icons will be displayed.
Product icons display both on orders that are ready to plan, and on orders that are already planned, so you can see which classification icons are already on a particular run.
Assign specific temperature & storage requirements
We’ve also enabled you to set specific temperature or storage requirements for individual products.
Again, in the middle column, there’s now an option to specify whether products need to be planned onto vehicles that have single or multiple compartments for ambient, chilled or frozen goods. Stream will give you warnings if products / orders are planned on a vehicle that doesn’t have the correct number of compartments.
You can also set storage requirements for specific products. The options currently available are:
- Standard
- Biohazard
- Controlled drug
- Fragile
- Hazardous
- Heavy
- Radioactive
Product classification icons are now available for Stream Go subscribers. Please contact support@go2stream.com if you need further assistance.