Question Display location of equipment in warehouse

[TimTDP]

I need to display the location of equipment in a warehouse.

The warehouse will consist of storage racks. Each rack is divided into rows and columns. Each rack will be configured differently.

I need to be able to specify the configuration of the storage rack, and then allocate the equipment to a pigeon hole (row number, column number) in the storage rack.

I then need to display the storage rack on a report. The report should be a visual representation of the storage rack. i.e a user can look at the report and know exactly where to go.

I understand the requirement but am struggling to put it together so any suggestions will be most welcome.

 

[spikepl]

Forgive me for uttering the following, but I have seen plenty of warehouses, and everybody always knows exactly where any location is, based on the location code: aisle_no. & rack_no.- & shelf_no. & pidgeon-hole_no.

So this requirement sounds like a bright idea from someone who thinks it might be useful, but is a complete waste of programming resources, IMHO.

 

[TimTDP]

This is not a bright idea.
I have an exact requirement for this

 

[spikepl]

I agree that this is not a bright idea (well perhaps for educational purposes)

If you have a customer who wants to pay for this then who's to argue with money

So you have a specific rack, that has shelfs (your "rows" and each shelf can have at least one or more pidgeon holes (your "columns") , and there can be 1 or more shelfs on a rack. So to display this reflecting the physical appearance you'd need to know how many shelfs a given rack has, how high they are are on the rack, and how many pidgeon holes the given shelf has and what is the offset of each from the edge. For a schematic display you don't need measures but just the number of shelfs and number of pidgeon-holes for the given shelf.

It's a wonderful self-inflicted maintenance nightmare, since locations can change their physical setup, according to needs, and sometimes do, and that would require update of the db. But again, if they want to pay for this ...

 

[spikepl]

another way could be to have a picture for each location, marking the actual pidgeonhole with an arrow, a blob or whatever. In this way no fancy logic would be needed, jsut a pic for each location.