FedEx tracking numbers let you follow your packages at every stage along the way from collection to delivery. BellHawk tracking numbers let you do the same for orders, materials and assets at your facilities and project sites.

Real-Time Tracking

Real-time tracking keeps you on top of events. BellHawk Online warns your users before they use the wrong material or start on the wrong job. Operations respond to customers' orders and comply with their requirements.

A problem solved

You tracked a box of parts from China on Fedex. Why can't you find it in your warehouse now?

BellHawk solves this problem by registering items to a container, not a location. It then tracks changes to its contents and location.

Now you know your box is at A-10-6 not just somewhere in the warehouse.

CONTAINER TRACKING

Number Plate labels

To use BellHawk you put a number plate, usually a barcode label, on every container.

BellHawk calls these labels "license plates". What matters is every number is unique like a Fedex tracking number.

Tracking

When you move a container you scan its number plate and its new location. The scanner radios the data to the BellHawk database.

Likewise, when you transfer items from one container to another, you scan the containers and record the items to update the database.

In this way the database knows where everything is in real time. It also has an exact log of what came in, what went out, and what happened in between.

Types of container

Containers can be boxes and pallets, bins and totes, reels of cable, lengths of wood or metal, even piles of sand.

BellHawk assigns an internal number to a pile of sand in a particular location and other such virtual containers..

Number plate labels also go onto large items like electric motors. Their serial number labels can be used instead.

Material data

The data about what is in the container is recorded in the database when receiving goods or producing them.

Changes in this data, such as location or quantity, are registered by scanning the barcode on the container.

Location labels

The Codeway Label Bureau designs and supplies location labels.

ADVANTAGES OF CONTAINER TRACKING

1. Inventory accuracy

Nothing is worse than starting an order only to find not enough stock in the bin. Usually because computer or paper records are out of date and wrong.

Realtime tracking helps to resolve these problems by:

1. Tracking all stock movements in real time.
2. Eliminating delays in updating inventory.
3. Preventing picking errors.
4. Weighing containers to check quantities.
5. Adjusting stock when containers go empty.

BellHawk reduces the need for safety stocks that may never be used.

It also avoids the shortcomings of "backflushing". Example: not allowing for waste.

2. Nested containers

BellHawk makes it easy to track nested containers such as cartons on a pallet. Just scan the pallet to move all the items to a new location.

Each carton might contain different products and some of these might be serially numbered items.

Even better, BellHawk uses its data about the contents of these cartons to generate ASNs (Advanced Shipment Notices) to send to your customers. ASNs allow them to bring everything into stock by scanning a single barcode.

Likewise BellHawk can use ASNs from your suppliers to record the receipt of materials.

3. Off-cuts

BellHawk handles offcuts in the form of rolls, sheets and lengths.

Each offcut returned to stock gets a number plate linked to a record of the material and its dimensions.

This lets BellHawk compute the amount of a material used on a job and its cost.

BellHawk will also compute the total amount of the material including offcuts for stock valuation by the accounting system.

4. Project control

Engineering and construction contractors often purchase inventory for projects and bill them to customers before use.

Tracking containers by project segregates materials and ownership. This avoids mix-ups and violation of accounting regulations.

The BellHawk Online Project module allows a contractor to associate multiple orders with a project, purchase orders, work orders and ship orders. Work orders can be for manufacturing, engineering, assembly, test repair or test jobs.

5. Traceability

Container tracking records which materials went into the products sent to customers. You can track back to the source of a defect and minimise the extent of a recall.

Traceability is mandatory for food, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

It is also important for industries from automotive to medical devices whose products impact human health and safety.

6. Stock availability

To find out the stock of an item, BellHawk adds up the quantity in all its containers wherever they are located, even if they are being moved from one place to another.

Cycle counting and stock taking are much easier as there is no need to disrupt operations. You can check the containers on a shelf match those in your tracking system, one shelf at a time, as often as you want.

7. Stock valuation

BellHawk tracks the quantity of materials in each container along with a unit cost.

The unit cost basis for each type of material will depend on your company's stock valuation policy, such as:

• Purchase cost for materials.
• Market value for commodities like gold and copper.
• Production cost for make to order products.
• Cost of sales for finished goods.

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