Instructed Transfers/Movements are generated either by automation or in some cases manually actioned via the Qwix Portal by a user.
Instructions need to be assigned to a device or device group for them to be executed. Please see the section below on how this assignment works.
To learn more about what makes up a Transfer, please look at Transfers
Once an instruction has been created, it can only be executed if it appears on a device for execution. Instructions are assigned to devices or device groups. The two main methods of assignment are explained below, as well as some information on how Just in Time assignment works.
Instructions can be directly assigned to a device. The assignment can be on the header level, in which case all the individual instruction lines are assigned to the specific device. Once an instruction is directly assigned to a device it can only be executed by the assigned device. Incomplete instructions may be re-assigned manually if required. Take care when overriding assignments made by automation, as it could hamper the load-balancing mechanism from working effectively.
The mobile devices (scanners) may belong to one or more groups. This allows for various areas of operation to have one or more groups. Devices may then be dynamically be assigned to the groups. This allows the administrators to not only control which devices do which tasks, but also dynamically assign more devices if the specific workflow requires more resources to complete the workload in an expected timeframe.
Instruction headers may be assigned to a scanner group. The load balancer will automatically assign instructions to specific devices based on an algorithm. In some environments (if it has been configured) Instructions will not be assigned to a device, but the operators may request the next instruction from a device, and based on the scanner group, the load balancer will issue the next appropriate instruction.
Load balancing allows the automation engine to monitor the current instructions on any given device, and based on device group assignment allocate one or more instructions (headers or lines) to a device. This process happens constantly in the background through the Qwix AIR engine. To ensure a device always has pending instructions to execute, the Load balances can be set to maintain a minimum level of instructions on any given device. This feature is ideal for high-volume processes and assists the operators in gaining a marginal forward view of tasks (instructions), and ensures that they always have a buffer of tasks to execute.
Just-in-Time assignment allows for the load balancer to p[play a passive role, and the mobile devices to only get the next available instruction assigned to them at the point of completing the current instruction (or batch of instructions). Using this approach allows for extremely dynamic environments to actively change scanners around between groups, and prioritise execution of tasks based on administrator input, rapidly, without the need to re-assign already assigned instructions, since there typically is almost none, pre-assigned (legacy load-balancing).