Tips & Tricks
PathGuide’s Latitude WMS is straightforward, yet highly flexible. It’s customizable to your unique operations because the folks at PathGuide believe in simple, intuitive solutions. Easy-to-use software encourages employees to do their jobs even better, meaning efficiency improves and mistakes are avoided.
Whether you’re new to the platform or already a Latitude power user, here are three tips that will shave valuable minutes off your daily routine.
Save Keystrokes with Hotkeys
With every new efficiency or shortcut, workflows become increasingly faster and more streamlined. When it comes to speeding up the picking process, one way to achieve this is by cutting down on keystrokes.
Did you know that Latitude comes with hotkeys straight out of the box? Hotkeys are used to expedite an operation by performing predefined functions – saving the user time as they perform their tasks.
| Key | Assigned Function | Description |
| F1 | Quit | Exit from current activity |
| F2 | Look Up | Find possible answers to the prompt |
| F3 | Tools Menu | Get to the TOOLS MENU |
| F4 | App Menu | Get to the APP MENU |
| F6 | Volume Up | Turn the RF scanner beep louder |
| F7 | Volume Down | Turn the RF scanner beep quieter |
| F14 | Page Up | Move swiftly through a long list |
| F15 | Page Down | Move swiftly through a long list |
| F22 | Lock Screen | Click this to avoid accidentally hitting a key |
Latitude also allows you to create your own custom hotkeys. Is there a task that one of your pickers or receivers does a lot? Create a hotkey for it! These are the 14 different keys on the Honeywell RF Terminal that you can configure into a hotkey: F5, G, H, I, K, L, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, and W.
You can find where to configure hotkeys by using the search tool in Latitude Web. At the bottom of Latitude’s master menu, simply enter “hotkey” into the search bar.
You can also access hotkeysusing this menu path: Main Menu > Administration > System Configuration > RF Terminal Hotkeys
Need another good reason to utilize hotkeys? Imagine a picker gets to a bin, notices it is getting low on inventory, and wants to replenish the bin by moving a case of product from the top shelf to the pick bin. By creating a hotkey that jumps right to the inventory “Move” function, they can quickly perform the move and then easily proceed with their next pick!
Mark a Bin/Item as a Problem Bin/Item
Latitude allows a user to flag a bin or an item for investigation. The user only needs to take a moment to flag the item or bin before continuing with their tasks. (See further explanation in the example below.)
Let’s say you are picking an order and the system directs you to Pick “BUL 210396” from Bin “AA0013”. The system shows there are four to pick, yet you find none. You can flag this issue for investigation without leaving a pick job by pressing F3 to access the tools menu.
- Press F3 to get to the Tools Menu
- Select Mark Bin
- Select ITEM MISSING
- Key in AA0013 for the Bin
- For Line 1 notes, key in BUL 210396 and press Enter
- Press Enter again to submit
Feature Snapshot: Using Latitude’s Alert feature, you can set up your system to send a !Priority Message! pop-up to the emulator’s screen whenever there is a problem document marked. In fact, Latitude’s alert feature can be leveraged for a wide variety of purposes, such as sending real-time notifications or daily reports.
Once marked, you can review a bin on Latitude Web by navigating to:
Master Menu > Activities > Cycle Count > Problem Bins
Here you can review all the items flagged for investigation. From the Functions menu, there is an option to Create Cycle Count for the bin or items marked. Test it out for yourself by taking a few minutes to try out marking items or sales orders in your system.
Sending a Message
The messaging tool in Latitude WMS is a simple way to make communicating with your team even easier because it allows users to receive messages directly through their RF terminal and Latitude Web.
Here’s how to navigate to your Inbox on Latitude Web, followed by simple steps to composing a message in Latitude:
- Master Menu > Start > Message Inbox (Note: there is a quick link to the Inbox in the upper right corner of the web screen.)
- Select Compose New
- Select a “group” (if you use those) or an “employee” in the “To:” box
- Key in a subject line (example: “More orders to pick”)
- Enter in a message (example: “There are several orders that were just released. Please make sure these get out today.”)
Pro Tips
- If you want to know who read your message and when, set the “Read Notification” flag.
- You can mark messages as High Priority to indicate urgency/priority for their intended recipients (Example: “Come by my office before you start picking, please.”)
- Furthermore, messages marked ‘High Priority,’ require receivers to key twice in order to clear the message. By sending a read receipt response to the original sender, this also functions as an acknowledgment/confirmation that the message has been read.
- Click “Send”.
We post Tips and Tricks from time to time, so be sure and check back for more helpful information. As always, if you have suggestions or tips for a Latitude WMS feature, or a specific problem you’re trying to solve, you can reach Customer Support at 1-888-627-9797.