Warehouse picking ran on paper. The shipping tools supported by the ERP didn't meet the business's needs, and the team had been told that connecting a better cloud platform wasn't possible.
This is the kind of problem I like taking on. I needed to understand how the warehouse worked and what the ERP was doing underneath before I could build a useful replacement for the paper process.
Understand the ERP's behavior
I scoped the work with operations, documented the process and its edge cases, and reverse-engineered the ERP's picking and shipping behavior. SQL traces, queries, commands, and stored procedures showed how the existing system allocated stock and processed shipments.
I designed, wrote, and deployed two connected systems, then owned their delivery and support.
Picking on tablets
The picking app replaced paper with an Android tablet workflow. Warehouse users scanned QR codes on product bins, with lot allocation and traceability built into the process for the FDA-regulated operation.
I built it with Flutter, Node.js, and SQL Server, using Zebra hardware. The software had to follow the warehouse process and preserve the ERP's inventory behavior.
Connecting cloud shipping
I wrote middleware between Piyovi, the cloud shipping platform, and the self-hosted ERP. It retrieved shipment data, wrote updates back to SQL Server, and used webhooks to connect the workflow.
The integration automated shipping documents and order confirmations. Rate-shopping logic selected a shipping method that met the customer's delivery requirements.
The warehouse gained digital picking, lot traceability, and connected shipping while continuing to use its existing ERP. Getting the systems to work together made the better shipping platform a usable option for the business.