Why the system rejects this destination shelf

The destination shelf is checked twice: when the task is created and again when the operator is standing there. This is deliberate; conditions may change between accepting a suggestion and reaching the shelf.

Rules, checked in this order

1. Different from the source. Moving goods from a shelf back onto itself is not a movement.
2. Same company.
3. Active. A disabled location cannot receive goods.
4. Not a system location. Operator carts and technical locations are never destinations.
5. A picking location type. The destination must be a location from which a picker can collect goods. The refusal tells you the shelf’s type.
6. Same warehouse as the source. Replenishment does not move goods between warehouses. The move is also rejected if either location has no warehouse assigned.
7. Not reserved. A shelf cannot already be the destination of another open task; otherwise two people could bring goods to the same place. The refusal gives the shelf and task it is waiting for: “Shelf R13-36-02 is waiting for goods from another task REPL-16-003174”. That is why an empty shelf can still be refused — choose another or do the task named in the message first.
8. Not occupied. One picking shelf, one product. A shelf with any goods on it (even the same product) is rejected with “Destination location is occupied (goods are on it) — put away on an empty shelf.” An empty shelf always passes this rule.

When a rule is relaxed

Four exceptions, each tied to a specific kind of work:

• Consolidation skips rules 7 and 8. Gathering scattered units is its purpose.
• Self-pick (“I’ll take it myself”) skips rule 8, but not 7, only if the company or scenario allows mixing goods on a shelf (“Mix products on shelf” in replenishment settings, or “Allow put-away to occupied shelf” in the scenario). Then you may add goods to an occupied shelf, but you cannot interfere with another person’s plan. Without this setting, self-pick can put goods only on an empty shelf.
• The product’s own pick face may receive replenishment up to its threshold even if goods are already there. Another product still blocks it: “Target pick face holds a different product”. The same product on a shelf that is not its active pick face also blocks it: “holds SKU but is not its active pick face”.
• Further units for the same task are not blocked by units that the task itself put there moments earlier.

Batches (warehouse in Full mode)

If the warehouse forbids mixing batches, one more refusal applies: a shelf with a different batch of the same product cannot receive the goods (a batch conflict), even when mixing products on shelves is allowed. An empty shelf accepts any batch. If the worker carries a batch with no matching shelf, they can use an empty shelf in the same warehouse that is not reserved by another task.

Deferred destination

Four kinds of tasks can be created without a destination shelf: manual, consolidation, self-pick, and order demand. The operator scans a destination when putting the goods away.

The task then carries a frozen destination area — the warehouse, zone, and location-type filter saved at creation. A scan outside that area is rejected. The area is frozen so a change to zone configuration does not invalidate a task that someone has already partly completed.

How the source shelf is selected

If the product is on several shelves, selection follows a company setting:

• Largest free stock first (default) — minimizes trips.
• Empty a location when possible — use shelves this move will completely empty first, freeing space. A shelf counts as worth emptying only if it contains at least a quarter of the required quantity; smaller leftovers are skipped.

Free stock is what remains after subtracting reservations from other open tasks and the current picking queue.