What the documents look like
Multi-warehouse allocation happens at the order routing stage and determines which warehouse fulfils a shipment. This differs from courier handover, which deals with parcel movement after dispatch. The main data sources are WMS, OMS, ERP inventory and platform inventory interfaces. Typical roles are supply chain planning, WMS administrators and e-commerce operations. Daily documents include allocation rules, inventory synchronisation sheets, transfer orders and stockout alerts. These documents define the input types that workflow routing must carry: warehouse priority, sellable inventory, transfer status and stockout flags. The consequences of error are oversell refunds, higher cross-region freight and delayed dispatch, which require the routing to keep a clear boundary between collecting information and performing downstream business actions. Update frequency is daily or hourly; the features on this page do not depend on that frequency, so it is not discussed further.
Constraints at the workflow routing step
When a Form Input node is triggered, the conversation enters an interactive state, the workflow state is recorded, and execution continues after the user completes the interaction. After submission, the node collects the form information the user entered and passes it to subsequent nodes. A User Selection node also enters an interactive state, and after the user makes a choice the node evaluates that choice and executes the corresponding Yes branch. These two nodes only collect information and evaluate branches. They do not write orders, deduct inventory or synchronise external state. Checking inventory synchronisation sheets, transfer orders and stockout alerts is the responsibility of staff or downstream systems. A retrieval result or a form submission does not constitute authorisation. A form submission cannot be treated as a dispatch instruction, and a user selection cannot be treated as completed approval.
Hypothetical exercise sample: the source material reads, "Allocation rule article 7: orders in the East China region are dispatched from the Suzhou warehouse by default; when Suzhou sellable inventory falls below the safety threshold, dispatch switches to the Hangzhou warehouse. Transfer order T-2024-0312 status is pending review. Stockout alert W-2024-0088 object: Suzhou warehouse, status is pending handling." Draft sentence to be judged: "When Suzhou sellable inventory falls below the safety threshold, the system should automatically switch dispatch to the Hangzhou warehouse." This draft sentence concerns the conditional trigger and the execution action in the allocation rule, but the material does not state an automatic execution clause, and it does not state the safety threshold value. The sentence is therefore unsupported and remains to be verified.
Configuration and implementation checks
The table below is tied to the hypothetical exercise sample and lists officially documented settings or implementation checks relevant to this feature and to the store service and internal training task.
| Configuration item | Type | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Form Input node | Official node | Triggering enters the interactive state, collects required information, and passes it to subsequent nodes after submission |
| User Selection node | Official node | After the user makes a choice, the corresponding Yes branch executes; verify each branch connection individually |
| Interactive state check | Implementation check | State recording is behaviour of the interactive node; no separate global state-recording switch is set |
| Output handover check | Implementation check | Pass collected information explicitly to subsequent retrieval, decision or interface nodes, and compare each output against its input |
| External action separation | Implementation check | Order writing, document backfill and external state synchronisation require a separate business interface or downstream process |
| Hypothetical starting value | This exercise | Set the safety threshold to 10 units as the starting value for this paper comparison, chosen so it can be compared against the "below the safety threshold" condition in the sample; the comparison method is an item-by-item check of the rule text against the draft sentence |
Three common errors
- Treating a form submission as dispatch authorisation. The input is the "transfer request" collected by the Form Input node in the hypothetical sample; the comparison is against the allocation rule text and the transfer order status. If a form submission directly triggers order writing, that exceeds the node's behaviour. The observable result is that subsequent nodes receive the form values while order writing does not occur.
- Treating the Yes branch of a user selection as completed approval. The input is a Yes selection at the User Selection node in the hypothetical sample; the comparison is against the "pending review" status of transfer order T-2024-0312. Treating the Yes branch as passing review confuses a selection with an approval. The observable result is that the branch executes while the transfer order status does not change.
- Treating a retrieval result as a permission or entity filter. The input is the retrieval query for stockout alert W-2024-0088 in the hypothetical sample; the comparison is between the alert object "Suzhou warehouse" and the returned records. Treating the record as authorised for handling because of a high similarity score mistakes relevance for authorisation. The observable result is that retrieval returns records while the authorisation state remains unconfirmed.
How to verify the setup
- For the rule text "when Suzhou sellable inventory falls below the safety threshold, dispatch switches to the Hangzhou warehouse" in the hypothetical sample, the input is allocation rule article 7 and the comparison is against the draft sentence "the system should automatically switch dispatch to the Hangzhou warehouse". The expected observation is that the rule text does not state an automatic execution clause, and the draft sentence is marked unsupported.
- For the "pending review" status of transfer order T-2024-0312 in the hypothetical sample, the input is a Yes selection at the User Selection node and the comparison is against the transfer order status field. The expected observation is that after the selection branch executes, the transfer order status remains "pending review", and no inference of "reviewed" or "completed" appears.
- For stockout alert W-2024-0088 with object "Suzhou warehouse" and status "pending handling" in the hypothetical sample, the input is the transfer request collected by the Form Input node and the comparison is between the alert object and the request object. The expected observation is that when the two subjects match, they are recorded as the same object; when they do not match, the case is recorded as pending verification. No cross-model retrieval comparison is performed, and a similarity score is not interpreted as authorisation or entity filtering.