What the documents look like
Inbound receiving and putaway is the first physical-versus-record confirmation when goods enter a warehouse. The working materials come from WMS, ERP purchasing, supplier delivery notes and barcode scanning. The documents handled each day are the purchase arrival note, the inbound acceptance note, the putaway task and the discrepancy report. Operating reviews and exception retrospectives have to align received quantity, acceptance conclusion, putaway location and discrepancy reason to the same batch and the same date range. Retrieval therefore has to serve two different query shapes at once: exact lookups such as document numbers, material codes and location codes, and natural-language descriptions of why a discrepancy occurred. Records update per batch and per day. This page covers retrieval and recall configuration only, and does not infer batch synchronization, full synchronization, real-time or transaction-triggered mechanisms.
Two or three facts from this category genuinely shape the retrieval task. First, the discrepancy reason field is free text written by a receiving clerk, so the same physical event can be phrased in several ways and semantic retrieval is needed to reach it. Second, purchase order numbers, SKU codes and location codes are short exact strings where keyword matching outperforms semantic distance. Third, the acceptance note and the putaway task carry status values that later business steps depend on, so a retrieved passage must be read together with the document it came from rather than treated as a conclusion on its own.
Constraints at the retrieval step
The knowledge base search node can associate one or more knowledge bases that use the same vector model. Semantic retrieval computes distance between the user question and stored content. Full-text retrieval suits numbers, models, proper nouns and error codes. Hybrid retrieval uses both paths and merges them through RRF, after which ReRank can reorder candidates. The minimum relevance value applies only under semantic retrieval or when result reranking is used; it is a filtering threshold and does not perform permission or entity isolation. The citation limit is measured in tokens and controls how much content one search returns. A relevance score does not distinguish business category and does not determine whether a record is authorized. Retrieval itself is not authorization. Whether a purchase arrival note has been accepted, and whether a putaway task has been assigned a location, still require confirmation in the business system or by a person.
Hypothetical paper exercise sample: on 10 March 2025 an e-commerce warehouse received a supplier delivery note stating purchase order number PO-20250310-07, material code SKU-8842, and an arrival quantity of 120 pieces. The inbound acceptance note of the same day records 118 pieces actually received, a discrepancy of 2 pieces, and the discrepancy reason field reads "outer packaging damaged, pending supplier confirmation." The putaway task shows the batch has been assigned location A-03-12 with status "pending putaway." A draft sentence reads: "The discrepancy for this batch has been confirmed by the supplier, so putaway can be completed and the discrepancy written off." A pending request reads: "Please confirm, based on the discrepancy report, who is responsible for the shortage of 2 pieces."
Configuration and implementation checks
| Configuration item | Hypothetical trial starting point | Reason and comparison method |
|---|---|---|
| Associated knowledge bases | Purchase arrival note base, inbound acceptance note base, discrepancy report base | The three bases use the same vector model; check that the model identifiers match before associating them together |
| Search mode | Hybrid retrieval | Discrepancy reasons are natural language while document numbers and location codes need exact hits; compare the semantic path and the full-text path |
| Citation limit | 3000 tokens | A single arrival note plus acceptance note runs long; test content completeness with materials of different lengths |
| Minimum relevance | 0.35 | Applies only under semantic retrieval or reranking; label relevant and irrelevant samples first, then adjust |
| Question optimization | Enabled | Completes references in multi-turn follow-ups; compare the original question with the optimized question to check whether the subject was altered |
| Result reranking | Enabled | Reorders when candidates are numerous; the rerank score is used for filtering and is compared with the vector score |
These values are the starting point for this hypothetical trial, not official defaults. Knowledge bases built on different vector models cannot be associated together; verify the vector model identifiers first and exclude those that do not match, rather than running a cross-model search to compare missed recalls.
Three common errors
- Treating the relevance score as a permission or entity filter. Input is a retrieval request against the discrepancy report base; compare the score with business ownership and observe whether unauthorized records are excluded. A high or low score does not determine record ownership, and retrieved results still need a person to check the authorization boundary.
- Treating RRF in hybrid retrieval as a switch that can be turned on. Input is the semantic path result and the full-text path result; compare ordering before and after merging and observe whether RRF appears as a merging process. The documentation describes RRF as a merge method, and no separate switch configuration item exists.
- Treating pending putaway status as completed putaway. Input is the putaway task in the sample; compare the task status with a putaway completion record and observe the value of the status field. Pending putaway is not the same as putaway completed, and writing off a discrepancy requires separate confirmation evidence.
How to verify the setup
- Input the sample draft sentence "The discrepancy for this batch has been confirmed by the supplier, so putaway can be completed and the discrepancy written off" and compare it with the acceptance note discrepancy reason "outer packaging damaged, pending supplier confirmation." The subject is the same batch and the field is the same discrepancy confirmation status. The acceptance note states pending supplier confirmation while the draft sentence states confirmed; the two values are mutually exclusive on the same field, and the draft sentence is not supported.
- Input the pending request "Please confirm, based on the discrepancy report, who is responsible for the shortage of 2 pieces" and compare it with the available materials. The materials contain arrival quantity, actual received quantity and discrepancy reason, and do not state a responsibility conclusion. The evidence required by this request is missing, so it should be recorded as pending verification rather than judged as a denial or a conflict.
- Input an empty citation array [] and check whether the downstream node still proceeds. The knowledge base search node outputs citations as an array whose length can be 0, meaning the output path still runs even when no content is found. Use the paper input [] to check the downstream design, and do not claim that a particular fictional rule will always return [].
All three verification items address retrieval and recall itself and do not extend into identity certification, report analysis or business approval. Retrieved results do not constitute authorization; signing, reaching an agreement and a contract taking effect are three separate facts, and authorization or effectiveness clauses not stated in the materials remain missing.