The call comes in at 2:47 PM: “We need 24 units of SKU-4782 shipped today. Where is it?”

You check the system. It says “in stock, 156 units available.” Great. But where exactly?

Three staff members spend the next 45 minutes searching. They finally find it—behind a pallet of promotional stock that should have been cleared last month, in Bay 7, not Bay 12 where it belongs.

The order ships late. The customer is annoyed. Your team has lost nearly 2.5 hours of productive time hunting for stock that was supposedly “in the system.”

This scenario plays out in Australian warehouses hundreds of times every day. The problem isn’t that the stock doesn’t exist—it’s that nobody knows exactly where it is when they need it.

Here’s how to fix it.

Why Stock Gets Lost in the First Place

Before solving the problem, understand the root causes:

Cause 1: No Assigned Home Location

Items get put “wherever there’s space” during receiving. Six months later, SKU-4782 is scattered across four different locations because nobody defined where it should live.

Cause 2: Location Changes Aren’t Recorded

A picker grabs the last 10 units from the forward-pick bin, sees more in bulk storage, and moves some to the forward bin—but doesn’t scan or record the movement. The system still shows the old location.

Cause 3: Physical Labels Missing or Unreadable

Location barcodes fade, fall off, or were never printed in the first place. Staff describe locations verbally (“near the roller door”, “top shelf in the back”) which means different things to different people.

Cause 4: No Put-Away Discipline

Stock arrives. It gets unloaded. It sits on the dock for three days while “someone” figures out where it should go. Eventually, it gets shoved into the nearest empty spot with no system update.

Cause 5: Inventory System Doesn’t Track Locations

Your current system tracks quantities but not locations. It can tell you that you have 156 units of SKU-4782, but it can’t tell you that 120 are in Bulk-A-12, 30 are in Forward-Pick-7, and 6 are in Quarantine-2.

The Solution: Four Connected Layers

Fixing this requires combining software, barcodes, process discipline, and real-time tracking. Here’s the systematic approach:

Solution 1: Assign Every Item a Home

The foundation is simple: every SKU must have a primary location.

This doesn’t mean it can only be there—it means there’s a designated “home” where the item lives by default. When stock arrives, when it gets restocked, when it’s put away after a return—it goes to the home location unless there’s a specific reason to put it elsewhere.

How to Define Home Locations

For fast-moving items: Assign forward-pick locations near pack benches or dispatch. Small, accessible bins that hold 1-2 days of average demand.

For bulk stock: Assign pallet racking or floor locations in the main storage area. Label these as bulk overflow for the same SKU.

For slow-movers: Assign high-bay or remote locations. These items don’t need prime real estate—they need to be findable when needed.

Document the logic: Write down why each SKU lives where it does. “SKU-4782: Forward location FP-07 (daily average = 18 units), bulk overflow BLK-A12 (pallet storage).”

Solution 2: Use Location Barcodes

Physical barcode labels on every location make scanning fast, accurate, and consistent.

What to Label

Racking bays: Label each bay, row, and level (e.g., “A-12-03” = Aisle A, Bay 12, Level 3)
Floor locations: For pallet storage without racking, label floor positions clearly
Pick bins: Label each forward-pick bin or shelf position
Special zones: Quarantine, returns, damaged goods, staged-for-dispatch

Barcode Format

Use a standard format across the whole warehouse. For example:

A-12-03-B
│  │  │  └─ Bin (if subdivided)
│  │  └──── Level
│  └─────── Bay number
└────────── Aisle

Print labels with both barcode and human-readable text. Use durable label material (laminated or polyester) that survives forklift scrapes and temperature changes.

Critical: Put duplicate labels at eye-level and at floor-level for high locations. Pickers shouldn’t need binoculars to confirm the barcode.

Solution 3: Scan on Put-Away

Barcodes are useless if nobody scans them. The critical process is put-away:

Put-Away Workflow

Stock arrives: Receiver scans the item barcode (or SKU)
System suggests location: “SKU-4782 → Forward FP-07 (current stock: 8 units, capacity: 50)”
Staff goes to location: Scans location barcode to confirm arrival
Scan item into location: System records “SKU-4782 added to FP-07, quantity +24, timestamp 2026-02-11 14:32”
If location is full: System prompts for overflow → suggests BLK-A12 → staff scans new location

This takes 15 seconds per SKU. It eliminates the 45-minute search three weeks later.

Handling Exceptions

Overflow: If the home location is full, the system suggests the designated overflow location
Multi-location stock: System shows all locations with quantities: “FP-07 (8), BLK-A12 (120), QC-3 (6)”
Discrepancies: If staff scans an item into a location and it’s not supposed to be there, system flags it for review

Solution 4: Real-Time Location Tracking

The system must track location as a first-class attribute, not an afterthought.

What the System Must Record

Every inventory transaction should capture:

What: SKU/barcode
How many: Quantity
Where: Exact location (scanned barcode)
When: Timestamp
Who: Staff member (if using login/device tracking)
Why: Transaction type (received, picked, moved, adjusted)

Inventory Table Structure

In a proper warehouse management system, location tracking looks like this:

Stock on Hand by Location
────────────────────────────────────────
SKU-4782: Total 156 units
  FP-07 (Forward Pick):      30 units   [Last updated: 2h ago]
  BLK-A12 (Bulk Storage):   120 units   [Last updated: 4d ago]
  QC-3 (Quarantine):          6 units   [Last updated: 1w ago]

When a picker needs SKU-4782, the system tells them:

“Pick 24 from FP-07 (30 available, closest to pack bench)”
If they need more than 30: “Pick 30 from FP-07, then pick remaining 10 from BLK-A12”

Movement Tracking

When stock moves between locations (restocking, transfers, consolidation), every movement is a transaction:

Movement Log: SKU-4782
────────────────────────────────────────
2026-02-11 14:32  Received    +24 units → FP-07
2026-02-11 09:15  Picked      -18 units ← FP-07
2026-02-10 16:40  Restocked   +50 units  BLK-A12 → FP-07
2026-02-08 11:22  Received   +120 units → BLK-A12

This creates an audit trail. If stock goes missing, you can trace exactly when it was last scanned and by whom.

Setting This Up in EQUOS9

Modern inventory systems support location tracking out of the box. Here’s what to look for:

1. Multi-Location Support

The system must allow a single SKU to exist in multiple locations simultaneously, each with its own quantity.

2. Barcode Scanning Integration

Mobile app or handheld scanner support for:

Scanning location barcodes during put-away
Scanning item barcodes during picks
Real-time system updates (not batch uploads at end of shift)

3. Suggested Locations

When receiving or restocking, the system suggests the correct location based on:

Designated home location
Current fill levels (don’t send stock to a full bin)
Pick frequency (high-movers to accessible locations)

4. Pick Path Optimisation

When generating pick lists, the system sequences picks by:

Location proximity (minimise travel)
Availability (pick from most accessible location first)

5. Movement Reporting

Visibility into:

Stock movement history (when did this item last move?)
Location occupancy (which bins are getting full?)
Slow-moving stock by location (what’s been sitting untouched?)

6. Cycle Count by Location

Instead of counting the whole warehouse, count specific locations:

“Count all items in FP-01 to FP-20 today”
Compare scan results to system records
Flag and investigate discrepancies immediately

The ROI: Time Saved Per Pick

Let’s quantify the impact:

Before: Manual Search

Order requires SKU-4782, 24 units
System says “156 in stock” but no location
Staff searches: 15 minutes (average across easy and hard finds)
If out of obvious spots, escalate: +30 minutes
Total wasted time per “can’t find” incident: 15-45 minutes

After: Location Tracking

Order requires SKU-4782, 24 units
System says “FP-07: 30 units available”
Staff walks to FP-07, scans location, scans item, picks: 2 minutes
Total time saved: 13-43 minutes per incident

Volume Impact

For a warehouse processing 100 picks per day:

If even 10% of picks involve a search (10 searches/day)
Average time saved: 25 minutes per search
Daily time saved: 250 minutes = 4.2 hours
Monthly time saved: 84 hours = 10.5 staff days

At an average warehouse wage of $28/hour, that’s $2,352 saved per month just from eliminating search time.

And that doesn’t count:

Reduced picking errors (scanning the location confirms you’re in the right spot)
Faster onboarding (new staff can find items from day one)
Better customer service (accurate promise dates because you know stock is accessible)

The Hidden Benefit: Stock You Didn’t Know You Had

When you implement location tracking, a common discovery is ghost stock—inventory that’s physically present but effectively invisible because nobody knew where it was.

A Brisbane 3PL client implemented location tracking and found:

18% of their “out of stock” items were actually in the warehouse, just mis-located
$47,000 worth of stock sitting in a “temporary” staging area for 8 months
200+ units of seasonal items that had been reordered because the original stock was “lost”

Finding this stock is like getting free inventory.

The Implementation Checklist

Here’s the practical rollout:

Week 1: Plan & Label

Map your warehouse into logical zones/aisles/bays
Define location naming convention (A-12-03 format)
Print barcode labels for all locations
Install labels (eye-level and floor-level for high spots)

Week 2: Configure System

Set up location master data in warehouse system
Define home locations for top 100 SKUs (Pareto principle—these will be 80% of picks)
Configure mobile app/scanners for put-away and pick workflows
Train staff on scan-in and scan-out process

Week 3: Go Live (Controlled)

Start with new receipts only—scan everything coming in
Pick from scanned locations first
Run parallel process (old method + new) for one week
Monitor discrepancies and fix process gaps

Week 4: Backfill Existing Stock

Run mini-stocktake: scan all existing stock into locations
Start with high-movers (they turn over fast, errors self-correct quickly)
Move to slow-movers once confident in process
Validate location data against physical reality

Ongoing: Maintain Discipline

100% scan compliance on put-away—no exceptions, or the system degrades
Weekly location audits (random spot-checks: does FP-07 actually contain what the system says?)
Monthly review of location capacity (are bins overflowing? Reassign homes if needed)
Quarterly deep-clean: clear out mis-located stock

What About “But We’re Too Small for This”?

A common objection: “We’re only 500 sqm, we don’t need location tracking.”

Reality check:

If you have more than 50 SKUs, location tracking saves time
If you have multiple staff picking, location tracking prevents errors
If you’ve ever spent 10+ minutes looking for stock, location tracking pays for itself

The ROI doesn’t come from warehouse size—it comes from pick frequency and SKU count.

A 200 sqm warehouse doing 80 picks/day with 300 SKUs benefits more than a 2,000 sqm warehouse doing 20 picks/day with 50 SKUs.

The Bottom Line

Finding stock shouldn’t be a scavenger hunt.

When your system can answer “where is SKU-4782?” with “FP-07, 30 units, scanned 2 hours ago,” you’ve eliminated a massive source of wasted time, picking errors, and customer frustration.

The fix requires four layers:

Assign home locations for every SKU
Label every location with durable barcodes
Scan on put-away to record exact placement
Track in real-time with location as a first-class attribute

The technology exists. The barcodes are cheap (under $1 per label). The process takes discipline, not complexity.

The question isn’t whether you can afford to implement location tracking.

It’s whether you can afford not to.

Ready to stop searching and start finding? See how EQUOS Warehouse Management gives you real-time location tracking, mobile scanning, and pick path optimisation—so every item has a home, and every pick is fast.