Functions for warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Business Central

Functions for warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Business Central

Reference

Administration

• Bin Setup

  Storage bins reflect the basic warehouse structure. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, when you create storage bins, you can define the contents you place in each bin very specifically. Alternatively, the storage location can function as a storage bin without specified contents.

  On this basis, proposals are made for the placement of items.

• • Blocking of items

    You can block an item so that it cannot be entered in lines of sales or purchasing documents and posted in a transaction. This is useful, for example, if an item has a known error.

    When someone selects a blocked item in a sales or purchasing document, a message informs them that the item is blocked.

  • • Carriers or deliverers

      If you work with specific deliverers, it is possible to create them in Dynamics 365 Business Central with their own code and detailed information. If the deliverer offers online parcel tracking, you can also use the function for automatic parcel tracking.

      If you enter carriers in your sales orders, you can also define the shipment types that the carrier offers. You can create an unlimited number of shipment types for each carrier and also define a transportation time for each shipment type.

    • • Item availability

        Dynamics 365 Business Central supports the display of current item availabilities – also by storage location.

      • • Item creation (opt. individual development)

          In Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can easily create and manage new items using so-called item cards. In addition to the name, you can enter the following information:

          • Inventory
          • Warehouse dispatch method
          • Item attributes (e.g. dimensions or model year)
          • Purchase price
          • Sales price

          Item attributes
          The assignment of item attributes provides you with an overview of your item structures and makes it easier to sort and find items. Item attributes also simplify the search in your web shop for customers.

          Item references
          You also have the possibility to cross-reference between

          • the item description you use for an item and
          • the item description used by the supplier of this product,

          to set up. If you fill out the cross-reference number, the item description of the supplier is inserted automatically into purchasing documents for the supplier.

          Material safety data sheets as item (individual development)
          Up to now, our customer has been packing safety data sheets manually with his shipments. During picking, the warehouse employee therefore had to know whether and which safety data sheets had to be enclosed for which risk item. It was not possible to check by the system whether the safety data sheets were actually packed. Thanks to our work, the safety data sheets are now stored as separate items in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and assigned to the corresponding items. In the warehouse, they are physically stored in a separate storage bin so that they can be picked like a “normal” item and cannot be forgotten.

        • • Item tracking

            When using item tracking in Dynamics 365 Business Central, it is possible to track the serial or batch number forward or backward in a sequence of posted warehouse transactions.

            You can see how and when an item was

            • received,
            • produced,
            • relocated,
            • sold,
            • consumed or
            • was returned.

            Item tracking is particularly useful for quality assurance purposes when you need to find out which customer received products with a particular batch number or from which batch a defective component came.

          • • Item reservation

              In Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can reserve items – for example, for sales orders, purchase orders, service orders, assembly orders, or production orders.

            • • Serial and batch number management

                Serial or batch numbers can be assigned to any incoming or outgoing document. Often they are assigned at the time of storage. This creates a link between item items and serial or batch numbers.

                At the latest at the time of goods issue or consumption, the respective serial or batch number must be explicitly selected in order to be able to trace the life cycle of these in retrospect. This means that only then can you track your items including serial and batch numbers in the warehouse activities.

              • • Stock keeping units

                  Stock keeping units supplement item cards. You can use inventory data to store information about your items for a specific storage location code and/or variant code. This means distinguishing items by storage locations (such as warehouses and distribution points) or variants (such as different shelf numbers or reorder information). This is useful for items that are stored in more than one physical storage location.

                • Inventory value

                  In Dynamics 365 Business Central there is a function “Calculate inventory value”. The goal is to calculate the inventory level of a specific item on a specific start date. Dynamics 365 Business Central works by adding the value of receiving goods and subtracting the value of shipped goods up to a certain end date. The end result is then the warehouse value on the end date.

                • Activities

                  • Incoming goods

                    You can easily post goods receipts in Dynamics 365 Business Central via the associated business document (e.g. purchase order, stock transfer order or sales complaint).

                    Dealing with excess inventory
                    It may be cheaper to keep the excess inventory than to return it, or your seller may offer you a discount for storage. In that case, simply set up a transfer receipt.

                  • • Inventory (opt. individual development)

                      With Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can easily organize inventories. This includes printing inventory lists (with empty quantity fields), and reporting and recording actual counts of items.

                      Permanent inventory (individual development)
                      In the processing of stocktaking on a key date, business operations are often closed for hours or days. External service providers are also used for counts. This effort can be minimized by a permanent inventory.

                      With our individual development, the inventory can be recorded permanently parallel to the daily business in Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV/Navision). The corresponding inventory employee receives a personal stack with his or her count lists that still need to be processed (export from Dynamics 365 Business Central). After the count – for example, using a scanner – the data is registered and transferred back to the Dynamics 365 Business Central standard.

                      Annual inventory
                      Via the Phys. Inventory Journals it is possible to carry out a count of all articles at a fixed time.

                      Cycle counting
                      The evaluation of the stock can be done by a cyclical inventory. In a cyclical inventory, certain items are counted several times a year to ensure and increase the reliability of the data.

                      It is set up at the level of the articles or the inventory data.

                    • • Moving items

                        The moving of items to other storage locations is handled in Dynamics 365 Business Central via a transfer order.

                        For stock transfer orders, you send the outbound transfer from one storage location and receive the inbound transfer at the other storage location. This allows you to manage the warehouse activities involved and provides greater assurance that inventory levels are updated correctly.

                      • Order picking

                        As part of the picking process, Dynamics 365 Business Central includes a number of functions that vary in complexity and storage location, such as

                        • Picking by order
                        • Picking of internal needs (e.g. production requires a certain component)*
                        • Picking of several orders
                        • Planning of picking instructions

                        *Internal picking and filing
                        In Dynamics 365 Business Central there is the function of internal picking and put-away request.

                        This function is necessary, for example, if an item is to be used for demonstration purposes. This item is then still owned by the company and is part of the warehouse inventory, but it is not available for picking.

                        In other situations, production may unexpectedly need some parts for an order. You can then pick items for the production bins using the internal picking request.

                        With internal put-away requests, you can perform put-aways without having to refer to a specific source document.

                      • Outgoing goods

                        You can ship items in Dynamics 365 Business Central using either a sales order or a warehouse shipment.

                      • Returns processing (opt. individual development)

                        Customers send back goods in the most diverse cases. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can map all the processes involved in how:

                        • Creation of a complaint (return of wrong items)
                        • Shipping of replacement items
                        • Calculation of a restocking fee
                        • Return of an item to a vendor for repair

                        Returns processing for broken articles (individual development)
                        For a customer we integrated an individual development within the posting of sales returns.

                        Previously, our customer had to manually remove the defective goods that were returned from the warehouse. Finally, Microsoft Dynamics handles a return regularly in such a way that an inventory is automatically generated. However, the returns were rarely usable at this particular company, as they are only returned if they were irreparably broken and preparation for resale would be too expensive. Consequently, the goods did not go back to the warehouse at all, but were scrapped directly.

                      • One app that supports you in all these processes is anaptis Mobile Logistics. With it, you enter all data via a touch-optimized mask in the warehouse using mobile devices such as MDE scanners, smartphones, touch screens. Barcode scanning is also possible without any problems.