Your supply chain is prepared for COVID-19 lockdown easing?

Nobody really knows what can happen on the next weeks/months about COVID-19 lockdown easing. Lot of questions like:

the economy will rebound quickly?

there will be a 2nd wave of infection?

are we close to have a vaccine?

the persons will return to previous COVID-19 shopping habits?

the online purchase is here to stay as the new black?

But there is one certain: your customer expectations will continue to be high and maybe higher than ever! And your supply chain will be affected.

On this post, it is explained how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can help your business to excel your customer delivery time deadlines only for a sales perspective.

The Sales Order has several dates fields. Some at header level and other at line level. First important take away: when the same field is available at header and line level, the field at line level has always precedence.

Order Date: This is the date the order was created. This field is populated with work date at the time the order is created.

Posting Date: By default, this field is populated with work date at the time the order is created. The end user is able to change this field to record the date you want as the Posting Date on the Ledger Entry tables when the order is Shipped and/or Invoiced.

Document Date: By default, this field is populated with posting date. This has two purposes: 1. is the date the system uses to calculate the Due Date (Payment Due Date) when the order is posted and 2. is the date the system uses to determine the valid sales prices and discounts. This date has no use or meaning until posting time.

All these three date fields are available to be overridden by the End User (with the right permissions).

Requested Delivery Date: Customer’s requested date for delivering the goods at their location. This date is blank unless you populate it.

Shipping Time: Period of time to ship the goods from our shipping location to customer’s location. This field could be an automatic suggestion combining Shipment Method, Agent and Agent Service.

Planned Shipment Date: This date is calculated by the system. The formula is Requested Delivery Date – Shipping Time.

Outbound Whse. Handling Time: This field specifies a date formula for the time it takes to get items ready to ship from this location. The time element is used in the calculation of the delivery date as follows: Shipment Date + Outbound Warehouse Handling Time = Planned Shipment Date + Shipping Time = Planned Delivery Date.

Promised Delivery Date: This field specifies the promised date to the customer for the goods arriving to his location. This date is blank unless you populate it manually or using Order Promising function.

Planned Delivery Date: This field specifies the planned date that the shipment will be delivered at the customer's address.

Practical Scenarios

Scenario 1:

New Sales Order with a Customer with Shipping Time = 0D (Same day delivery) and Outbound Whse. Handling = 0D (Same day shipment)

Step 1: Select a Customer without populating Requested Delivery Date

Step 2: Select an Item and a Location (warehouse)

Orange Cells are automatically updated by D365BC.

Scenario 2:

New Sales Order with a Customer with Shipping Time = 5D (5 Days) and Outbound Whse. Handling = 1D (Next day shipment)

Step 1: Select a Customer without populating Requested Delivery Date

Step 2: Select an Item and a Location (warehouse)

Step 3: Insert Request Delivery Date

Step 4: Insert Promised Delivery Date

Yellow Cells are manually updated by End User.

Orange Cells are automatically updated by D365BC.

Scenario 3:

New Sales Order with a Customer with Shipping Time = 5D (5 Days) and Outbound Whse. Handling = 1D (Next day shipment)

Step 1: Select a Customer and Insert Requested Delivery Date

Step 2: Select an Item and a Location (warehouse)

Yellow Cells are manually updated by End User.

Orange Cells are automatically updated by D365BC.

Lessons learned:

• D365BC allows to manage the Sales delivery dates
• D365BC is flexible and easy to setup
• With a minimal setup, it is possible to be driven by D365 BC to meet customer’s expectations
• Fields ,Planned Shipment Date and Planned Delivery Date are always updated automatically by D365BC. If the fields Requested Delivery Date and Promised Delivery Date are empty, these two Planned fields are calculated from the actual dates for future direction. If the fields ,Requested Delivery Date and Promised Delivery Date have values, these two Planned fields are calculated from the these fields to the back direction.

Next lessons to be explored:

• How to link the procurement and inventory to meet customer’s expectations
• What is Order Promising routine and how can be used in your supply chain.

Stay tuned to check the other linked topics to be explored.