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Supply chain | Supply Chain Management, Commerce
Answered

WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

Posted on by 15

Hello together,

we have products that are bulk material and we store/ fill it in BigBags. Every BigBag stands on one pallet.

Unfortunately we do not have a process, that ensures that every BigBag has the same weight.
We fill the BigBags until they seem full to the warehouse worker (somwhere between 700 - 1100kg), than put it onto the scale and post the report as finished with the correct weight.

Therefore we made a setup, where every BigBag and its weight is unique identified by an own license plate.
Examples seen in the physical on-hand inventory picture below.  

pastedimage1673331944267v2.png

The problem is, most of our warehouse processes such as inbound and outbound are not based on kg but on amount of pallets.

For example:
For us it's only possible to store 8 pallets in one location - regardless of the weight of the BigBags.
We solved this by using the container type and the location stocking limits for container types, where we can define that the licenseplate is one container = "Pallet" and in the container stocking limits that 1 location = max 8 containers of "Pallet". This works fine for us.

But we have more or less the same issue for the outbound process.
We deliver mostly full trucks, which are limited to 20 pallets each.
As the inventory unit is kg and we are not able to define a unit conversion (it would be different for every BigBag), we have to define in the sales order the quantity in kg.

Anyway - I would like to tell the system in the sales order that I want to sell 20 pallets/BigBags (corresponds to 20 full license plates). Also the work should tell me to go to the warehouse and get 20 pallets/BigBags.

Is this somehow possible? As we are already using the container types on the inbound process, I was wondering if it's also applicable for the outbound.

I'm aware of the catch-weight functionality - basically it's exactly what I am searching for. Unfortunately we store the exact same prodcut also in real bulk storages (silos) and there is no solution for that in catch-weight.


Many thanks for the input
Jonas

  • kojo01 Profile Picture
    kojo01 15 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Danny,

    thank you very much for your input and ideas.
    We are now under investigation what that would exactly mean to us and our processes.

    You helped me a lot!

    Thanks again,
    best regards
    Jonas

  • Verified answer
    Danny Bilodeau Profile Picture
    Danny Bilodeau 4,058 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hello again Jonas,

    For the reservation hierarchy, yes it reservation below Location i supported. For the same client we also added a dimension for 'Producer" for items where we did not not want to impose a certain producer for reservation but wanted it to be tracked in the manufacturing process. The item had same form and function, but produced by different farms so needed to know what was received and what was used from each producer.

    I really like it; it is sturdy and well integrated. Better than we could have achieved if we had to build something equivalent from scratch.

    Regards,

    Danny  

  • kojo01 Profile Picture
    kojo01 15 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Danny,

    again thanks for your detailed answer. I really appreciate it!
    Your solution seems really, really cool to be honest! I'm also getting more and more attached to it and I'm really considering implementing it also on our side - even though we are already halfway through implementation.

    Just one more question - would be strange if it's not like that, but to be sure:

    In your provided example in the reservation hierarchy the container type code is above the location - means the dimension is also used for the reservation.
    Is it also possible to create a reservation hierarchy with the container type BELOW the location?
    In a scenario where the packaging isn't relevant (for example we have BigBags and Octabins, they have basically the same size, can be handled the same way, customers do not request a specific one, ..). Still, I want to track how much inventory is in BigBags and Octabins.

    Thanks once again for your input
    Jonas

  • nunomaia Profile Picture
    nunomaia 10,684 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Is not complex to enable a custom tracking dimension, Microsoft has support for this.

    You just need a little customization on that 

    Check this if it helps Add new inventory dimensions through extension - Finance & Operations | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn

  • Verified answer
    Danny Bilodeau Profile Picture
    Danny Bilodeau 4,058 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hello Jonas,

    Your idea of using the Inventory Status should work.  

    The extensible Inventory Dimension will require some code to make it usable, but once ebable they behave just like other dimensions; I am not a developper but our developper was able pretty quickly create a logic to create a Returnabke Container Inventory Dimension (Tracking) and link it with the Container Type table. And then it was available everywhere.

    It worked beautifully.  It was available as tracking dimension:

    pastedimage1675702319271v1.png

    For item with that new tracking dimension, We could use it in reservation hierarchy. 

    pastedimage1675705459104v6.png

    Here is the on-hand view:

    pastedimage1675705390332v4.png

     It could be used in Sales Order lines (for reservation) by simply using Display Inventory Dimension. 

    pastedimage1675705510065v7.png

    pastedimage1675705677691v10.png

    Warehouse work was created using that reserved Inventory Dimesnions:

    pastedimage1675705621895v9.png

    Which was displayed on the Warehouse Mobile

    pastedimage1675705578069v8.png

    If selected for Planning, Master Planning considered that dimension for item coverage and requirement took into account the container type:

    pastedimage1675702509509v2.png

    It was available in the Inventory Journals so you could transfer from one Container type to another

    pastedimage1675705867891v11.png

    It even showed in Sales and Purchase Trade agreements (although the prices in the journal needed extra code to properly flow to the PO and SO lines:

    pastedimage1675702657124v3.png  :

    The only "holes" we found was that It wasnt automatiall added to Data Management Entities and that they also did not display on standard Purchase Order Confirmation or Sales order Confirmation or Packing Slip reports.

    pastedimage1675705911218v12.png

    I am a big fan.

    .

  • kojo01 Profile Picture
    kojo01 15 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Danny,

    thanks again for your reply and valuable input.

    I have heard of the extesible inventory dimensions, but I never had touchin points with it - therfore I did not have it on my mind to use it herefore.

    Still, I really like the idea - as above all, I intented to use the inventory status to accomplish the same result as you mentioned with the additional tracking dimension.
    I would have created different inventory statuses for each combination of packaging and quality status - for example BB-OK (BigBags that are okay), BB-NotOK, Silo-OK, Silo-NotOK, Octabin-OK, etc.
    Mostly so we can, as you mentioned, differentiate in the reservation which packaging wer are delivering.

    The advantage (as far as i can see) of (miss-)using the inventory status is, that it is completely integrated in D365. I can set default inventory statuses, there are batch jobs to change the inventory status of on hand inventory automaticaly, it's possible to change the inventory status of a whole location easily on the "On-hand by location" menu, ..

    As I never implemented/ used an additional tracking dimension - is it a big effort to get it started? I know that basically I just have to turn on the additional dimension in the license configuration and something like initialize it in the code.

    But how well is it integrated in dynamics? Regarding for example the points I mentioned above from the inventory status.

    Thank you and best regards
    Jonas

  • Danny Bilodeau Profile Picture
    Danny Bilodeau 4,058 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Jonas,

    That sounds like a good solution.

    If you are not too far in your development, I would definately recommend activating and using one of the 10 extensible inventory dimensions to get an extra Tracking Dimension. Adding a new dimension for container type will add that dimension everywhere Inventory Dimensions are used (including reservation hierarchy, On-hand list and sales lines).   For a recent project, we were working with pallet types (which we modelled as container types) and to make sure we reserved the correct type of Pallets we enabled one of the extensible inventory dimensions.  

    Good luck with your devlopement.

    Danny

  • kojo01 Profile Picture
    kojo01 15 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Danny,

    thank you for your reply.

    We searched a lot to find a solution without customization.
    Unfortunately we didn't find a way - as you mentioned the reservation is the tricky part.

    Currently we are enabling following customization to solve this issue, which is a little bit an adapted CW functionality.

    1. Developed a new table at the released product where we link different container types to an article. There we also define the minimal and nominal quantity for every container type (just as in CW).
    2. In the sales order the user has to select one of these records (does he deliver in BigBags/ Boxes or from the Silo). Based on the record selected he has to enter the amount of units (for example BigBags) that are sold.
    3. The system then automatically calculates the sales order line quantity with amount units * nominal quantity. The reservation is then based on amount units * minimal quantity.
    4. In the work creation process we split the works in the work template with the max total weight to one work per minimum quantity. So we receive one work for every container (BigBag) that has to be picked from the warehouse.
    5. The pick with the mobile device we customized so the work is automatically overpicked to the whole license plate quantity.

    We are still under implementation of this process, but we hope to solve our problems with this process.

    Best regards
    Jonas

  • Verified answer
    Danny Bilodeau Profile Picture
    Danny Bilodeau 4,058 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Jonas,

    I can't see that you can achieve that without a development that would mimic the catch-weight behavior without being catch-weight (which comes with its own set of constraints).  

    For me the issue will be reservation. As you know, system will reserve the inventory UoM.  So you would need to make it so that system will reserve a secondary UoM.  

    Not sure how that would work exactly, but you have the catch weight logic as a template for that sort of development.

  • kojo01 Profile Picture
    kojo01 15 on at
    RE: WMS outbound process based on container type / full license plate

    Hi Charlotte,

    as mentioned - we already investigated in the Catch-Weight functionality. Therefore we also had it activated.

    But unfortunately we didn't find an appropriate process for our silo storages with Catch-Weight configured articles.

    Thanks for your reply,

    Jonas

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