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2Hello BC Community!
I come to you with a question related to Location/Bin setup in Business Central. We're coming from an AX 2012 environment and are in the early stages of our development efforts to launch on BC (targeting mid-to-late 2024 for launch).
A little background: I've been in an IW evaluation sandbox testing basic functionality for almost 15 months and we've been working with some developer resources for about 2 months starting to get into the more formal customization requirements.
Here is a link to a writeup I've done on the topic and where we currently stand in terms of testing so far. I've also pasted the (4) options we think are closest to meeting our needs in BC below, with #4 being closest IMO.
Main Goals & Summary
Our goal is to make it so that the following are true:
1. Production Order demand can always be picked from any inventory
(Inventory A or Inventory B)
2. Sales Order can always pick from Inventory A (similar to “POW”)
3. Sales Order can pick from Inventory B (similar to “SYS”) only upon some condition - such as when given
approval or when allocation is done directly by Operations management
team.
4. The process to change inventory from “A” to “B” (or vice versa) is easy
5. A single “location” is used in Business Central for each of our (2) physical
warehouses to keep internal process capabilities
(movements, master planning, work centers, routings, etc).
1. Production Order demand can always be picked from any inventory
(Inventory A or Inventory B)
2. Sales Order can always pick from Inventory A (similar to “POW”)
3. Sales Order can pick from Inventory B (similar to “SYS”) only upon some condition - such as when given
approval or when allocation is done directly by Operations management
team.
4. The process to change inventory from “A” to “B” (or vice versa) is easy
5. A single “location” is used in Business Central for each of our (2) physical
warehouses to keep internal process capabilities
(movements, master planning, work centers, routings, etc).
Basically, I'm looking for input or guidance on either:
A) better, alternative approach(es) than what I've outlined here
B) some workaround that allows us to get inventory from a /Outbound/ /Block Movement/ bin into a production order. Currently, with our advanced warehouse setup, any Production Order requires a Pick, and that pick is being blocked by this setting (as it's supposed to). It would be great if there was some way we could code an exception for when the Pick is related to /Prod. Consumption/ reference for the pick lines.
Option 1 – Using (2) Locations in BC for “POW” (A) and “SYS” (B) in Oregon
Pros:
1. Perhaps the closest “direct” translation from our current AX setup
2. Could continue, at a minimum, current “honor” system and not select that location as the fulfillment location for sales orders
Pros:
1. Perhaps the closest “direct” translation from our current AX setup
2. Could continue, at a minimum, current “honor” system and not select that location as the fulfillment location for sales orders
Cons:
1. We lose major out-of-the-box functionality, since this does not seem how Business Central is intended to function
a. We’d lose the ability to consume materials from both locations under a single production order, one of our biggest overall requirements.
b. We’d lose whatever native functionality exists to adjust/move/replenish inventory within a single location (MSP/MRP/Movements).
c. Inventory Valuation would be spread-out.
2. Would have to Duplicate our bin definitions, because the inventory physically is mixed between SYS/POW
Possible Workaround Solution – use worksheets or automation to make moving and fulfilling materials needs between the two locations “Easy”.
1. We lose major out-of-the-box functionality, since this does not seem how Business Central is intended to function
a. We’d lose the ability to consume materials from both locations under a single production order, one of our biggest overall requirements.
b. We’d lose whatever native functionality exists to adjust/move/replenish inventory within a single location (MSP/MRP/Movements).
c. Inventory Valuation would be spread-out.
2. Would have to Duplicate our bin definitions, because the inventory physically is mixed between SYS/POW
Possible Workaround Solution – use worksheets or automation to make moving and fulfilling materials needs between the two locations “Easy”.
Option 2 – Using Bin Rankings to separate “POW” (A) and “SYS” (B)
Pros:
1. Bin Rankings can be adjusted even when content is present in the bins
2. Provides multiple layers of preferred bin picking, not just SYS vs POW (Ex: rankings >70 could be available to regular sales orders anytime, Rankings >0 and <70 could fulfill for regular sales orders if items are not present in any bins >70, Bin Rankings=0 would only be available for component sales orders when approved or released. Production orders would have access to all bins.
Pros:
1. Bin Rankings can be adjusted even when content is present in the bins
2. Provides multiple layers of preferred bin picking, not just SYS vs POW (Ex: rankings >70 could be available to regular sales orders anytime, Rankings >0 and <70 could fulfill for regular sales orders if items are not present in any bins >70, Bin Rankings=0 would only be available for component sales orders when approved or released. Production orders would have access to all bins.
Cons:
1. Currently not aware of any native functionality to use Bin Rankings to “Stop” movements, they only act as an order of preference.
2. May be more challenging to tie to approval or other automations than Dedicated or Block Movement bin options
- 5 - | P a g e
SunWize ERP Evaluation – Business Central IWs Trial Testing
Possible Workaround solution – Customization that prevents bins of rank 0 from being picked against for Component sales orders.
1. Currently not aware of any native functionality to use Bin Rankings to “Stop” movements, they only act as an order of preference.
2. May be more challenging to tie to approval or other automations than Dedicated or Block Movement bin options
- 5 - | P a g e
SunWize ERP Evaluation – Business Central IWs Trial Testing
Possible Workaround solution – Customization that prevents bins of rank 0 from being picked against for Component sales orders.
Option 3 – Using Dedicated Bins to mark “SYS” (B) inventory
Pros:
1. Seems like some functionality exists to use Dedicated Bins only for certain resources (Production Orders) and not for others (Regular Sales Orders).
Pros:
1. Seems like some functionality exists to use Dedicated Bins only for certain resources (Production Orders) and not for others (Regular Sales Orders).
Cons:
1. From Testing, it seems that currently Dedicated Bins only provide a “soft warning” and does not actually stop the pick or the material consumption from occurring. This may be because we’re using advanced warehousing and we’re actually picking against a warehouse shipment.
2. Currently, this feature can only be toggled when the bin is empty. Ideally, we would like a solution where we can toggle the setting on/off even when bin is not empty.
Possible Workaround Solutions – First, At a minimum we want some harder stop rather than a soft warning when picking for regular sales orders from dedicated bins. Second, some workaround that allows us to toggle bin whether empty or not – ie, automation that can empty a bin if it’s full, turn on dedicated bin checkmark, then re-populate with what was in the bin.
1. From Testing, it seems that currently Dedicated Bins only provide a “soft warning” and does not actually stop the pick or the material consumption from occurring. This may be because we’re using advanced warehousing and we’re actually picking against a warehouse shipment.
2. Currently, this feature can only be toggled when the bin is empty. Ideally, we would like a solution where we can toggle the setting on/off even when bin is not empty.
Possible Workaround Solutions – First, At a minimum we want some harder stop rather than a soft warning when picking for regular sales orders from dedicated bins. Second, some workaround that allows us to toggle bin whether empty or not – ie, automation that can empty a bin if it’s full, turn on dedicated bin checkmark, then re-populate with what was in the bin.
Option 4 – Using Block Movement “Outbound” Bins to Mark “SYS” (B) inventory
Pros:
1. Better than Dedicated Bins in the sense that it provides a “hard stop” rather than “soft warning”
2. Better than Dedicated Bins because it can be toggled even when bin contents are not empty
Pros:
1. Better than Dedicated Bins in the sense that it provides a “hard stop” rather than “soft warning”
2. Better than Dedicated Bins because it can be toggled even when bin contents are not empty
Cons:
1. It’s a very forceful stop that so far has prevented any ability to consume inventory out of the bin while this setting is turned on for the Bin.
a. I’ve tested Direct Consumption from Production Journal (no picking in OR TEST4), but it looks like BC treats consuming the materials the same way as Picking and blocks that.
b. Different “types” of picks (warehouse pick vs inventory pick) are all treated the same. Does not seem we can “Pick” (or move) against these bins for any type of resource
Possible Workaround Solutions – If we could create a workaround/exception/or toggle for the Block Movement functionality when the pick demand is specifically for a production order (as opposed to regular sales order), and not change anything else, then I believe we’d have a good solution.
1. It’s a very forceful stop that so far has prevented any ability to consume inventory out of the bin while this setting is turned on for the Bin.
a. I’ve tested Direct Consumption from Production Journal (no picking in OR TEST4), but it looks like BC treats consuming the materials the same way as Picking and blocks that.
b. Different “types” of picks (warehouse pick vs inventory pick) are all treated the same. Does not seem we can “Pick” (or move) against these bins for any type of resource
Possible Workaround Solutions – If we could create a workaround/exception/or toggle for the Block Movement functionality when the pick demand is specifically for a production order (as opposed to regular sales order), and not change anything else, then I believe we’d have a good solution.
Thanks so much in advance for any feedback!
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