Warehouse Management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is a comprehensive module that facilitates the management of warehouse operations for businesses engaged in manufacturing, distribution, and retail.

This module is designed to support the warehouse facility at an optimal level, anywhere and anytime, and is fully connected with other business processes, including transportation, manufacturing, quality control, purchase, transfer, sales, and returns.

Let’s learn about it in detail.

Getting Started with Warehouse Management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

To get started with warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, you need to set up general warehouse parameters that support your company’s business processes.

This involves configuring components for inbound and outbound warehouse process workflows, such as wave templates, work templates, work pools, and location directives.

The warehouse management module offers a wide range of features, including:

• Integrated support for source documents like sales orders, returns, transfer orders, production orders, and kanban.
• Flexible support for material workflow, both inbound and outbound, depending on queries.
• Full integration with manufacturing and transportation modules.
• Control over location volumetric and stocking constraints.
• Inventory properties controlled by inventory status.
• Full batch and serial item support.
• Multiple picking strategies and advanced counting capabilities.
• Manual and automatic movement of inventory.
• Fully integrated quality control (QMS).
• Support for automatic containerization, manual packing, and outgoing wave processing.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management offers a highly efficient warehouse inventory management system. Both the terms, warehouse and inventory, are quite identical but there are some differences between them.

Before delving into warehouse management in Microsoft Dynamics ERP, let’s explore the differences between the warehouse management system and the inventory management system.

• Warehouse Management System: It is about handling stock storage, picking, packing, and shipping in a warehouse. Besides, it helps you track stock location within a particular warehouse. It even handles comprehensive stock movement in the warehouse.
• Inventory Management System: It helps you track the total number of items in your stock for a particular storage location. Also, it can facilitate forecasting, ordering, receiving, and allocating stock.

What is a Warehouse Management System?

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) or warehouse management software is an important software application that helps you optimize your warehouse operations in the retail, distribution, and manufacturing industries.

It can help you carry out goods tracking, bin management, quality control, transportation, item ledger entries, stock locating, cycle counting, wave planning, order allocation, and put-away activities.

What are the Benefits of a Warehouse Management System?

A warehouse management solution can automate operations and boost productivity. It includes a whole host of features to streamline your entire supply chain management. It has the following benefits:

1. Streamlined Business Processes

Warehouse management solution comprises essential functionalities such as warehouse shipments, bins, inventory picks, and movement worksheets to simplify everyday warehousing processes. It can efficiently enhance your inventory accuracy and deliver real-time insights into your supply chain.

2. Automated Supply Chain Management

Dynamics 365 integrates a highly advanced supply chain management module to automate the inventory system. It lets you handle sales and purchase orders. Also, you can efficiently track your inventory levels in real-time.

WMS facilitates your inventory by creating packing receipts, picking lists, and shipping labels for organized order fulfillment.

3. Organized Warehouse

A warehouse management system can help you get an organized warehouse as it includes bin management which can categorize smaller locations into smaller sections to streamline pick and put-away operations.

4. Improved Customer Satisfaction and Seamless Fulfilment

A warehouse management system accelerates the supply chain workflow with efficient order fulfillment.

It strengthens order accuracy through barcode scanning, which further leads to improved customer satisfaction and customer retention rates. WMS can optimize supply chain performance by carrying out the following things:

• Automated order management and product picking lists.
• Proper coordination between shipping carriers for smooth order fulfillment.
• Improved order accuracy via barcode scanning.

5. Supplier Collaboration

A warehouse Management System gives a boost to supplier collaboration as inefficient co-ordination can cause delayed delivery and disturbed supply chain management which can further impact your customer satisfaction.

Effective supplier coordination can help forge better relationships with suppliers, ensure time-bound delivery, and reduce lead times.

6. Labor Management

Labor management is a crucial feature of WMS as it can eliminate errors and discrepancies through performance monitoring and proper training. Also, it can lead to enhanced productivity and keep checks on increased labor costs.

Moreover, proper labor management includes training and performance monitoring. It can minimize errors and reduce operational costs.

7. Space Utilization

Inaptly utilizing warehouse space may lead to a mess, potential damage to inventory items, and difficulty while tracking items.

Warehouse management implementation can boost efficiency, minimize storage costs, and enhance the overall warehouse organization.

Warehouse Management System in Supply Chain Management includes the following advantages:

• Advanced warehouse arrangement with proper space optimization features.
• Well-organized bin management to optimize storage locations.
• Efficient bin management to streamline storage locations.
• Smart suggestions for adequate product placement.

Apart from the above benefits, these two things are notable for businesses that physically take goods in and out of the warehouse:

• They can easily track inventory levels and item locations in the warehouse.
• They can timely and efficiently receive, pick, and ship out items.

To cater to the above requirements the warehouse module in Business Central brings the following functionalities to inventory management:

• Bins
• Warehouse shipments
• Inventory picks

Warehouse Management in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

We have discussed warehouse management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. However, it is interesting to note that Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations includes an advanced warehouse management system that can streamline the entire supply chain process.

With the warehouse management module in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, businesses can automate processes, boost production efficiency, and bring agility to their manufacturing.

The warehouse management module within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations includes the following:

• Placement and storage
• Inventory dimensions
• Serial and batch number control
• Random location storage
• RFID (Radio-frequency identification) and barcoding
• Work template
• Replenishment
• Warehouse performance

Leveraging the inventory dimension feature of the warehouse management module in Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations, users can create unlimited batch numbers or serial numbers for the automatic numbering of their products.

One can track the exact location of the inventory using the details, like warehouse location, pallet ID, serial number, warehouse batch number, and RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tags.

Moreover, the inventory dimension number can be associated with shipments and deliveries to get a clear visibility of the items in the warehouse. The inventory dimension can help users track serial and batch numbers as well.

Importance of Warehouse Management in Supply Chain Management

In order to satisfy your constantly changing needs and achieve your targeted warehouse efficiency objective, you can design your warehouse layout using more flexible methods thanks to the warehouse management process (WMS) in supply chain management.

• It provides you with enough elbow room to accommodate high-priority and low-priority storage regions for ideal placement of the inventory items.
• You can categorize your warehouse into different zones to meet your storage requirements according to quickly changing circumstances like temperatures or turnover rates of the goods.
• To meet different storage requirements, such as different item turnover rates or temperature requirements, you can create zones within your warehouse.
• You can effortlessly use any level to specify different warehouse locations, including site, aisle, rack, shelf, warehouse, and bin position.
• You can efficiently manage item storage and placements, leveraging unique query-defined rules.

To access WMS in the D365 Supply Chain Management solution, you need to create a warehouse first and then enable it. Once this is done, choose the option of ‘warehouse management process’ available on the Warehouses page.

How to access Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management

Remember, the specific steps may vary depending on your organization’s setup and the version of Dynamics 365 you are using. It’s always a good idea to refer to the official Microsoft documentation or consult with a D365 specialist for guidance tailored to your situation.

To access Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management, follow these steps:

1. General Warehouse Parameters Setup

• Go to Warehouse management > Setup > Warehouse management parameters.
• Configure the general warehouse parameters to support your company’s business processes. This setup includes defining components for inbound and outbound warehouse workflows, such as wave templates, work templates, work pools, and location directives.

2. Track Configuration Processes

• Use the Warehouse implementation tasks workspace to track your configuration processes. This workspace helps you identify important implementation tasks and monitor your progress.
• Create an implementation project in the workspace to organize your tasks.
• Import the default configuration task list provided by Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to get started.

3. Mobile Access

To access Warehouse Management on mobile devices:

• Download and install the Warehouse Management mobile app on each device.
• Configure the app to connect to your Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management environment.
• You can use QR code generators to create QR codes for financial reports, payments and customer service portals.

Remember to configure components like wave templates, work templates, and location directives to optimize your warehouse processes. With Warehouse Management, you’ll have integrated support for various source documents, flexible material workflows, and control over inventory properties.

Unlock the Full Potential of D365 Supply Chain Management with Dynamics Square

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain is creating waves in the retail, distribution, and manufacturing industries. For a comprehensive guide and additional steps, you can reach out to us.

We are Dynamics Square, a reliable and renowned Microsoft Dynamics partner with more than 11+ years of experience. Schedule a free call with our expert today. Call us at +1 281 899 0865 or simply write us an email at arish.siddiqui@dynamicssquare.com.