Revolutionizing retail with D365 F&O carton management for inventory

Introduction

In the dynamic landscape of retail businesses, every box, every product, and every shipment counts. In this article, we explore the power-packed inventory carton management solution, redefining how businesses optimize their supply chains. Let's delve into the essentials of D365 F&O and unlock a new era of retail businesses efficiency! Let's unbox the future of retail efficiency together!

What is carton management for inventory?

Carton management involves systematically handling and tracking containers within the supply chain, particularly useful for intercompany sales or bulk shipments. It minimizes packing errors, reduces scanning costs, and streamlines the shipment and receiving process. Our customized approach enhances automation in D365 F&O, combining standard excellence with tailored automation for efficient and adaptable retail operations! ??

Lets understand in 3 points about carton management for inventory:

1. It is a functionality that allow businesses to optimize the packaging of items for shipment into cartons / containers or boxes.
2. On the time of receiving, user will scan the carton barcode and all the packed items will be marked as received in D365.
3. Can be use for intercompany sales and transfer orders for retail stores

Pre requisites

Advance warehouse management system (AWMS) should be enabled. Below are the brief details of? AWMS setups:

• Storage dimension – Should be enabled for site, warehouse, location and enable the use warehouse management process
• Reservation hierarchy – Should be enabled on location level
• Unit sequence groups should be joined
• Warehouse with AWMS enabled, locations profiles and locations should be created
• Packing profiles, containers, warehouse workers, mobile device menus should be created

Note: Retail stores warehouses don't need to be enabled to AWMS.

Functionality overview

Lets review the functionality for both scenarios i.e. intercompany sales and transfer orders:

Carton management for intercompany sales

Carton receiving process against purchase order

Above sales order is processed and now its time to receive the stock against the purchase order. On the warehouse dock, assume there are number of cartons arrived. Each carton contains inventory i.e. jewelry items, cosmetics, stitched cloths, shoes and bags etc. This is very time consuming if user verify and mark each item as registered of product receipt in system.

No worries!!! User will just login to the warehouse mobile device and scan the carton barcoded. All tha packed items will be registered in relevant purchase order(s)!!!

Below is the process:

Solution walkthrough in D365 F&O with AWMS

Lets review the functionality step by step. In below screenshot we can see the work against sales order has been completed and stock is put on packing location:

Now warehouse worker will pack the stock into container by scanning item bar codes. Container ID is generated:

All the items are packed into container and now user will close the container and confirm shipment. See the below screenshot of container close:

Note: Shipment can be auto confirm in batch process after container close

Container bar code

Print carton barcode and past on carton physically:

Receive the container

Inventory has been arrived in receiving company's warehouse against intercompany purchase order. Now without opening the carton, the warehouse worker will login to warehouse mobile device and scan the cartons to make registration of the packed inventory.

Below is the screenshot of mobile device. It showing the container number:

After pressing OK, it will fed the information i.e. the purchase order number and all the packed items information with quantity that is packed in scanned carton:

After confirmation, go to the purchase order and verify that the stock is registered on floor (main) location:

Now the user will generate and post product receipt against registered inventory in the purchase order.

Carton management for transfer orders

Above transfer order inventory is arrived at destination retail outlet. Now the user will login the D365. In a custom form, user will select from and destination warehouse and without opening the carton, he will scan the carton bar code.

After scanning, it will show the lines of inventory that is packed in the cartons.

Note: As mentioned in the start of this document the retail outlet user don't need to use warehouse mobile device because retail warehouses are not enabled for AWMS.

Solution walkthrough in D365 F&O

Lets review the system's screens. Assuming that the transfer order work has been completed and stock is put on packing location for containerization:

Now the container is closed and shipment is confirmed:

Carton scanning at time of transfer order receiving

Select the from and destination warehouses, scan carton barcodes without opening the carton. It will show the packed items detail. Verify the details and click on save. An auto batch job will mark the transfer order as received in D365:

Technical aspects

Above functionality of carton management is available D365 F&O as standard feature. There is a standard data entity which is "Inbound ASN V3" and it contains 5 child entities which runs in sequence. A XML file need to import in Inbound ASN V3 which will be creating a packing structure in the intercompany purchase order load lines.

As per standard process of Microsoft, you need to import the XML file into Inbound ASN V3 and run it.

I worked with developer for automation of Inbound ASN and set the data batch job on recurring.

Below is the content of XML file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Document>

<WHSInboundLoadHeaderEntity TractorNumber="">

<WHSInboundShipmentHeaderEntity VENDORSHIPMENTID="" VENDORADDRESSCOUNTRYREGIONID="" VENDORADDRESSSTREET="" VENDORADDRESSSTATEID="" VENDORADDRESSCITY="" VENDORADDRESSZIPCODE="">

<WHSInboundLoadPackingStructureEntity LICENSEPLATENUMBER="">

<WHSInboundLoadPackingStructureLineV3Entity PACKINGSTRUCTURELICENSEPLATENUMBER="" PURCHASEORDERNUMBER="" ITEMNUMBER="" PRODUCTCOLORID="" PRODUCTSTYLEID="" PRODUCTSIZEID="" PURCHASEORDERLINENUMBER="" QUANTITY="" UNITSYMBOL="" />

</WHSInboundLoadPackingStructureEntity>

</WHSInboundShipmentHeaderEntity>

</WHSInboundLoadHeaderEntity>

</Document>

Microsoft blog on Inbound ASN

Below is the link for details about Inbound ASN functionality explained by Microsoft:

Walkthrough: Configuring and processing an inbound ASN in the new Warehouse management module - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog

Thank you!

Muhammad Atif Javed

Sr. Functional Consultant

Confiz Limited

www.dhirubhai.net/in/muhammad-atif-javed