With warehouse management, you can organize and handle the items in inventory on a bin level. Depending on your setup and the granules specified in your license, you can receive items and put them away in bins, pick and ship from bins, and move items between bins. The sections below describe the various features of warehouse management.
Bins
Using Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you can specify the zones and bins that you use in your warehouse. Once your zones and bins are established, you can specify which items are in those bins or you can fix an item to a bin, even if there is currently no quantity in the bin. Using these features in your daily warehouse activities of receiving, shipping, picking, and putting away, you will have a better overview of your inventory and its movements.
Receipts
We use warehouse receipts to post the items you receive at the warehouse to the item ledger. When items arrive, you retrieve the lines of the source document that triggered their receipt, and fill in the quantities of the items you have received. If you have bins, you also record the receiving bin where you have placed the items. When you post the receipt, you either create a put-away instruction or make the receipt lines available in the put-away worksheet, depending on how the warehouse is set up.
Shipments
With warehouse shipments, you prepare shipments requested by source documents when your warehouse is set up to require shipment processing with warehouse documents. If your location requires pick processing, you can create pick instructions shipment by shipment, or you can release shipment lines to the pick worksheet where you can plan a more efficient pick round for a number of shipments. When employees have picked all the items, you can finish preparing the shipment and then post it.
Put-aways and Picks
The warehouse put-aways are used when the location is set up to require both warehouse receipt and warehouse put-away processing, and warehouse picks are used when the location is set up to require both warehouse picking and warehouse shipment processing.
When your location is set up to use bins, the instructions suggest the bin from which you should take an item and the bin in which to put it. If you are using directed put-away and pick, this suggestion is based on calculations the program makes using bin ranking or put-away templates, depending on the activity. If you are not using directed put-away and pick, the suggestion is based on the item’s default bins. You can always modify the instructions the program has suggested.
If your warehouse is set up for directed put-away and pick, you can use an automatic data capture system to facilitate putting away and picking items within the warehouse.
Movements
Movements contain the instructions that warehouse employees must follow when moving items around the warehouse. The movement worksheet and movement documents are available when your location is set up to use directed put-away and pick.
If your location is set up for directed put-away and pick, you can use an automatic data capture system to facilitate moving items within the warehouse.
Warehouse Journals
The warehouse journals are similar to the inventory journals, except that they handle the items on a bin level. These journals are only available when the location is set up for directed put-away and pick.
Warehouse Adjustment Bin
When you are using directed put-away and pick, the warehouse adjustment bin is the link between the warehouse and the rest of the program. Whenever a transaction occurs in the company that has an impact on inventory, or an activity in the warehouse- other than posting of receipts or shipments (which by definition create entries in the item ledger)- that has an impact on the item ledger, the program makes an entry in the adjustment bin. Sometimes entries cancel each other out within a short period of time (for example, items misplaced yesterday are found today), but at regular points in time, the quantities in the adjustment bin are posted in the item journal, so that the physical count of items in the warehouse is the same as the quantities in the item ledger.
Replenishment
Demand Forecasting
Using the sales budgets to provide information for purchasing and logistics, calculate the future expected demand by creating item budgets. Integration with Microsoft Excel allows easy import and export of data into the system for manipulation of the figures whilst planning. Calculate the variance based on actual figures to reduce under and over stocking. For stock with expiry dates these can be set up based on item tracking codes based for serial or lot numbers.
Requisition Worksheet
The requisition worksheet allows you to automate the supply planning process. Based on an item’s current and future demand and availability, as well as parameters such as reorder points, minimum and maximum order quantities and lead times, the system will generate suggestions for your replenishment based on wide range of parameters which can be set up at item level, including:
- Item current and future demand
- Item availability and lead time
- Reorder Points
- Safety Stock
- Minimum and maximum order quantities
Using a graphical overview, the user can then change the plan with an overview of the planning impact. From the requisition worksheet Purchase Orders can be automatically created, massively reducing the time required and workload on the purchaser.