Warehouse Replenishment with Dynamics AX/ 365

Warehouse Replenishment with Dynamics AX

Replenishing items in picking locations from bulk locations in warehouses is a regular practice in distribution based industries. Microsoft Dynamics AX has out-of-box warehouse replenishment features that support both Demand and Minimum/Maximum based replenishments.

This blog article covers some typical warehouse scenarios related to Minimum/Maximum replenishments. Please note I am only covering up until Work creation as this is core for replenishment.

Items in bulk locations can be stored in multiple locations in different quantities. In this context, there are these common requirements:

• Microsoft Dynamics AX ensures that replenishment Work is created to pick from the closest bulk location.
• If the replenishment quantity for a Picking location can be satisfied by multiple bulk locations, how to setup Replenishment so that the Work is created to pick from multiple Bulk locations.
• Staging replenishment items.

First, let us look at the replenishment Work to be created to pick up from the closest bulk location. Since Microsoft Dynamics AX does this by default, I am providing all the setups needed for Minimum/Maximum based replenishment.

Current on-hand situation

Here’s the current on-hand quantities in Warehouse 61 for item number A0003. Take a look at the Locations. These are all Bulk locations with location format as ##Aisle##Rack#Shelf#Bin. 01A01R1S1B, the first location in below screenshot, is the closest location to the Picking locations.

Replenishment template

Let’s take a look at the replenishment setups. I have created a new replenishment template for this blog purpose for only A0003 item.

Replenishment template:

Here’s the query showing the Product selection for the above replenishment template.

Location directives

Location directives using this replenishment template can be seen below:

Location directive for Pick Work type:

Here are queries for the Location directives and Location directive actions:

Location directive for Put Work type:

Query for the Location directive:

There is no need to add a query for Location directive actions as we are using ‘Only fixed locations for the products’ in a Fixed location usage.

Work template

Work template for replenishment has been setup as below:

Query for the Work template:

Fixed location has to be specified for the product since I chose ‘Only fixed locations for products’ in Location directive actions.

Replenishment job

Run the replenishment job choosing the replenishment template created above. You can see the Work creation message in the notifications.

Replenishment Work creation

Navigate to Open replenishment Work to check the Work created by the above job.

Replenishment from multiple bulk locations

This is the case where the product to be replenished exists in multiple bulk locations in the warehouse. Say below is the inventory on-hand situation for the product.

On-hand situation

Fixed location has 5 on hand, while multiple bulk locations have different quantities summing up close to what needs to be replenished.

Location directive changes

The only difference from the above setups to achieve this is that the Location directive should have the below change:

Replenishment Work with multiple picks

When you run the replenishment job for this template, you get the below results:

Staging in Replenishment

In warehouses, generally replenishment users wants to put all their Work in staging and then transfer to picking locations at a later point. This might involve one user performing picking from bulk locations and putting it into a staging location. Another user can perform the Work of picking from a staging location and putting it into picking locations.

Let’s say we continue the above scenario of picking from multiple bulk locations to replenish into the picking location. The only changes that need to be done in the above setups are in:

• Location directives (Put Work type), and
• Work template

Location directive changes

Add a Directive code in the Location directive. We will be using this Directive code in the Work template.

Location directive actions query is as shown below. The other query remains the same as in the first and second scenario.

Work template changes

Work template should have two pairs of Pick and Put.

Replenishment Work with Staging

Work created with these settings looks like the below when the replenishment job is run. Two pairs of Pick and Put are created in the Work. The first pair is for picking from bulk locations and putting it into a staging location. The second pair is for picking from a staging location and putting it into a picking location.