Advanced Warehouse Management

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hi Everyone, welcome to the webinar, I can see that we have some registrations who are still joining…… (Small talk.) Once again thank you for attending our webinar on Optimize and Transform your Warehouse Processes with  Microsoft Dynamics 365 Advanced Warehouse Management. Let’s get started.
• #3: As you can see, we have a packed Agenda today.​ ​ Firstly, Scott will take us through the challenges facing distribution and warehouse management and why a proper warehouse management system is the need of the hour.​ ​ Then Aamir will give us a brief introduction on the key differentiators of Advance Warehouse Management that separates it from basic warehousing and thirdly Pavan will take us through some of the important features which Advance Warehouse Management has to offer.​ ​ We will also look at some case studies of our customer’s experiences with warehouse management, concluding with a demo, next steps and  followed by Q & A.​ ​ With this, I will now handover the stage to Scott to take us through the challenges facing warehouse management. Over to you Scott.​
• #4: Thank you, Susan.
• #5: Distribution and Warehousing face many challenges today such as the four listed in this slide.  Improving Cost, Quality, and Delivery are critical areas where Warehousing and Supply Chain managers have  constant pressure to keep under control. Manpower for example is always precarious, because there is not only a cost element but also a revenue and customer service component which is always difficult as a manager to keep this in balance. In today’s COVID world (and growing in criticality), warehousing suffers from High Attrition, Hard to find responsible labor, increasing complexity of business systems which results in longer training periods.   Logistics costs are also creating a strain on all industries as transaction costs are soaring with unpreceded shipping needs.  Businesses have quickly discovered that more data entry results in more mistakes which cost time and money to rectify. Poorly designed warehouse layouts make it impossible to accommodate additional inventory thereby contibuting to the rising costs.   Inadequate business systems and processes have led to upset customers, lost inventory, and inadequate tracking.  To top off all the issues, many companies' business models are changing from large brick and mortar retail stores to more online stores or hybrid models resulting in individual smaller customer parcel shipments, with same or next day delivery.    Today, Korcomptenz will show you why Microsoft Dynamics Advanced Warehouse Management solutions will help you to meet all of your  challenges and ultimately help satisfy customer demands and keep you competitive and relevant in the market.
• #6: Thank you Scott, really appreciate it. I welcome you all once again./
• #7: Here are some of the the key differences / between “basic” and “advanced” warehousing: With basic warehousing, you perform all the inventory transactions / on a PC or a Laptop. / With advanced warehousing, / there is an in-built functionality to utilize a mobile device. Basic warehousing has limited storage dimensions / (Site, Warehouse and Location). / Advanced warehousing provides extra storage dimensions / (which are inventory status and license plate). Advanced warehousing / also requires reservation hierarchies and unit sequence groups on every product.  The unit sequence group defines the sequence of units of measures / that can be used in warehouse operations.  The reservation hierarchy / is used to defer the reservation of inventory / beyond the point in the ordering process where you enter the order. / The hierarchy is based on the storage and tracking dimensions of items, / such as inventory status, license plate, batch number and serial number. Basic warehousing / doesn’t have the functionality to support the packing of items. / Advanced warehousing has the functionality / to automatically select appropriate containers for packing. / It also offers the functionality / to allow users to manually pack items. In basic warehousing, / Cycle counts are performed manually by creating a counting journal in the system, / perform the stock count physically / and entering the counted quantities on the counting journal lines / before posting the counting journal. In Advanced warehousing, / you have more options. / For example, / you can single out certain items or locations to be counted / and have the system create counting work / which can then be processed with the mobile device. / The system can also be setup / to automatically create cycle count work for a location / when the inventory in that location falls below a certain threshold. Companies need to factor in their business processes, configuration, testing, training, and ongoing maintenance and choose the warehousing option that best fits their requirements.
• #8: The Warehouse management module / lets you manage warehouse processes in manufacturing, distribution, and retail companies. This module / has a wide range of features / to support the warehouse facilities. Warehouse management is fully integrated with other business processes / such as procurement, inventory, transportation, manufacturing, quality control, transfer, sales, and returns.
• #9: Here are some of the key features and functionalities / available in advanced warehouse management of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. Broadly, it encompasses inbound operations, outbound operations and inventory control. We would be discussing a few of these features like replenishment, cycle counting, small package shipping, cluster picking, quality inspections in more detail.  Microsoft is continuously enhancing the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations / by introducing new features and functionalities / based on the global best practices.
• #10: The term "replenishment" / can have many different meanings in the context of Supply Chain Management. / This slide will focus specifically on restocking fixed, forward picking locations / from bulk storage locations within a warehouse.   For instance, we would be talking about two types.  Wave demand and Min/Max replenishments. Wave demand creates replenishment work for outbound orders or loads / if inventory isn’t sufficient in the forward picking locations when the wave creates the work. For example, / replenishment work can be created / if the quantity that is required for a sales order / isn’t completely available in the forward picking location when a wave is processed. Picking work will be locked / and will be available for the picker to complete / only once the replenishment team refills the forward picking locations. Min/Max replenishment uses the minimum and maximum stocking limits / to determine when forward picking locations should be replenished for which items and for how much quantity. To help guarantee that enough inventory is available to meet wave demand, / you can use demand replenishment / as a supplement between Min/Max replenishment cycles.
• #11: Cycle counting / ensures that the system inventory counts matches the physical inventory count. This method involves performing a regular count / and recording the inventory adjustments.  Warehouse managers and supply chain professionals / often prepare the plan for the warehouse workers / to audit inventory. The most efficient inventory management plans / lead to minimal transaction error rates / and extremely high inventory accuracy / without taking away time from warehouse workers essential tasks. Regardless of whether a company uses periodic or perpetual inventory practices to track it’s inventory, / regular cycle counting is a necessary auditing process / to manage inventory discrepancies. Many companies perform physical inventory count at the end of the year / as part of their yearly financial audit process. Large companies with thousands of items / typically halt operations for up to a week or more / to perform a full physical inventory count. This could inconvenience vendors and customers / as the warehousing operations are completed halted. Cycle counting is an inventory management option / that allows you to count items in a designated area of the warehouse / without stopping operations to perform a complete physical inventory. Cycle counting counts small, preselected sections of inventory / multiple times a year, sometimes as often as daily. Performing only a physical inventory / is a good choice for companies with smaller warehouses. / However, if your company has large warehouses, / performing cycle counts for a few locations periodically / can help you maintain a higher level of inventory accuracy. 
• #12: If you don’t use an integrated shipping solution, / you have to perform many steps in the shipping process manually, / which is a highly error-prone approach.  You have to locate the parcel shipping orders to process. / Fetch the relevant sales order and customer details from your ERP / Enter these details into your shipping carrier’s website / Enter the shipping parameters for label generation / Print individual labels / Paste each label on the correct container / And hand the containers over to the shipping carrier.  / You also need to track the master tracking numbers of the containers manually / And visit your shipping carrier’s website to trace the status of the packages. / Fortunately, Dynamics 365 FinOps now comes with the small package shipping (SPS) feature / that interacts directly with shipping carriers / by providing a framework for communication through carrier APIs. This functionality is useful / when you're shipping individual sales orders via commercial shipping carriers / instead of using container shipping or less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping.
• #13: Thank you, Aamir! Great inputs on Advanced warehousing features/ We will continue furthermore adding to Aamir’s points Now a days, Warehouses are getting equipped with material handling machines/ for automation. Most of the warehouse management systems/ don’t have framework to talk to this machines. Microsoft has brought in “The material handling equipment interface” /that connects external physical material handling (MH) system/s to a warehouse/ that is managed by advanced warehouse management in Microsoft Dynamics 365./ The interface between the advanced warehousing/ and material handling systems /consists of two queues/: one/ for outbound events /(ie WMS to Material Handling) and the other / for inbound events (Material Handling to WMS). The advanced warehousing system/ generates outbound events/ based on work lines/ that are created during/ various work creation/ and execution processes. / The material handling system/ then regularly polls the advanced warehousing system for new events / and processes the responses. /After the material handling system has finished/ handling the events/ following work instructions/, sends inbound events/, such as/ work line completion/ and short picking,/ where-in it’s a kind of acknowledgment/ to Dynamics 365 / that the system has executed the request or instruction.
• #14: We will just go through Cluster picking – one of the feature helps in pick optimization at outbound. Advanced warehousing provides one of the most efficient ways/ to speed up the picking process/ of multiple orders assigned to the worker. The mobile app consolidates multiple picklists/ into a cluster/ and helps establish a picking route through the warehouse to pick multiple orders/. This would lead to a shorter travel distance/ and avoid a scenario/ where the picker has to visit/ the same location twice. While picking up the items/, the items are placed/ into different totes/ as per the order/ that they belong to. With this approach/, all the items picked/ will be sorted in boxes/ at the end of a picking route.
• #15: Next feature we’ll go through about Quality management. Quality management for warehouses/ process automatically/creates work to move items/ marked for incoming inspection/ into a quality control location/ when the items are received. Once the items are inspected/ and the quality work is closed/, the system will create a put away work /from the quality control location /to the storage location. These features/ reduce training requirements/ and eliminate the need/ to remember which items / need an inspection. Another quality management feature/ is the ability to set up sample sizes/ for incoming inspection/ based on a percentage of the quantity received. Quality work/ is created for the specified quantity/ and the remaining quantity/ is putaway in the storage location. This allows/ for a reduced workload/ for the quality team/ while maintaining quality control./ This is very useful/ during supplier qualification/ on critical items./ Again/, a way to intelligently manage/ workload and maintain / control over quality/ for purchase and production receipts.
• #16: Thank you Scott.
• #19: Thank you for that useful demonstration.
• #20: Thank you all for your patient listening. As a next step we would be open to engage with you for a one on one strategic assessment of your requirements at no obligation. We hope you would take advantage of this limited time offer and contact us at [email protected] This brings us to the next part of taking our Question and Answer Session
• #21: Thank you all for your patient listening.  This brings us to the end of the webinar, as a next step we would encourage you to connect with us one on one as we are open to engage with you for a one on one strategic assessment of your requirements at no obligation. We hope you would take advantage of this limited time offer and contact us at [email protected] Thank you and hope you have a good day ahead ( make your own )