Sunday, March 14, 2021

[Tutorial] Work pick line overview

Introduction

Work pick line overview is a feature that is currently in Public preview, and will become generally available in one of the upcoming Dynamics 365 SCM releases.

It provides the flexibility to experienced warehouse workers to change the work picking route on the spot, based on the current situation the system is unaware of. 

For example:

  • some of the goods on the order might need to be rushed out the door, to make the delivery truck departure time
  • system is not configured to suggest an optimal picking route that takes into account item dimensions, weight, etc.
  • worker is inhibited in some way, for example, cannot carry larger items right now, so would like to pick the smaller ones first, and then come back for the larger ones with a forklift, etc.
Using the work pick line overview feature, the worker can get all of the work lines to show up in a list on the mobile device, allowing the worker to order them based on the data displayed. This way, he can quickly choose the work line that he will pick next. 

This is a lot more convenient compared to the existing Skip button functionality, where the worker could skip one line after another until he reaches the one he would like to pick next.

Configuration

As I mentioned, the feature is in Public Preview as of writing this post, so you need to first enable it through the Feature management dashboard, as shown below:
Work pick line overview feature


Enabling the feature adds a new option to the Mobile device menu items of type "Work - use existing work", like shown below. 

Mobile device menu item configuration

The 4 options available for selection in the Show work list list option are described nicely in our article about the feature on docs.microsoft.com:

  • Show only upon request – Workers can choose to view the pick line list by selecting the Skip to button in the warehouse app.
  • Show at the start of every pick – Workers see the list every time that they start or finish a pick line. They can also view the list again by selecting the Skip to button in the warehouse app.
  • Show at the start of the first pick only – Workers see the list every time that they start new picking work, but not after each line. They can also view the list again by selecting the Skip to button in the warehouse app.
  • Never show – The standard Skip button appears in the warehouse app, and display of the work line list is turned off. The Skip button lets workers cycle through the lines one at a time, in a fixed order. They can also cycle through the list as many times as they require, until all lines have been processed.
Selecting one of these options also make the Field list configuration button available. In the form that opens the superuser can configure the work list fields that should be visible on the mobile device. 

Note You can configure to display not only table fields, but also display methods, allowing for a much more flexible setup

Work pick line overview field list configuration

Demo

To demonstrate, how the work pick line overview can be used, I've create a small sales order with 4 lines, as shown below:


Sales order lines

Upon releasing this order to the warehouse, the following work order was created:

Work order lines

Using the new Warehouse management app (you can read more about it in my previous post), we can now navigate to this work order, using the newly created mobile device menu item, as shown below:

Work picking flow, step 1

In my example, I have configured not to trigger the pick line overview to appear automatically, meaning that the worker would need to manually select the Skip to button from the ribbon

Select Skip to button in the ribbon

This will bring up the work pick line overview screen, where the worker can see all the work lines in one or more columns, depending on the device form factor. 
All the selected fields and their respective values are shown on the cards, and tapping either of them will take the worker to start performing the pick actions for that work line.
Work pick line overview

To speed up the selection process, especially in cases where many work lines are displayed at the same time, the worker can use the ordering options available above the cards, for example, to show the heaviest items first, as shown below.

The ordering selections will also be preserved for whenever the pick line overview is opened next time, simplifying the picking process further.

Work pick line overview showing heavy item first

Demo recording

If you prefer watching demos with voice-over over reading, please check out the YouTube video I made for this feature:

Conclusion

As you can hopefully see by now, the Work pick line overview is a powerful feature than can help your business find further cost reductions in the warehouse by allowing more flexibility on the floor.

We love feedback, so don't be shy and let us know if you have issues with the feature, or have further ideas on how this can be improved!

5 comments:

  1. Hi Vanya,

    Thanks for the post. I am getting a weird display on mobile device. I setup the mobile device menu item "Show at the start of every pick" and initially it was showing correctly all the open SO pick line along with details as per Field list setup. But after couple of weeks when I used the same setup, I can see the regular screen of "Scan a work ID/license plate ID" instead of pick line overview. I created a new mobile device setup from scratch but without any success. Am I doing something wrong as I am unable to find the root cause. Thanks in advance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did you menu item config changed?
      If not, file a support request with screenshots and all, and the team will review your data

      Delete
    2. Thanks a lot for the reply. I have done the exact setup again as shown in your post, just changed the option "Show at the start of every pick". Earlier it was working perfectly but today display is not showing the work pick line overview screen. Please note that all the testing is done in webclient using Contoso data.

      Delete
    3. You mean in the emulator? Don't use that.

      And again, create a support request, so we can help you

      Delete
    4. Thank you Vanya for the prompt reply, really appreciate. I will try this on latest WMS mobile app and see if the issue is still there or not.

      Delete

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