[Tutorial] Piece by piece picking process with Advanced Warehouse Management in Dynamics 365 SCM

Introduction

We are often asked - is it possible to configure the system to require the workers on the floor to scan each item they are picking, to ensure a more accurate picking operation where multiple same/similar items need to be picked. This is, for example, very common in the Retail industry, or in smaller distribution centers dealing with apparel or footwear. In this blog post I will demonstrate exactly that, so read on.

Let's quickly go over the setup required.

Setup

In this walkthrough, I will be picking a single sales order (This works just as well for Transfer orders), which has 4 sales lines, each for a different quantity of a product variant varying by size and color. For this example, I've chosen to use a product, which represents a box of shoes. Here is how the order looks:

Sales order with 4 lines

DemoShoe is a product master with Size and Color product dimensions, which has the different product variants defined, and is configured to use Advanced warehouse management.

It has sufficient inventory, some in BULK locations, and some in FLOOR locations. The only difference for this example is whether or not the locations are license plate controlled, and does not have any impact on the core scenario.

On-hand availability for DemoShoe

Now, the important bit - since we plan to be scanning in the products one by one, we need to properly define the bar codes for the different product variants. This is shown below:

Product variant bar code setup for DemoShoe

Obviously, you want to define a different bar code for each product variant.

You also need to set the Quantity/Unit pair according to the picking process - in our case, since we want to be picking one box of shoes with each scan, it will be 1 ea. 

And, very important, you need to enable this bar code for scanning, so that it'll get used when we scan in the value on the mobile device. 

Note. The Scanning field is usually shown on the General tab, I've personalized the page to show it in the grid just for convenience of the screenshot.

After we release the sales order to warehouse (the configuration for this is not relevant for the demo), we get the following work order generated.

Work order for DemoShoes

For processing this work, we will use a standard User directed mobile device menu item. It is configured to generate the target license plate, but that's irrelevant for the demo. 

Mobile device menu item for sales order picking

What is important however is to configure the work confirmation for this menu item, enabling the Piece picking option, as shown below.

Here, I have specified that a maximum of 4 piece picking scans will be required, but if I need to pick more, I can just enter the remaining quantity in full instead. 

I have also enabled location confirmation, and product confirmation is enabled automatically with piece picking (the product confirmation field is the one used to scan in each product variant bar code).

Work confirmation for Pick operation

Flow

1. We start by scanning in the ID of the work order

1. Work ID

2. We are asked to pick the first work line, and start by confirming we have indeed reached the needed location, FL-015

2. Location confirmation

3. As FL-015 is a License plate tracked location, we need to scan in the license plate we are picking from, in this case, LP_Demo_01

3. License plate scan

4. Now is when we reach the product confirmation screen, and where the magic starts. 

We scan in the bar code for the correct variant, 38 Black

4. Picking first shoe box

5. We are brought back to the same screen again, asking us to scan in the product. 

However, if we go to the details tab, we can see something has changed. 

We have now 1 of 2.00 confirmed

That means our input was in fact registered, and we just need to keep scanning the next variant of the 2 required.

5. Piece picking in action - qty confirmed

6. We scan in the second box of 38 Black shoes, and are directed to specify the Target LP we are going to move the items on. In this case, it's automatically generated based on menu item setup, so we just confirm.

6. Target LP

Now, you might have noticed, that the data shown on the main screen wasn't super helpful for us, as we did not immediately at a glance see how many items we have already scan-confirmed. Maybe not an issue, but for the purpose of the demo, let's adjust it, so that the piece picking quantity confirmation is more prominent. 

We can do this by modifying the display priority of the corresponding fields in the Warehouse app field priority form. An example is shown below

Mobile app field priority higher for piece pick qty

I have kept the item description and product dimensions high enough to help visually confirm the size and color of the product being picked.

7. With that out of the way, let's re-enter the picking flow and observe the updated main screen information, when picking the second work line. I've skipped location and license plate confirmation screens

7. New visual for piece picking

8. Now we've reached picking from a non license plate tracked BULK location. The process is exactly the same, minus the scan of the license plate to pick from.

8. Piece picking from a BULK location

9. You might have noticed that the last work line was for a total quantity of 5 pairs of 41 White shoes. 

This exceeds the maximum set during work confirmation, meaning that I am redirected to a different screen after scanning 4 pairs, where I need to enter the remaining quantity using a standard quantity field instead.

Now, 4 is an arbitrary number I set as maximum for this demo. In reality, most will probably have this higher, only to account for certain really larger volume picks.

9. Remaining picking quantity exceeding max piece picking qty

10. Once the remaining quantity is entered (in our case it was just 1 remaining item), all the picks are complete, and we are directed to do the Put of all 10 pairs of shoes we picked.

10. Put to Baydoor

Note that at any point in time in the process, we could switch to the Details tab and manually enter the picking quantity by selecting the little edit icon next to Qty

This is in a way a back door, so I do not recommend that you use it, but thought I would mention it, also to get feedback on how useful this is, and if that's something your company uses on a frequent basis.

Backdoor - Edit Qty field

Summary

That's it. Now you're a master of piece by piece picking in shipping operations when Advanced Warehouse management is used. 

Does this functionality meet the mark? Let us know how you use it and if anything is missing!

In the next post we'll discuss what options are available for piece by piece scans in the receiving warehouse process.

[Tutorial] Automating Release to Warehouse process through Wave Template configuration

Introduction

Currently many companies resort to manually choosing which shipments need to be added to a wave we are about to process, which is slow and error prone, as the user needs to check up on each of the shipments, understand where it is headed, what types of items are on it, which mode of delivery is used, etc.

Today I would like to show a demo example of how to configure wave templates, as to allow a more optimal distribution of orders, based on, say, delivery mode, or some other cut-off criteria. Automatically, without any user interaction.

Disclaimer

I will not be talking about Automatic release of sales/transfer orders to warehouse in this post. We'll discuss that at a later point in time. Today it is only about making sure certain orders are grouped on a single wave automatically, based on defined criteria, so that they can be processed in the warehouse at the same time. This of course comes hand in hand with automatic release, which would enable a pretty much automatic operation for certain orders

Wave template configuration

Imagine that I would like to accumulate and then process all 2-day shipping orders at once, every second day, so I have the picking done before 4 pm that day when the UPS (or other 3PL) truck arrives to pick them up.

For these orders I want to pick as fast as possible, and the inventory is typically already at the locations and does not need special packaging, so I will not include replenishment and containerization steps into it, and will configure my work template to take the goods straight to the bay doors. 

I would also like to limit the number of shipments on each of the waves to 10, so as to not overwhelm my workers. Instead, I'll release another wave later in the day if necessary.

Generally, I'd like the wave to be processed automatically as soon as 10 shipments have accumulated, but throughout the day my Wave planner might process another wave, depending on the situation.

Here's how my wave template would look for this case:

2 day shipping wave template configuration for warehouse 24

Here's how I have configured the corresponding query:

Note. No need to add any filters on Site or Warehouse, as these will be automatically added.

I want to only look at shipments for Sales orders, and only those that have a 2 DAY shipping mode of delivery. Pretty simple. If I wanted, I could make this much more granular, by adding additional table joins and adding filters on them.

2 day shipping wave template query

Sales orders

Now let's create a couple sales orders, set the Mode of delivery correctly, reserve the inventory and release the orders to the warehouse.

Note. The field that is transferred to the shipment is taken from one of two:

• Mode field on the sales order, if the Mode of delivery is not filled in.
• Mode set on the Carrier associated with the specified Mode of delivery.

Mode of delivery specified on Sales order 000910

I only added one simple line for the example, on both sales orders.

Sales line for Sales order 000910

Release to warehouse

When we release the first order to the warehouse, we will create a new shipment, which will have the correct Mode of delivery. We will then proceed to search for a wave template that matches it, based on Site, Warehouse, as well as the defined query. Our newly created wave template should succeed here.

We will not however be able to find an existing Wave in status Created, that would match the Site and Warehouse for the shipment that is also using the same wave template. Which means we will go and create a new Wave. 

Note. A new wave is created because of the Wave template setting Automate wave creation

When we release the second order to the warehouse though, we will find the wave created above, and because the conditions for adding to the same wave are met, and the wave template has Assign to open waves marked as Yes, we will add the shipment to the found wave instead of creating a new one.

Here's how the resulting wave looks:

Wave created based on the two sales orders

FAQ

Q: What if there is more than one wave in status Created, that was created based on the "right" wave template, and is for the same Site and Warehouse as the newly created shipment? Which wave will the shipment get assigned to?
A: The first of the waves that matches all of the criteria which also does not exceed the thresholds.

Q: Can I use fields directly from the sales order in the wave template query?
A: Yes, but you will need to join to get them. The right way would be to first join the load lines for the shipment, then the order lines related to the load lines, and then the sales order headers related to the sales lines. (Not directly from the shipment, even thought that will work just fine for certain businesses that always have only 1 shipment per 1 order)

Conclusion

As you can see, setting up a wave template that will group multiple shipments and create a new wave if necessary is relatively simple - you just need to get a few of the specifics correct in the setup, and then everything will work like a charm.

In one of the next posts we will combine this configuration with automatic release of sales orders, to achieve full automation of sales order release process, where no user interaction is necessary at all past the sales order creation and confirmation step.

Tutorial: License plate consolidation in Dynamics 365 for Operations (1611)

Introduction to scenarios

The Microsoft Dynamics AX Warehouse management module supports a number of advanced scenarios for warehouses, thanks to the flexibility offered by the concept of Work and work lines, which take care of any and all operations in the warehouse. The system has a number of complex configuration possibilities that determine how work is created. At the same time, AFTER it has been created, work is fixed and any necessary changes require a lot of manual supervisor interventions, or, in many cases, are not possible at all.

Imagine the following two scenarios:

Scenario 1

A customer orders a number of items from us. Based on our work template setup, multiple work orders are created to pick these items from the warehouse, say, some are picked from a cooled area, while the rest is coming from the regular picking area. All of the items are placed into a staging area location after picking, to be loaded on a delivery truck.

Scenario 2

A customer orders a number of items from us. A sales order is created in our system, released to warehouse, so work is created. The picking commences, and the goods arrive at the staging location, but are not shipped the same day, because the truck to pick them up only arrives tomorrow. The same evening, the same customer orders more items from us. Correspondingly, a new sales order is created and released to warehouse, creating more work. The pick is completed, and the goods are placed in the staging location ready to be loaded the next day. The warehouse manager decides to ship both shipments on the same truck tomorrow, adding the second shipment to the same load that contains the first shipment.

In both scenarios, we now have two license plates on the same load, that are going to the same customer, sitting in the same location. When the truck comes, they will need to be loaded separately one by one, even though in many cases, the items would fit perfectly fine on just one license plate.

Until now, the warehouse worker had no way to merge the two license plates together to ship everything on just one license plate, at least in the system (probably does happen outside of the system already).

In the Fall release of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations (1611) we have added the ability of consolidating items on a license plate with items on another license place within the same location, where there is work behind one or more of the license plates. This is supported by a new type of mobile device menu item with Indirect Activity code “Consolidate license plates”.

Scenario walkthrough

All you need to do to enable this mobile device flow is create a new mobile device menu item that looks like the screenshot below:

LP consolidation mobile device menu item

For the scenario walk-through I have created two sales orders as below:

• Sales order 000781 for customer US-001, which contains two lines:
• 10 ea of item M9200 from warehouse 51
• 15 ea of item M9201 from warehouse 51
• Sales order 000782 for customer US-001, which contains one line:
• 7 ea of item M9201 from warehouse 51

Sales order 000781 was released to warehouse first, before 000782 existed, resulting in the creation of Shipment USMF-000008 on Load USMF-000010.

Sales order 000782 was then added to the same Load, and also released to warehouse, resulting in the creation of Shipment USMF-000009.

The following picking work was created for these 2 shipments:

Work order details

This scenario corresponds directly to Scenario 2 I described above.

Now, for both work orders the initial picks are executed (one or different workers), and for both the goods end up at the STAGE location, awaiting loading, as shown below:

Work order details after initial pick was executed

From here on, license plates TLP_001 and TLP_002 follow the same path in the warehouse, more specifically they both will be picked up from STAGE and loaded into the truck at BAYDOOR location.

If the warehouse worker at the outbound dock makes the decision to consolidate these two license plates (currently, this is only an ad-hoc decision by the worker, planned consolidations are not supported), he can do that using the above mobile device menu item. Here is how the flow would look on the mobile device:

Step 1

You are presented with a screen, where you need to enter the Target LP. This is the License plate, where the items will end up after the consolidation.

• This can be a new License plate. There is no way to print this new LP Tag from this screen at this point, however, so keep that in mind.
• This can be an existing empty License plate. This could, for example, be useful, if you want to merge the contents of 2 half-pallets onto 1 empty euro pallet. Another case is if the pallet, where the items currently are placed, is damaged or “unshippable”.
• This can be an existing full License plate, which is set as a Target LP on an existing work order with Work order type “Sales order” or “Transfer order issue”
• This should not be work that has a Container Id on the header or any of the lines.

LP Consolidation, Step 1

Step 2

Target LP was accepted, and now you are asked to scan in the LP you want to merge onto the Target LP.

• LP to merge needs to be a target license plate for an existing work order of Work Order Type  Sales Order or Transfer Order Issue.
• The LP to merge needs to be in the same location as the Target LP, and it cannot be the final shipping location (that’s too late, since goods are already Picked at this point).
• The LP to merge needs to relate to the same Load as the Target LP
• It should also have the same delivery information, if there are more than one shipment involved. Namely, the Delivery name, Customer account, Delivery address and Mode of Delivery should match.
• The remaining steps in the flow for both work orders being merged need to match. This is done so we ensure all relevant steps are executed, for example, that the labels are printed at the appropriate time in the flow for all consolidated items.
• This should not be work that has a Container Id on the header or any of the lines.

LP consolidation, Step 2

Step 3

When LP to merge is accepted, the worker is presented with a confirmation screen, that shows a summary of all items on that license plate. This is to help ensure that he scanned in the right LP before the actual consolidation of the two work orders happens.

In the case below, there was only one item on TLP_002, with a total quantity of 7.00 ea

LP consolidation, Step 3

Step 4

Once the worker confirms by pressing OK, the consolidation is executed, merging the two work orders together and moving all items from LP to merge to the Target LP.

The worker gets a confirmation message that the license plates were merged, and is presented with a screen where he can continue scanning in any following license plates to merge onto the Target LP.

LP consolidation, Step 4

Here is how the work looks after consolidation happens:

The work related with LP to merge, in our scenario walk-through that is TLP_002, is now marked as Closed, and by reviewing the work lines you can see the final Put step was changed, so it now points to STAGE location instead of BAYDOOR. The only thing that changed is which license plate it is put onto, namely TLP_001 instead of TLP_002.

Work order details after LP consolidation - Merge From work

The work related with Target LP, in our scenario walk-through that is TLP_001, is still In progress, and you can see the quantities on the remaining Pick/Put pair were increased accordingly with the quantity from work related with TLP_002.

Work order details after LP consolidation - Consolidated work

If you review the corresponding work transactions, you will see that an extra transaction corresponding to the load line for M9201 from sales order 000782 has been added to the Pick line to represent the additional Pick quantity.

Accordingly, the inventory transactions also reflect the fact items were moved from TLP_002 to TLP_001, and the new work reservations are based on that as well.

Mobile device menu item configuration option “Cancel remaining origin work lines”

We expect most companies to run with this configuration option turned on. It comes into play in the following situation: When there are more subsequent staging steps on both work orders, this configuration will enable you to forfeit any of the steps on the work being merged from, so the steps on the consolidated work will be the ones executed for all merged items. That specifically means that any “extra” steps on the work being merged will be Cancelled.

If there are some specific reasons why all work steps need to be executed for the merged work order separately, you should not enable the configuration option. As a result, however, you will not be able to consolidate this LP to another one.

See a more detailed explanation in the Help Text for this configuration on the menu item.

For those behind on updates :)

This feature has been back-ported to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3.

You can download it from KB number 3190562

Let us know what you think of this new feature!

Tutorial: Movement of inventory with associated work in Warehouse management, Dynamics 365 for Operations (1611)

Introduction to supported scenarios

For the Fall release of Dynamics 365 for Operations (1611) we have built various features to support the theme of increasing the flexibility in the daily operations of warehouse workers.

Imagine the following scenarios:

Scenario 1

A company has a relatively small receiving area, and it’s congested with pallets and boxes awaiting put away. A large shipment is expected on this day, so the receiving clerk decides to clear up the receiving area, moving some of the pallets to a secondary inbound staging area.

Scenario 2

An experienced warehouse worker going around the warehouse notices an opportunity to consolidate items in one location instead of having them spread out across 3 nearby locations with a little quantity in each. He wants to move items from each of these locations into the same location onto the same license plate, consolidating the quantity.

Scenario 3

A pallet is awaiting shipment in a staging location, say, STAGE01, which is near BAYDOOR01. However due to a change of plans the truck is going to arrive to BAYDOOR04. The shipping clerk is aware of this and needs to ensure the truck does not have to hang around waiting to be loaded from STAGE01. The shipping clerk therefore decides to move the items in that shipment from STAGE01 to STAGE04, much closer to their new destination.

All of these scenarios are not possible today due to one simple fact – the items that need to be moved have work pending for them, meaning they are physically reserved on the warehouse location level (or even the license plate level) and therefore cannot be moved.

We have built this capability in for the Fall release of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations (1611). Now you can decide, which warehouse workers are allowed to move reserved inventory, and which are not. This will allow some regulated warehouses the flexibility for cases where they may not accept that a worker can decide upon a new pick location from an already created pick work, or that a warehouse manager would like to steer which capabilities his un-experienced worker should have.

Scenario 2 walkthrough

In the standard demo data in company USMF we already have some data that can help showcase this new scenario on warehouse 24.

There are two sales orders, order 000748 and order 000752, both of which are planning to ship 10 pcs of A0001, and both have been released to warehouse, so corresponding work orders USMF-000001 and USMF-000002 exist, both to pick 10 pcs of A0001 from location FL-001. There is a total of 100 pcs of A0001 in this location, but only 80 is physically available because of the two work order reservations.

So if warehouse worker 24 tried to open the Movement mobile device menu item on his mobile device, he would see the following picture for location FL-001:

Moving physically available quantity

As you can see, the worker is only allowed to move 80 of the 100 pcs physically present in the location. Let’s fix that, and configure the worker to allow him moving reserved inventory.

Configure worker to allow movement of inventory with associated work

Now, if we go into the movement flow on the mobile device again, the screen will look as below:

Moving all physical inventory from a location

Now that the worker is allowed to move reserved inventory, he can move all 100 pcs of item A0001. Let’s go ahead and do that, moving the items to FL-007 to a new license plate LP_V_001.

Movement of inventory - To information

Let’s now review what happened behind the scenes:

1. A new Inventory Movement work was created, from FL-001 to FL-007, for 100 pcs of A0001. It was immediately executed, and there the Work status is Closed.
2. All related work orders will be updated, so they point the Pick line to location FL-007 instead of location FL-001, as you can see on the screenshot below.

Work order after inventory was moved to FL-007

Now location FL-001 is empty and can be used according to what warehouse worker 24 had in mind, for example, to put away the goods just reported as finished (and FL-007 was smaller in size and did not fit the RAFed pallet).

The other two scenarios are pretty much the same in terms of the flow, with the only difference being the reservations behind.

Current limitations

• The work reservations that are possible to move as of today are limited to Sales order, Transfer order issue, Transfer order receipt, Purchase order and Replenishment.
• Moving the items is restricted in a way that prevents splitting of work lines. So if you have a work line for 100 pcs of item A from location Loc1, you won’t be able to move only, say, 30 pcs of item A from there to another location, as that would lead to split of the existing work line to 30 and 70, as the locations are now different.
• For Staging scenarios, where the license plate we move the goods from, or the license plate we move the goods to, are set as a Target LP for a work order, only movement of the entire LP is allowed, so as not to break up the Target LP.
• Only the ad hoc movement is currently supported. That means you will not be able to move reserved inventory through the movement by template mobile device menu items.

For those behind on updates :)

This feature has also been back-ported to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 and will be available as part of CU12.

It can also be downloaded individually through KB number 3192548

This is great stuff, give it a try and let us know if you have any feedback!

Thanks

Tutorial: Extending the label printing functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 7

Today I would like to shed a bit more light onto how to extend the label printing functionality, specifically, show how to add a new field from the work line to be displayed on the label.

This is something we have created as a demo for Tech Conf a while back, and you can still see the recording where Per and Zach from our team showcases the different label printing scenarios.
You can view the different Microsoft conference videos here.

Just as a refresher, here is a guide for how to set up label printing in Dynamics AX 7:
http://kashperuk.blogspot.dk/2016/10/tutorial-label-printing-in-microsoft.html

Technical introduction

The label printing "framework" consists of three main components:

• WHSLicensePlateLabel table, which contains the information for the label, which is substituted into the label through the variables.
• WHSLicensePlateLabelBuild class, which is responsible for populating the WHSLicensePlateLabel table with data for a particular work order (line).
• WHSDocumentRouting class, which is responsible for the actual printing of the label, as well as the substitution of variable values, using the below methods:
• initMenuFields() method is responsible for building the list of substitute fields based on the WHSLicensePlateLabel table fields
• printDocument() method finds the specific document routing record that matches the flow criteria (e.g., warehouse, work order type, carrier, etc.), performs the translation of the label and sends it to the selected printer (Note that the label can be printed to multiple printers and you can for each printer decide, which layout to use).
• translate() method is responsible for actually replacing any variables in the label layout with the corresponding values from the WHSLicensePlateLabel table

Let's take a closer look at the fields available on the WHSLicensePlateLabel table:

WHSLicensePlateLabel table fields

These fields represent the full list of potential variables that can be put into the label in the Document Routing layout. Depending on the item flow, some of these fields are not populated. Note that when setting up the placeholders in the Document Routing Layout form, only visible fields are displayed. That allows for storing some "plumbing" information for each record, like the PrinterSettings.

Adding placeholder variables to a label layout

Fragile Example extension

For some scenarios you might want to display some additional fields on the label, which are not part of the list shown above.

Imagine a scenario where we want to display a "Fragile" message on the label if the items on the work line are accordingly marked. 

Since there is no such field in the label, we will need to extend this functionality. And because we are working in AX 7, we will try to use Extension instead of Overlayering the elements, as we would do in AX 2012 R3.

Step 0 - Create a new model for our changes

First of all, let's create a new model, which will contain all the elements we add through extension.

Create a new model in Visual Studio

We will put this model into a new package, as we do not intent to overlayer existing AOT elements. We will reference the Application Suite package, so that we can access the elements defined in it, such as the ones mentioned above. 

Note that by default the new package will also reference Application Platform.

Select referenced packages for model FragileExample

Confirm the creation of the new model and create a new project for it. Name it FragileExample.

Step 1 - Extend the WHSLicensePlateLabel table and add a new field FragileCode

Since we want to display an extra field in the label, we need to add it to the WHSLicensePlateLabel table. In order to do that, let's create an extension of this table in the new model:

Adding a new table extension from Application Explorer

You need to have selected the right project in your Solution Explorer before you attempt creating an extension. This is to ensure that the extension is actually created in the right model.


We are now going to add a new field of base type String, and call it FragileCode with the corresponding label.

Note I am not going to bother with labels or Extended Data types for sake of simplifying the demo

Table extension for WHSLicensePlateLabel in FragileExample model

New field FragileCode on table extension WHSLicensePlateLabel.Extension

In order for the field to appear in the Document routing layouts form all we need to do is compile the new code and synchronize it against the database. I have decided to do that at build time by configuring it accordingly, as shown below:

Synchronize on build = true for FragileExample project

If we now reopen the Document routing layouts form, we can see that our new placeholder is available in the list and we can add it to the label:

Fragile code placeholder available in Document routing layouts form

Step 2 - Populating the Fragile code field on WHSLicensePlateLabel record

Now that we have the field available on the label, we need to populate it. 

As described in the Technical information section above, the label details are populated in the class WHSLicensePlateLabelBuild. Let's quickly examine how this happens:

Sequence of calls to build a license plate label

As you all know, any and all work creation and execution in Dynamics AX happens through the WHSWorkExecuteDisplay* classes, e.g., purchase order registration can execute WHSWorkExecuteDisplayPOItemReceiving, while general work execution flows can execute WHSWorkExecuteDisplayUserDirected, etc.

Within these classes the WHSLicensePlateLabelBuild class is initialized, and the buildLicensePlateLabels() public method is called, when a label needs to be generated and printed.

Depending on the flow, either the insertSingleLabelPrintLine or the insertSingleLabelMenuItem method will be invoked internally, after which the generated label is printed through the printDocument API of the WHSDocumentRouting class, as described above.

Note. insertSingleLabelPrintLine supports the flow where the Print step is part of the work template lines, while insertSingleLabelMenuItem is for the case, where the Print is configured through the mobile device menu item.

So, in order for us to populate the extra new field we need to look into these insert* methods. With the recent AX 2012 R3 changes these methods have been refactored in a way, where most of the logic for populating the WHSLicensePlateLabel table has been pulled out into a new private initLabel() method.

In Dynamics AX 7 this method has been extended (who could have done that? :)) and now has a delegate which is invoked at the end of the method, which means that event handlers can be created for it. With these minor changes, we can now extend this class by subscribing to the event of the initLabel method being invoked, as shown below:

Copy event handler code for labelInitialized delegate

We can now put this generated event handler signature into a new class in our model, as shown below:

Signature of the event handling method for labelInitialized delegate

This is awesome and is one of the new extensibility language features in Dynamics AX 7 - I have subscribed to the event of this method being called without touching the original class at all.
As you can see, instead I have a SubscribesTo attribute that subscribes me to the corresponding event in a static fashion. 

Now all we need to do is actually populate the Fragile code on the label. Let's do that:

Implementation for the event handling method for labelInitialized delegate

As you see above, the code is super simple, all we do is get the Filter code value from the corresponding item, and populate it into the FragileCode field.

Let's now compile everything and give it a go in AX web client.

You can download the VS project file from my OneDrive here.

AX flow steps and result

1. Modify item A0001, setting Filter Code 4 to a new value called FRAGILE
2. Create a new purchase order for 10 pcs of A0001 to WH 24
3. Modify the Mobile device menu item for Purchase receipt to "Print label"
4. Ensure you have a Document routing record matching WH 24 for Purchase orders
1. Ensure you have a document routing layout being sent to a label printer
5. Receive the above purchase order through the WMDP

As a result, you should get a new label created, which will have the Fragile code populated with the value FRAGILE, as below (I've personalized the form to show the new field):

License plate label with the populated Fragile code

Depending on your label layout you would have this message printed on the label as well.

Conclusion

With this blog post I hoped to show you how to extend the existing set of fields available on the license plate labels.

At the same time we took a look at some of the new language constructs, design paradigms and tooling that allows for a much cleaner approach to extending existing functionality, as compared to overlayering, which many are used to.

Consider extending instead of overlayering next time you need to make a change!