Pick items for warehouse shipment
In Business Central, you pick and ship items using one of four methods, as described in the following table.
| Method | Outbound Process | Require Pick | Require Shipment | Complexity Level (Learn more at Warehouse Management Overview) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Post the pick and shipment from the order line | No dedicated warehouse activity. | ||
| B | Post the pick and shipment from an inventory pick document | Turned on | Basic: Order-by-order. | |
| C | Post the pick and shipment from a warehouse shipment document | Turned on | Basic: Consolidated receive/ship posting for multiple orders. | |
| D | Post the pick from a warehouse pick document, and post the shipment from a warehouse shipment document | Turned on | Turned on | Advanced |
Learn more at Outbound Warehouse Flow.
This article refers to method D in the table. To learn more about shipping items, go to Shipping Items.
When a location is set up to require warehouse pick processing and warehouse shipment processing, use warehouse pick documents to create and process pick information before you post the warehouse shipment.
You can't create a warehouse pick document from scratch. Picks are part of a workflow where the person processing an order creates them in a push fashion, or the warehouse employee creates them in a pull fashion:
- In a push fashion, where you use the Create Pick action in the Warehouse Shipment page. Select the lines to be picked and prepare the picks by specifying, for example, which bins to take from and place in, and how many units to handle. Bins can be predefined for the warehouse location or resource.
- In a pull fashion, where you use the Release action in the Warehouse Shipment page to make the items available for picking. Then, on the Pick Worksheet page, warehouse employees can use the Get Warehouse Documents action to pull their assigned picks.
Note
Picking for a warehouse shipment of items that are assembled for a sales order follows the same steps as for regular warehouse picks for shipments, as described in this article. However, the number of pick lines for the quantity to ship may be many to one because you pick the components, not the assembled item.
Warehouse pick lines are created for the value in the Remaining Quantity field on the lines of the assembly order that's linked to the sales order line being shipped. All components are picked in one action. Learn more at Handling Assemble-to-Order Items in Warehouse Shipments.
To learn more about picking components for assembly orders, including situations where assembly items aren't related to a sales shipment, go to Pick for Production, Assembly, or Jobs in Advanced Warehouse Configurations.
Check whether items are available for picking
Increase efficiency in your warehouse with accurate, real-time information about factors that can affect available quantities. For example:
- Inventory levels
- Locations
- Processing stages
- Quarantined items
- Reservations
You can access information about item availability from the following source documents:
- Sales orders
- Production orders
- Assembly orders
- Jobs
The information also respects other factors that affect availability. For example, dedicated bins, locked bins, and items that aren't available for picking. For example, items might be reserved, or pending put-away or shipment operations. The Pick Summary page lets you review the items that Business Central didn’t include in pick documents and take the necessary actions.
Note
This capability requires that you turn on the Directed Put-away and Pick toggle for the locations you use in your picking process.
Set up previews
To get details on what's being picked and what isn't, turn on the Show Summary (Directed Put-away and Pick) toggle on the Whse.-Source - Create Document or Whse.-Shipment - Create Pick request pages.
Determine the quantity you can pick
On lines on the Create Warehouse Pick Summary page, the Qty. to Handle (Base) field shows which, and how many, items Business Central tried to pick. The Summary FactBox provides more details.
For simple investigations, the Pickable Qty. might give you enough information. The field shows how many items are available. If the pickable quantity is less than expected, explore the bin content.
The Pickable Qty. is the maximum quantity that Business Central can consider for picking. This quantity consists of items in pickable bins. The quantity excludes quantities that are in blocked or dedicated bins, or items that are being picked in warehouse pick documents. If the item you want to pick requires item tracking, blocked lot or serial numbers stored in pickable bins are excluded from the pickable quantity.
If the pickable quantity differs from the quantity in pickable bins, there might be a problem. Explore the bin content to find blocked bins or quantities in active documents.
The Quantity in Warehouse field shows the total quantity you'll find in your warehouse if you do a physical count. You can drill down to the warehouse ledger entries from this field. If the field shows a quantity that's less than the quantity in the Quantity in Pickable Bins, there's a misalignment between warehouse and inventory quantities. In that case, use the Calculate Warehouse Adjustment action on the Item Journal page, and then create the warehouse pick again.
The following image illustrates the maximum quantity considered for picking.
Legend
| Letter | Description |
|---|---|
| P | Bins with content of type Pick |
| D | Bins with content of type Pick marked as Dedicated bins |
| A | Bins with content of type Pick in the active documents (like another pick) |
| T | Bins with content of type Pick with items with blocked tracking |
| B | Bins with content of type Pick with blocked outbound movement |
| O | Other bins |
Reservations
If there are reservations for the item being picked, then calculation continues. The idea is that reserved demand has higher priority than non-reserved, which means that picking for non-reserved demand shouldn't prevent picking for reserved demand later.
To verify that your quantity can cover a demand, compare the Pickable Qty. value on the Summary FactBox with the value in the Qty. to Handle (Base) field on the lines.
You can find reservations in the Total Reserved Qty. in Warehouse field. Reserved quantities that are already picked and are ready for shipment, usage, or consumption, don't affect availability. The Reserved Qty. in Pick/Ship Bins field shows this quantity.
The Avail. Qty. Excluding Shipment Bin field shows the quantity that's available, excluding quantities for which the following is true:
- They're already picked for shipments.
- They're in blocked item lots or serial numbers.
- They're in blocked bins.
- They're in dedicated bins.
These quantities might be available, but you might not be able to pick them yet. They could still be in the receipt, storage, or quality-assurance areas. You can move them to the picking area by processing a put-away or movement worksheet.
The difference between Avail. Qty. Excluding Shipment Bin and reserved quantity in warehouse is the quantity available for picking without impacting reserved stock.
The following immage illustrates the allocation of avalable quantity for reserved quanity.
Legend
| Letter | Description |
|---|---|
| P | Quantity to pick |
| TR | Total Reserved Qty. in Warehouse. |
| RS | Reserved quantities that are already picked and are ready for shipment, usage, or consumption |
| A | Avail. Qty. Excluding Shipment Bin |
| B | Quantity in dedicated or blocked bins, blocked item lots, or serial numbers |
While there's enough available quantity in warehouse to satisfy the pick completely, it'll lead to the fact that the total reserved quantity is allocated against the quantities in dedicated or blocked bins, which prevents picking for this demand. Because reserved demand has higher priority, Business Central reduces the quantity to pick to prevent negative impact, such as the inability to pick, on reserved demand.
Other details
If items require item tracking, you can also find the quantity in blocked lots or serial numbers, which causes the following reductions:
- The pickable quantity
- Available quantity, excluding the shipment bin
- The reserved quantity in warehouse
If you pick the same item for multiple source documents or lines, which is also the case when you pick serial numbers, information about picks for other lines also displays because it reduces the pickable quantity.
To create pick documents in bulk with the pick worksheet
Choose the
icon, enter Pick Worksheet, and then choose the related link.Choose the Get Warehouse Documents action.
The list will include all shipments that have been released for picking, including those for which pick instructions have already been created. Documents with pick lines that have been completely picked and registered are not shown in this list.
Select the shipments for which you want to prepare a pick.
Note
If you try to select a shipment or internal pick document for which you've already created instructions for all of its lines you'll get a message that says something like, "there is nothing to handle." To combine warehouse pick instructions that you've already created into one pick instruction, you must delete the individual warehouse picks first.
Fill in the Sorting Method field to sort the lines.
Note
The way the lines are sorted in the worksheet doesn't automatically carry through to the pick instruction. However, the same sorting and bin ranking opportunities exist. You can easily recreate the line order you plan in the worksheet when you create the pick instructions or sort in the pick instructions.
Fill in the Qty. to Handle field either manually, or by using the Autofill Qty.to Handle action.
The page shows the quantities available in cross-docking bins. This information is useful for planning work assignments in cross-docking situations. Business Central will always propose a pick from a cross-dock bin first.
If needed, edit the lines. You can also delete lines to make the pick more efficient. For example, if there are multiple lines with items that are in cross-dock bins, you might create a pick for all of the lines. The cross-docked items will be shipped with the other items on the shipment, and the cross-dock bins will have space for more incoming items.
Note
If you delete lines, they're only deleted from the worksheet. They aren't deleted from the pick selection list.
Choose the Create Pick action. The Create Pick page opens, where you can add more information to the pick you are creating. Specify how to combine pick lines in the pick documents by selecting one of the following options.
Option Description Per Whse. Document Creates separate pick documents for worksheet lines with the same warehouse source document. Per Cust./Vend./Loc. Create separate pick documents for each customer (sale orders), vendor (purchase return orders), and location (transfer orders). Per Item Create separate pick documents for each item on the pick worksheet. Per From Zone Create separate pick documents for each zone that you'll take items from. Per Bin Create separate pick documents for each bin that you'll take items from. Per Due Date Create separate pick documents for source documents that have the same due date. Specify how the pick documents are created by selecting from the following options.
Option Description Max. No. of Pick Lines Creates pick documents that have no more than the specified number of lines in each document. Max. No. of Pick Source Docs. Creates pick documents that each cover no more than the specified number of source documents. Assigned User ID Creates pick documents only for worksheet lines that are assigned to the selected warehouse employee. Sorting Method for Pick Lines Select from the available options to sort lines in the created pick document. Set Breakbulk Filter Hides intermediate breakbulk pick lines when a larger unit of measure is converted to a smaller unit of measure and completely picked. Do Not Fill Qty. to Handle Leaves the Qty. to Handle field in the created pick lines empty. Print Pick Prints the pick documents when they are created. You can also print from the created pick documents. Choose OK. Business Central will create the pick according to your selections.
To pick items for a warehouse shipment
Choose the
icon, enter Warehouse Picks, and then choose the related link.If you need to work on a particular pick, select the pick from the list or filter the list to find the picks that have been assigned to you specifically. Open the pick card.
If the Assigned User ID field is empty, enter your ID to identify yourself if needed.
Pick the items.
If the warehouse is set up to use bins, the items’ default bins are used to suggest where to take the items from. The instructions contain at least two separate lines for Take and Place actions.
If the warehouse is set up to use directed put-away and pick, bin ranking is used to calculate the best bins to pick from. Those bins are suggested on the pick lines. The instructions contain at least two separate lines for Take and Place actions.
- The first line, with Take in the Action Type field, indicates where the items are located in the picking area. If you're shipping a large number of items on one shipment line, you might have to pick the items in several bins, so there's a Take line for each bin.
- The next line, with Place in the Action Type field, shows where you must place the items in the warehouse. You can't change the zone and bin on this line.
Note
If you must pick or place the items for one line in more than one bin, for example because the designated bin is full, use the Split Line action on the Lines FastTab. The action creates a line for the remaining quantity to handle.
You can sort the pick lines by various criteria, for example, by item, shelf number, or due date. Sorting can help optimise the put-away process, for example:
- If the Take and Place lines for each shipment line don't immediately follow one another, and you want them to, sort the lines by selecting Item in the Sorting Method field.
- If bin rankings reflect the physical layout of the warehouse, use the Bin Ranking sorting method to organize the work by bin locations.
Note
Lines are sorted in ascending order by the selected criteria. If you sort by document, sorting is done first by document type based on the Warehouse Activity Source Document field. If you sort by ship-to, sorting is done first by destination type based on the Warehouse Destination Type field.
- After you pick and place the items in the shipping area or shipping bin, choose the Register Pick action.
You can now bring the items to the shipment dock and post the shipment, including the related source document, on the Warehouse Shipment page. Learn more at Ship Items.