One of the major improvements in Dynamics NAV 5.0 is Item Tracking. As a NAV trainer I'm pretty well familiar with Item Tracking and the new functionalities in 5.0. Nevertheless, I took the occasion to attend a Chalk & Talk session with the tempting title "Planning your Supply Chain with the new Item Tracking in Dynamics NAV 5.0". For me a chance to hear it from the Microsoft product specialists themselves.

They showed us an example in which they used lot numbers and serial numbers throughout different modules in NAV (Purchase, Sales, Warehousing, Manufacturing). As expected, not much new for me, however, during the Q&A after the session, some interesting issues came to attention, which are definitely worth mentioning here.

One of the new functionalities in Item Tracking in NAV 5.0 is that you can now activate FEFO (First Expired First Out) in warehouse management (only if you use Directed Put-away and Pick). This means that NAV automatically will propose the oldest lots or serial numbers in the Warehouse Pick. This is a very useful feature.

But in two occasions, there is an unbalance between Warehouse Management and Inventory management:

• Blocking of a lot
• Using "Strict Expiration Posting"

When blocking a lot using the Lot No. Information Card, it still remains possible to pick a blocked lot. But it will not be possible to ship it. So in NAV there is no risk that you ship a blocked lot, but the fact that it can be picked could mean unnecessary workload in a warehouse.

Furthermore, NAV also doesn't take into account "The Strict Expiration Posting" in warehouse management. "Strict Expiration Posting" means that NAV will prevent to sell items with lot and/or serial numbers that are expired.

But also expired items can be picked in NAV. Even more, if you activate the "Pick According to FEFO" on the Location Card, NAV will propose the oldest lot and/or serial numbers, but also if they are expired. So also in this case you could end up picking items which cannot be shipped (the shipping is blocked NAV).

 

So once again, a lot of very good improvements on Item Tracking in 5.0, but if you're going to implement Item Tracking in combination with Warehouse Management, you might want to take this in consideration.

Comments

[Inventory Management]

Great information. Thanx a lot