Confirm & Transfer Shipments | Load Splitting | Outbound Shipment

Have you ever ordered several products online and, unfortunately, received an incomplete order? At first, your reaction to the half-done order may go something like this, I think I ordered more than this or has there been an error or the company forgot to send the complete order? Let’s check how the load splitting shipment concept works in supply chain management.

There are chances that you might receive the rest of your order a bit later with a message saying, “your order has been split for more efficient transportation.” That is exactly how load splitting shipment works in Microsoft Dynamics 365. Companies use load splitting for some reasons. Now, some might wonder how receiving orders in separate packages can be efficient. Well, it is efficient than getting the “complete shipment” late than receiving some of it a bit earlier. Apart from this, the cargo company might dispatch partial shipments based on high priorities or even save time and money by sending packages in parts.

The Dynamics 365 comply with such needs sleekly. Further in today’s post, we will elaborate and provide a better understanding of how confirming and split your shipments work in the Dynamics 365. With the help of efficient tools in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, users can get more benefits out of load splitting more effectively, easily and efficiently. Moreover, this blog will shed some light on Dynamics 365 F&O’s feature confirm and transfer related to load splitting shipments.

WHAT IS CONFIRM AND TRANSFER FEATURE?

As per Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations release version 10.0.1, available from April 2019, Microsoft introduces a minor but handy feature called “Confirm and Transfer.” This new “Confirm and transfer” feature resolved a very pesky issue related to the previous warehouse load building. This new feature has now become a part of wave load building as it complies with varying circumstances.

Now let’s make a small scenario to help understand the “confirm and transfer” add-on in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Transportation Management.

You were told by the courier company their freight has a free capacity of 250 containers. So, your load planner at the warehouse is planned accordingly. However, to a surprise, the cargo was only accessible for 150 containers. Now systematically before there was confirm and transfer feature, you would have to unpick 100 containers, re-release them to the warehouse, and recollect them again. This whole undoing is very annoying and costly, mainly if you were dispatching according to batch numbers and serials.

With Confirm and Transfer feature, your warehouse workers can verify the first shipload of 150 containers and load the remaining 100 outbound shipments to another freight ready to be loaded.

SUMMARY

Microsoft Dynamics 365 introduced a new feature in its 2019 release. “Confirm and Transfer” act like a knight in the shining armor for load surprises. Whether your freight shows up with fewer capacity or the optimal route of your freight has been compromised, Confirm and Transfer feature let warehouse worker to first confirm the shipment based on its time, capacity, route, and a few more factors.

After the complete confirmation of the shipment is received, then your purchase orders will be dispatched accordingly with maximum efficiency. This feature let business both safe time and hustle that they would go through in times of shipment surprises or additional eleventh hour-detail add up.

MULTIPLE ORDER SHIPMENTS IN DYNAMICS 365

The confirm and transfer feature can work in many ways. However, to undergo this example, first we need to be on the same line with the Dynamics 365 Supply chain planning language.

When the SCM system mentions “Load,” it means the object that is to be delivered. This object can be a single freight container or a small pallet that you will deliver through a parcel. Now you can fill the load with several shipments. Take shipments as a part of load delivering to a destination, usually, a buyer. You can place one or more sales orders in one shipment. All in all, load and shipments are empty freights and trucks till now.

The “wave” that we talked about earlier under confirm and transfer title is an instruction to the warehouses on filling the shipments, load, and sales orders accordingly. One of the instructions in the wave is “work,” which is basically picking and packing. Once the work is done, your freight or trucks are ready to be dispatched.

Now imagine one of your customers has five orders. Instead of creating five different shipments and shipments and wave each, you can combine the five orders in a single shipment and a single pick-list instead of five separate ones. Such load planning can result in potentially more efficient warehousing.

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management doesn’t stop at just surprise shipment details. Instead, it goes a further step into the warehousing where it allows users to unify multiple orders from the same customer. This unifying of orders will make all the orders arrive at the same time with minimum time required. As if each order is to be sent separately, it would cost the business multiple truck pallets delivering single order each time.

OUTBOUND OPERATIONS

As explained in the above heading, the confirming outbound shipments from batch numbers in warehouse management originate when the orders are packed and picked. Here, in the outbound process, you can assign batch jobs to each of your ready-to-dispatch orders. This batch job assigning will automatically confirm all the outbound shipments.

The Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management system will run a process updating the shipments. It will transfer all the shipments on the order routes related to the order, saving the contractors a lot of time and money.

Microsoft Dynamics 365, with its wide range of supportive tools, facilitates warehouses at optimal levels. Moreover, it allows companies to automate the inventory tracking processes, automate manufacturing, improve customer satisfaction, and of course increase margins. Among many tools, SPS or Small Parcel Shipment is helping businesses to streamline their efficiency.

KPIs for Outbound Operations

Small Parcel Shipment:

The small parcel shipment tools allow D365 SCM to interact with freight carriers directly and set this through with a provided communication framework for carrier APIs (Application Programming Framework). The SPS comes in handy when you transfer single sales orders through commercials freights rather than using LTL or less-than-truckload shipping.

The SPS feature uses a dedicated rate engine to interact with the shipping carrier. However, you as a company must acquire a rate engine in alliance with your carrier company. This rate engine will allow SCM to gather details about the packed shipment in the carrier. After all the details are submitted, you will get a shipping rate, shipping label, a tracking number to track your shipment. SPS and other tools in D365 help businesses to enhance warehouse efficiency.

Improvement of Logistics in Outbound Operations:

Apart from SPS, there are several other features in the Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management.

NOTE: Most of these features are now released as public previews and businesses can add these features in their production environment. 

System direct working sequence: 

The direct working sequence allows users to filter and sort the orders presented by the system. This feature is helpful when the user wants to add a new measure. These additional measures could be the time of shipping, location profile, the picking location, or union of different criteria. Such measures are a must-have to run a smooth warehouse picking method.

Warehouse slotting:

Warehouse slotting lets users create reload work at any time based on order demand. Warehouse slotting collects demand from orders in the system based on a user-defined query and makes the consolidated demand available for the warehouse staff.

Wave label printing:

• Allow labels to be produced on a single work line based on the number of cartons instead of using the containerization function.

• Include a label enumeration (1/124, 2/124…124/124).

• Allow for the creation of a BOL (bill of lading) and its printing on the label.

• Allow for the creation of a unique Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) for every carton, which can then be printed on a label.

• Allow for the production of GS1-compliant BOL and SSCC number sequences.

• Allow for the inclusion of a HAZMAT code on a label.

• Reprinting of labels is encouraged (from handheld devices).

• Label voiding (for quick pick scenarios) and reprinting are supported.

• Support for cleaning up the history of wave picking.

SUMMARY

Dynamics 365 helps business outbound shipments in a variety of ways. Apart from SPS (Small Parcel Shipment), D365 F&O is loaded with a number of other tools as well. Some of these tools are explained above with their respective explanation. However, all of these tools are restricted to outbound shipments only. Features like warehouse slotting, work templates, wave label printing, and system direct working sequences help users gain important insights into warehouse management systems.

HOW TO CONFIRM THE OUTBOUND SHIPMENT?

  Step 1

Warehouse Management

Go to Warehouse management > Loads > Load planning workbench.

 Step 2

Select Row for Load ID

In the Loads section, in the grid, select the row for the load ID that you created.

 Step 3

Select the Load ID Link

Select the load ID link to open the Load details page.

  Step 4

Select Outbound Shipment

On the Load details page, on the Action Pane, on the Ship and receive tab, in the Confirm group, select Outbound shipment to initiate the confirmation.

  Step 5

Select Split Quantity

In the Ship confirm dialog box, in the Load split method during the ship confirm field, select Split quantity to new load.

  Step 6

Select OK

Select OK.

SUMMARY

The above heading briefly shows a step-by-step guide on how you can confirm the outbound shipment. Each of the above steps is justified with the relevant screenshot. Any D365 user can now have a better understanding of the process of confirming and load splitting shipment in the Dynamics 365 Supply Chain.

ADVANCE WAREHOUSING: QUICK OVERVIEW

Advance warehouse management systems provide a diverse collection of features for managing many elements of warehouse operations. These warehouse operations consist of receiving and storing products as part of the Inbound logistics. Like it also retrieves and ships these products as part of the Outbound Management process.

Moreover, advanced warehousing includes inquiry lookups and warehouse load splitting shipments as part of the Inventory Management process. It also includes more advanced Warehouse Management processes like production material picking and finished good packaging as part of the WHM process.

According to your business requirements, the advanced warehousing management system provides skills to design a warehouse allowing users to fully utilize the free space, employee’s time, and labor. It also comes with the ability to complete any ambiguous storage requirements and offer the mobility to comply with warehouse transactions with the help of Dynamics 365 Supply and Chain Management Mobile App.

The Dynamics 365 warehousing also allows to design the optimal warehouse to comply with the business needs and offer various configuration abilities, including designing menu items for the warehouse transactions.

SUMMARY

Getting the most out of supply chain management is the dream of every person in business. This is what advanced warehouse does in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management system. With advanced warehousing enabled in your work environment, the system will utilize every accessible free space to transport your loads. Things like production material checkups and picking finished goods are an integral part of advanced warehousing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain.