The concept of picking sets in Business Central part II.

In the previous issue of OOTB #88, we were able to discuss the first type of picking in the Business Central system, which was stock picking. We already know that it referred to inventory that, after being completed into a set using a picking order, is to be put into storage before being sold.

In today's installment, we'll take a detailed look at customized picking, in which our costs are reduced by not having to store completed kits before selling them.

🔥 Useful terms:

• Completion boom - determines the components (inventory or resources) required to complete the inventory being completed
• Completed stock - is a saleable stock, including a list of components of completion
• Components - standard inventory (raw materials or finished goods)

We go to the desired inventory file to set the Picking Rules in the Replenishment section . This time, we select Picking by Order.

By opening the BOM Completion window, we can preview the previously created structure of our BOM, i.e. what components go into it.

Instead of going to each of the inventory files that are components, we now know that by using Inventory Availability by BOM level, we are able to get a direct indication of how many components we currently have in stock and how many kits we can complete from them.

During the implementation of picking to stock, the next step would be to create a picking order. We know that when picking to order, the kits are not put away in the warehouse beforehand, so this time let's go directly to creating a new sales order.

After completing the basic data, we know that we are able to complete with the available components two sets. We complete on the lines of the sales order in the field No. Our stock and enter Quantity 2.

We can notice that the system allowed us to move on after entering the quantity, even though we do not currently have a single piece of our kit in stock. It has also completed the quantity 2 in the Quantity to be Picked to Order field , which allows us to go to the picking order file by clicking on the number 2.

During the order picking process, the system creates for us in the background a Picking Order, which we cannot post ourselves, only preview or change the data in the BOM structure. This document will be automatically posted along with the posting of the warehouse release.

So let's move on to creating a warehouse release, where (if required) we can assign our kit a Lot No. or Serial No.. It remains for us to post the warehouse release document.

Turning to the Posted picking orders file, we can see that our picking order has been automatically posted along with the posting of the warehouse release. At this point, we already have a Posted Sales Release document as well as a Posted Picking Order document.

The working picking order still exists in the system, but we will complete the quantity in the Quantity Completed field. We can verify this by going to the Picking Orders file . This order will remain visible until the sales invoice is posted.

We can return to our sales order and then book it, remembering to complete all the basic data in the document

We have processed the order picking process smoothly to the end. We can preview the status of our working picking order, which has already disappeared from the picking order list, and check how the picking process looks on the Inventory Ledger Records.

We managed to go through the picking process smoothly, with components available in stock. Let's see how the Business Central system will behave while we don't have components in stock, and what options it will offer us. Let's go once again to the sales order. Let's complete our kit once more on the lines, even though we know we've run out of its components.

After entering the quantity on the lines, the system immediately showed us a warning about insufficient components for picking. We can first check the Details, where we can see the necessary stocks and their missing quantity to complete the set.

Once approved, we can move to the Quantity column for order picking.

The system still displays us an availability warning next to the lines of components we are missing in stock. Moving on to one of these warnings by clicking YES, the Business Central system has prepared an interesting convenience for us in the form of directly Creating a purchase order for the missing component.

In summary, we were able to go through both cases of picking in the Business Central System: on stock and on order. At first glance, we can see a very similar scheme of operation of both of them, while they are distinguished primarily by the need to store the completed set in the warehouse, or lack thereof.

That's all for today from my side, I hope I managed to give an overview of the process of both types of picking. Personally, as always, I encourage you to test the functionality and follow our blog to learn more useful capabilities of the Business Central system.