Quality Management in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain: Inventory Blocking Using the Quality Management for Warehouse
Blocking inventory with Quality Management in Dynamics 365 starts with Item Sampling then with Quality Associations. Item sampling dictates the scope, work or order type, and quantity of the inventory blocking. A Quality Association defines the transaction to trigger the creation of the quality order, or when inventory blocking occurs. The inventory blocking is removed once the passing test results are added to the quality order, or the non-conformance is corrected (providing the items are not scrapped in the process). The D365 quality feature “Quality management for warehouse processes” includes new options for inventory blocking such as sampling scope from a Load or Shipment, quantity specification per license plate, and processing by the nth license plate. Let’s dig deeper into blocking inventory from inbound transactions, as they relate to the new quality management for warehouse processes feature.
Inventory Blocking For Inbound Transactions
A plastics manufacturing employee, Barb, asks her D365 consultant to turn on the feature. She is aware once this feature is turned on, it cannot be turned off. Once she is able, Barb will turn on the warehouse parameter to Enable quality order for warehouse processes.
Barb will now be able to create the item sampling setup required per her employer’s quality management system. Opening the Item Sampling screen, Barb notices there are new options for available for the Sampling scope that include load and shipment. The default sampling scope of order is still available to use as well. In addition to the new sampling scope options, Barb sees the new quantity specification choices, namely the break count by item and per nth license plate fields.
Barb gathers the sampling scope and quantity specification options:
Sampling Scope
Order – This is the default value for an item sampling scope in Dynamics 365. This option refers to the source document, like Production or Purchase Order, as the basis to how a quality order is created.
Load – This option is only available when the Quality management for warehouse processes feature is turned on. If selected as the sampling scope, the inbound load transaction will be used as the basis when creating the quality order. If this type of transaction is not available, the order entity will be used.
Shipment – This option is only available when the Quality management for warehouse processes feature is turned on. If selected as the sampling scope, the inbound shipment transaction will be used as the basis when creating the quality order. If this type of transaction is not available, the order entity will be used.
Quantity Specification
Break count by item – This option requires per updated quantity, location, and license plate options to be set to YES. This field dictates if the license plate count is reset for each item and if the license plate count is evaluated per item or across all items in the sampling scope. Note, variants of the sample product are treated as the same product.
Per nth license plate – This option requires per updated quantity, location, and license plate options to be set to YES. If selected, the field will control how often a quality order is created as the item is registered for inbound transactions. The first license plate will always create a quality order, then the value populated for this field will create additional quality orders as the nth license plate is registered. For example: when the field is selected and populated with a value of 3, the first registration transaction will generate a quality order, the second and third registrations will generate put-away work only and the fourth registration will generate a quality order, thus beginning the creation of a quality order every 3rd license plate.
Once Barb sets up the Item Sampling, she turns to the Quality Associations. Again, she sees a new option in the Conditions FastTab area of D365 too!
Applicable Warehouse Type
Quality management for warehouse processes only – With this selection, the reference type must be either Production or Purchase. When applying this type to Purchase references, the registration option must be set in the Event Type field, as this is the only supported event when combining Purchase transactions and Quality management for warehouse processes only. Special note from Microsoft:
“When receipt registration is done in the web client (by using the small registration page or the item arrival journal for purchase order lines), no quality item sampling work or purchase order work will be created, regardless of the setup. Instead, for items that match a quality association, the referenced item sampling will be used to control the creation of quality orders only.”
All – This selection essentially turns off the Quality management for warehouse processes feature and applies to all reference types except purchase and production.
As a special note, the Quality management for warehouse processes feature only applies it the source document uses advanced warehouse management processes, and the option is enabled in the Warehouse Management setup. The consultant also points out, Quality Associations can be created for both the All and Quality management for warehouse processes only to ensure all transactions are covered, however if Barb chooses different Test Group options for both Quality Associations, two quality order will be created.
Armed with this new information, Barb is excited to create the new Item Sampling and Quality associations that align more with the business needs. She knows to use the newer Item Sampling and Quality Association options to allow the automatic creation of less quality orders, but still maintain the level of quality expected by the company and its customers. Barb ensures the registration event type is selected for her purchased quality association too, and she’s happy for the automatic work transactions, setup by the warehouse manager, that occur to eliminate the need to manually transfer inventory from the inspection locations after the quality order transactions are complete.
Please check out our other blogs related to Dynamics 365 Quality management!