Assembly work creates a specific kind of frustration in the warehouse. Your team is on the floor, working through an order, and the process stalls, not because of a physical problem, but because the software expects a step that doesn’t match how your operation is set up. Someone has to walk back to a workstation, make a manual entry, or wait for another process to complete before they can move forward. The work stops, and the floor pays for it.
If your operation runs on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you know that assembly is handled differently depending on your location configuration, whether picks are required, and how your item tracking is set up. Warehouse Insight is a warehouse management system built for Business Central that extends those workflows to handheld devices by putting receiving, picking, counting, assembly, and output in the hands of your floor staff. But assembly, in particular, has edge cases that can break the flow if the software isn’t equipped to handle them.
Here are the specific scenarios worth knowing about.
When your location doesn’t require picks
Some warehouse configurations don’t use picks during the assembly process. In standard Business Central, this is a legitimate setup, but it can create problems on the device if the software assumes picks are always part of the flow. Assembly output in Warehouse Insight completes correctly at locations that don’t require picks, even when consumption is configured as pick mandatory. The order posts, the output records, and the worker moves on.
Recording consumption independently of picks
In operations where picks and consumption don’t happen in lockstep, your team needs the flexibility to record consumption separately. Warehouse Insight supports recording assembly consumption independently of warehouse picks, consistent with how other areas of the application handle this. Workers aren’t forced into a sequence that doesn’t match the physical reality of your floor.
Capturing item tracking during assembly output — on the device
Item tracking during assembly output has traditionally required follow-up work away from the device. Warehouse Insight enables warehouse staff to record item-tracking details directly on the device during the assembly output process. Lot and serial information are captured at the moment of output, where they belong, rather than entered after the fact from a workstation.
Printing labels without leaving the device
Once output is complete, your team often needs a label. Warehouse Insight supports printing item labels directly from the device’s assembly output. There is no need to return to a desk, open Business Central in a browser, and trigger a separate print job. The label prints as part of the output step.
Mixed item tracking configurations
Some operations track items differently at the warehouse level versus on outbound documents — lot-tracked in the warehouse, serial-tracked on the way out, for example. These mixed tracking configurations are fully supported in Warehouse Insight, so workers aren’t blocked by a tracking mismatch mid-process.
Assembly work should flow from consumption through output without your team having to compensate for gaps between the software and your warehouse setup. These capabilities in Warehouse Insight are there to close those gaps.
To learn more, visit WMSforDynamics.com or talk to your Business Central partner.