Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management Detours Feature Deep Dive
This article covers the possibilities when working with the Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management Detours Feature.
The Dynamics 365 Warehouse Management (D365 WMS) application provides an excellent user interface to process inventory transactions. Historically in D365 WMS, if a user was limited to working in one menu item at a time. For example, if I am counting a large location, and am midway through the count, I need to finish the count prior to performing any other transaction, lest I lose my progress in the count and must recount the entire location!
Beginning with D365 version 10.0.23, a new feature was announced to allow warehouse workers to temporarily pause one application, jump into another application to perform a transaction, and then jump back to the original application and pick up where they left off. This is the warehouse app detours feature.
To use the warehouse app detours feature, the following features must be enabled: Warehouse app step instructions & Warehouse management app detours.
How to Set Up a Warehouse App Detour
- Start by navigating to Warehouse management > Setup > Mobile device > Mobile device steps
- Identify the field where you want to insert the detour. In my case, I’ll create a detour from the spot counting application and want to detour when I enter the item field.
- Configure the step configuration to select the desired menu item, in my case Spot counting, then press OK.
- Under the available detours section, press Add and select the menu item that you would like to perform when “jumping” outside of the counting menu. I’m going to set up the system to jump over to perform a location inquiry.
- We can also set up fields to send to the detour. This is very useful so you don’t have to scan the location again or perform duplicate data entry. In this scenario, I am sending the location field over to the location inquiry menu since I’ve already scanned that location in the spot counting menu.
- Now let’s test out the functionality. From the warehouse mobile device, I’ll open up the spot-counting menu item and start by scanning the location. In the item field, notice there is a new button on the form – location inquiry. That’s my detour. Let’s press it.
- I am teleported directly into the location inquiry menu item. How neat! Notice the location is already populated as well so all I need to do is press the OK button.
- Simply pressing the back button will teleport me back to the spot-counting menu item right where we left off.
Final Thoughts
There are quite a lot of possibilities when working with warehouse app detours. This saves time by not having to exit an application, navigate to another application, and then navigate back to your original application. Popular use cases for detours include performing an item or location inquiry while performing a receipt, pick, putaway, etc. This functionality is certainly not limited to just inquiries, but this seems to be the most common use case I’ve seen so far.
For help with this application, or if you have any questions regarding Dynamics 365, please reach out to our team. We’re happy to help.
