Location Directives 101 Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Warehouse Management

Dan McAllister

July 2, 2014
9:42 am
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Read Time: 35 minutes

Location Directives 101 Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Warehouse Management

Location directives are new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3’s Warehouse Management functionality. They are used any time the system must decide where to pick or put inventory. This includes purchase order receiving, production order processing, sales order picking, and many other WMS system processes. This key setup for the new WMS functionality can be found in the Warehouse Management module under Setup -> Location directives. This is fully integrated with the new WMS Mobile Device.

The Location directives screen consists of three sections:

Location directives – This is a sequential list used by the system against which you set a query (warehouse number, customer, etc.). The system will look at the queries in order, and once it finds one that fits it will refer to the Lines and related Location Directive Actions below. Some work order types, such as Raw material picking for production orders, require that pick/put pairs be used to know where to pick from and put to. Others such as Purchase orders, assume that the picking location is an inbound shipment and only require a put Location directive.

Lines – Each line item in the Location directives has associated lines that are the next step in the query. These lines give you the ability to distinguish between bulk and non-bulk receipts using quantities or unit restrictions. Here, for example, you can create a line that looks to identify specifically pallet receipts and put them away in bulk locations. You would do this by first checking the ‘Restrict by unit’ box and then for that line selecting the ‘Restrict by unit’ screen and setting Pallet as your restriction. Similar to the above Location directives, the lines are sequentially chosen by the system based on the Sequence number.

Location Directive Actions – Each line for each location directive must have one or more location directive actions. This determines where to pick from or put to, depending on the directive. If you are receiving goods into your warehouse and you want the system to use fixed locations, consolidate goods, or look for empty locations this is where you can make that determination. As with the rest of this form these actions are sequential; an example might be to attempt to put an item to a fixed location in line 1, consolidate if no fixed locations are available in line 2, and put to an open location in line 3 if neither of the first two conditions are true.

When you launch the Location directives window you will default to Work order type: Sales orders. Choose from the dropdown in the top left other work order types that require location directives.

Location directives are instrumental to Work and Wave templates being properly configured. They are compatible with all WMS mobile device menu items. Stay tuned for future blog posts for more information on how to configure this in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3.

Location Directives 101 Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Warehouse Management

Dan McAllister

Location Directives 101 Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Warehouse Management

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