Cycle Counts in Dynamics 365 – It All Starts With Accurate Inventory (Part 2 of 3)
My former boss used to say “If the inventory is not right nothing else matters.” In the warehouse, if you can’t count on items being where you expect them, then you have set up the rest of the process to break down.
Ongoing inventory cycle counting is an invaluable tool to keep your inventory accurate. Using Guided Cycle Counts in the Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations mobile device you can tell your team exactly what you want to be counted, allowing you to set up a regular counting process to keep your inventory at the accuracy level you need.
Dynamics 365 Warehousing App has multiple methods for creating scheduled cycle count work (See Part 1 of this series: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place… But Are You Sure? Cycle Counts in Dynamics 365). After selecting the method that works best for your operation, the work created can be completed on the mobile device using Guided Cycle Counts.
Guided Cycle Counts
Guided Cycle Counts works just as advertised. It will guide the assigned person through the warehouse from location to location to complete the counts set up in Work.
After selecting Cycle Count Guided, the mobile device takes you directly to the next location in the work that is open to be counted. The user should travel to the location and start the process by scanning the location listed on screen.
After scanning the location the mobile device will ask you for the pertinent details of the item in the location, Batch ID (if enabled), License Plate (if enabled) and of course quantity in the location.
Once you are complete with the Cycle Count work it will ask you if you would like to add another item – maybe one D365 did not know about.
Once finished with the initial location you will be directed to the next one.
When you are totally done and there is nothing else to count a message appears that Work is Completed!
Why? – Wonder no more – Reason Codes for Cycle Counting
Just released in the Spring Release of 2018 (Release 8.0) – No more reading the minds of your workers! How many times are you reviewing the cycle counts that were completed and you cannot figure out what happened. You can add a reason code for the workers to select while doing the Cycle Counting. Go to Inventory Management – Setup – Inventory – Counting reason codes and set up the code and descriptions.
Once you have set up the reasons you can determine what the policy is to use them. Are they mandatory for every count or not. Go to Cycle Count Reason Code Policies to add the policies for your business. They can be either Mandatory or Optional.
On the mobile device, a default reason code can be set and you can elect to display the reason code or hide it from the users as they are counting or edit the default reason or not. Flexibility is the name of the game. To set this up go to Warehouse – Setup – Mobile Device – Mobile Device Menu Items. Select the Menu item for Cycle Count and click on Cycle Count in the top ribbon.
Having a regular Cycle Count program will allow you to be more efficient in many other areas of your Operations. Investing time on your inventory accuracy will save in the long run. Coming next week – The Ultimate Multi-Tasking- Cycle Counting in Dynamics 365.
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