Dynamics 365 – A Few Quick Observations About Warehouse Work Templates

Work Templates in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations are a critical piece in the Warehouse Management process puzzle.  The templates are used to create “Work” to be completed for numerous processes to make creating the work templates simple.  The “Work” consists of at a minimum, one Pick/Put Pair of steps along with a Location Directive, that determines where the Put will be completed.  The “Work” can then be completed in the client user interface or on a Mobile Device (by creating Mobile Device Menu Items and Menus).

Work Templates are sequenced in the same way as Wave Templates.  The first template that matches to the data being processed will be selected and used to create the Work for that object (sales order, purchase order, etc.).  The Query on each Work Template contains the filters to be applied when determining which Work Template will be assigned to the object and what Work will be created.

The use of Work Templates enables the system to be able to estimate the amount of time required to execute the tasks.  Resources or groups of resources can be assigned to Work.   Thereafter progress against Work can be tracked using the client user interface.  All Work can be reviewed or Work can be reviewed by type.  Issues with Work Creation are documented in the Work Creation History Log.  Exceptions that occur during work execution are available in the Work Exceptions Log.  Work Templates can be copied and used to create new Work Templates to expedite setup.

Work Templates are grouped into various categories of work, called work order types:

• Sales Orders
• Purchase Orders
• Finished Good Put Away
• Co-Product/By-Product Put Away
• Inventory Movements
• Inventory Transfers
• Cycle Counting
• Replenishments
• Returns
• Kanban movements
• Raw Material Picking
• Packed Container Picking

Work Classes and Location Directives must be created before Work Templates can be created.

Work Templates

The Work Template creation commences by navigating to the Warehouse Management > Setup > Work > Work Templates.

Select the Work Order Type to be created from the drop down.

Once again, the sequence of the Work Templates is critical in the determination of how the Work Templates are selected.

The second most important factor is to ensure the newly created Work Template is Valid and a checkmark appears in the “Valid” column.

Each Work Template will have a Name that indicates the criteria of the template for ease of use and identification.  The criteria of the template is set by clicking on the Edit Query, which includes any table joins required to get to the data, as well as any sorting requirements.

The Work Priority can be used to prioritize specific work over other work by assigning a higher priority to those templates.

Specific Work Templates can also be predetermined to be assigned to a group of workers by entering a Work Pool ID to the template.

The meat of the Work Template is the Work Template Details which must contain a Pick and Put Pair.  Mark the steps that have to be performed and cannot be skipped as Mandatory.

If work can be paused and resumed by another worker as a distinct process, use the Stop indicator.

Enter the Directive code which will determine where the product will need to go, and how the warehouse worker will be directed or instructed.

As Work is being created following the templates put in place, work can be broken into multiple work items based on the Work Breaks defined for the template.  In the following example, the work will break when there is a replenishment needed, and on Shipment ID, creating multiple work headers.

Note:  In order to break, the Query must include Sorting for the fields identified in the Work:

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