Masterdata Location

General

The best way to import your location into Business Central is to use the import master data functionality.

Buildings

By naming different buildings during implementation, you can separate different warehouses or halls. This is recommended when both sites can operate separately from each other. A scan user is able to login into different buildings. The benefit is that the scan user sees only the inbounds and outbounds from his building. It can also be a disadvantage if the scan user has to do work for both buildings at the same time. So carefully check whether to use different buildings. Each building has there own standard in/outbound locations.

Location

When importing locations, you must take into account a certain hierarchy. For example, your locations belong to a certain aisle, this aisle belongs to a certain warehouse and this warehouse belongs to a certain building code.

After importing the locations, you always use the update view function. This will allow the system to calculate the path of the locations. If the locations are imported correctly, each location has a path. As you can see in the screenshot, location 01A01 belongs to CEL1A. CEL1A again belongs to CEL1. CEL1 again belongs to EDE. Therefore, EDE is the parent location of CEL1, EDE is filled in the parent location no. field on the location card of CEL1. This is how the location structure/hierarchy work.

Zones

The role of a location is determined by the zones and the field in the Warehouse tab on the location card. You can create zones yourself if you search for the Zone list. The Boolean values indicate for which the location is available.

You can then assign these zones to the locations on the location map. You assign a type for the zone you are creating. This can be a Bulk zone Type or a Pick zone Type. When you make it a Pick zone type, this means that the location is a Pick location (default pick location or dynamic pick location). If this is a Dynamic pick location you will have to enter the parent dynamic pick location in the field Dynamic Pick Location No.

Location types

Enter a location type on the location card. This is a type or grouping of locations. In the example below you can see that each location with a different height has been given a different location type code in which the sizes have been entered.

The Calculation Capacity checkmark indicates that you want the location capacity to be calculated for the locations with this location type code. After each transaction, the location capacity is recalculated so that it is always up-to-date. For example, if you have a location type code where you can store multiple carriers, then you want to know the capacity of these locations and how many carriers of which Handling Unit Type you can still store. Therefore, make sure the master date of the Handling Unit Types is correct. If this is correct, you can perform the calculation through the Carrier Put-away Method. With this calculation, the system can calculate the capacity of locations. Below is an example of what this calculation looks like for location type code B-250M. This location type code can hold about twice as many carriers as the other location types because these locations are a lot deeper, check the screenshot above. You can always check the location capacity of any location by clicking on Location Capacity in de Location List.

Restrictions

When specifying the location types you can set restrictions for the location types. For example, in this warehouse height is very important. Therefore, the restriction is active where the system needs to take the height into account. So when the height of a carrier is 180cm, it cannot be stored on a location with location type B-160M because it has an 18-MAXHEIGHT restriction and a height of 160 cm. In the table filter you can set a filter when the restriction applies or when not, the same goes for the Criteria Function Set. Besides, you also set when this restriction applies in the Transfer Direction. You can therefore set the restriction to be active when you move a carrier TO this location or FROM this location. In addition, there are many more different restrictions that you can set, for example, the maximum weight or that there can be a maximum of one customer item on this location.

Restrictions specifications

Within the restriction specifications, you can define which values are explicitly allowed or disallowed for a specific location type.

For instance:

• You can configure that items with a dangerous goods code are not permitted at a certain location type.
• You can require a specific unit of measure for a location type.
• You can mandate or exclude specific customers at the location type level.
• Many more options available.

Refer to the two screenshots below for guidance on how to configure these settings.
This setup is an additional layer on top of the standard restrictions.

Standard picklocations

To set up standard pick locations, please refer to the customer items. There you can set which location the article should be picked at. The field Location should be filled in with de checkmark 'default' on.

Dynapick

If you do not have a default pick location for an item but are allowed to replenish dynamically, you have to check the box dynamic on the item card. It is important to create a location DYNAMIC. You can link that in the zone list to a pick zone as described above. In the field location you should enter the DYNAMIC location.

Location Groups

General

A location group is used to link multiple locations to each other. With this grouping it is possible to set restrictions to the whole group in stead of only for 1 specific location. A restriction will prevent to put the wrong stock on your location and is taken in account by the warehouse strategies when a proposed location is calculated. The most used functionality is to work with 1 handling unit type group per rack. This is used when you have sprinklers in the warehouse that should be possible to let the water drop from the top to the bottom without having pallets with different sizes under each other.

Add location to group

To add a location to a group you click on [Location] and then [Grouping].

The system will show to which location groups the location is linked. This will be empty by default. To add this location to a group, click on [+New] and select the location group. If the location group does not exist yet, click on [+New] to create a new location group.

If the location group already exists, select or type the group in field “Location Group Value”.

Location Group Restrictions

When a restriction based on the location group is needed, then open the Location Type Overview and select the line for the location type that is related to the location. Click on [Restriction].

Click on the field “Codeunit ID” to select the restriction function. Select function 26 to check (and suggest) only 1 handling unit type per location group.

After this restriction is set on the location type it will be activated for all locations with that location type.