Warehouse Activity Plan - WAP

Purpose of this document

The Warehouse Activity Plan (WAP) evaluates the demand for inventory associated with released agency orders and suggests inventory movement to fulfill that demand. After the WAP determines demand for inventory, it generates entries into a Movement Worksheet to replenish picking bins so sufficient product exists in the picking bins when orders are fulfilled. The WAP has been created to make pulling inventory products more efficient by eliminating the need to drop products during the picking process.

Ceres Object release 6.00.00 is required for the functionality described in this document.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Setting up the WAP Template
• Running the Warehouse Activity Plan
• Clearing and Deleting the WAP

Setting up the WAP Template

With the WAP, the program finds the most appropriate bin for your items at any given time according to the WAP template that you have set up. The WAP will factor in the template setup and consider location, zone, bin rankings, bin class, and maximum pallet quantities in recommending inventory movements. You can set up a number of WAP Templates, but each location may only have one active template. The Location Overview has some more information about options to allow the food bank to manually select a destination Bin and not recommend one via the WAP template logic.

1. The WAP Template can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “WAP Template” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “WAP Template” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “WAP Template” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. The WAP Template List displays.

3. To create a new template, New.

4. Update the fields, as necessary.

Code: Enter a code that is the unique identifier of the template you are about to create.

Description: Enter a short description to describe the template.

5. Fill in the first line on the Put-Away Template Subform with the bin requirements that you want Ceres to fulfill, first and foremost, when it suggests a product drop.

6. When establishing a line in the WAP Template the following must be observed:

7. Criteria of the fields on the WAP Template include:

Empty Bin: A bin without quantity or contains a quantity that is less than the “Consider Pallet Empty %” field on the Bin Policy of the current Location (Location Setup, Bin Policy).

Not Full w/Same Item: A bin may have a capacity of multiple pallets (Max Pallets on the bin record). If the bin supports multiple pallets, then pallet(s) containing the same Item may be dropped into that bin until the Max Pallet value is reached.

By Row No.: Each Bin has an option Row No. field. If the WAP Template line has the By Row No. field checked then the process will drop product into the same row in conjunction with the Option 1 selection.

By Bin Ranking: Each Bin has a Bin Ranking value that can be established. If chosen in the WAP Template, the WAP will suggest dropping product into the highest to lowest bin ranking in conjunction with Option 1.

Fixed Bin: The fixed Bin is identified on the Bin Content table. Once a bin has been designated as the fixed bin for this item, the WAP will suggest dropping product to that bin if specified in the WAP template.

Last-Used Pick Bin: The WAP will suggest dropping product into the Bin that was last used to pick product if this option is selected.

Same Zone: Each bin is associated with a Zone. If this option is selected the WAP template, then product drop suggestions will be to the same zone. This option could be used to restrict dropping food products into a non-food or chemical zone.

Same Bin Class: Each Bin can be assigned a Bin Class. Assigning bin classes such as Heavy, Medium, and Light would allow you to segregate your inventory items by weight for picking efficiency and then the WAP would suggest dropping products from the same bin class.

8. Fill in the second line with the bin requirements that would be your second choice for the program to fulfill in finding a bin for product drop. Ceres will refer to this second line only if it cannot find a bin that meets the requirements of the first line. Each line in the WAP must be a unique combination of fields. Otherwise, an error will be generated stating that combination already exists.

9. Continue to fill in the lines until you have described all the acceptable bin placements that you want the program to use in the product drop process.

10. You can create various WAP templates and then apply them as you see fit. Ceres will only refer to the WAP template that you select on Warehouse FastTab on the Location Card.

11. Other fields on the Warehouse FastTab of the Location Card that impact how the WAP is processed are Existing WAP Deletion Method and Palletized Items Only (WAP). A description of the fields is as follows:

Existing WAP Deletion Method: This setting provides options for how Ceres should handle existing WAP lines when the Create WAP process is run subsequently. Choose from the following options:

Delete Existing WAP Lines – With this option Ceres will clear existing WAP lines prior to suggesting new movements.

Keep Existing WAP Lines if Picks Exist – With this option Ceres will clear existing WAP lines prior to suggesting new movements only if the existing WAP line does not have an associated pick document. If the WAP line has a related pick document, the WAP line will not be deleted.

Keep all Existing WAP Lines – With this option Ceres will not clear existing WAP lines regardless of whether a related pick document exists or not.

Palletized Items Only (WAP): Toggle this field on to only include palletized items in the WAP suggestions.

Running the Warehouse Activity Plan

Once you have completed the WAP template and assigned a WAP template on the Warehouse Fast Tab of the Location Card, you are ready to start processing the WAP via a Movement Worksheet.

Note: Agency Orders that are included in the WAP process are locked and will not allow updates until the WAP movements are posted. Therefore, it is important that the WAP be registered (posted) or cleared. If you decide not to register WAP, you should clear the WAP using the process described in this document “Clearing the WAP”.

1. The WAP can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Movement Worksheets” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Movement Worksheets” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Movement Worksheets” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. Prior to processing the Warehouse Activity Plan, all Agency Orders that are to be included in the WAP process must be “Released”. Only Released Agency Orders will be included in WAP processing.
3. Select Movement Worksheet and then select the desired WAP Template that is associated with a location.

4. To create the WAP, click Process à Create WAP.

5. If necessary, filter to restrict the Agency Orders that will be included in the WAP, such as Shipment Date.
6. Once you have provided the desired filters (Shipment Date, Shipment Method, Order Handling Group, etc.), click the OK button and the WAP will process the associated Orders and suggest dropping product to fulfill Agency demand.

7. When the WAP has completed processing, the Movement Worksheet will be populated with suggested product movement.

8. The WAP determines product demand and then processes bin replenishment on a pallet-by-pallet basis according to the WAP template. The WAP will only suggest dropping products into bins that have been designated as a pick bin, unless Sug. Full Pallet from Put-away field is checked on the Warehouse FastTab of the Location Card. Therefore, if the WAP determines that two pallets of an item will be required to fulfill demand then the process will select the first pallet and run through the WAP Template.

If you have selected Empty Bin, By Row, and Same Bin Class as the first row in the WAP template, then the process will put the first pallet needed into a bin that meets the criteria. As a result, the WAP will drop a pallet from a put-away bin into an empty pick bin that is in the same row and has the same bin class.

Once the first pallet location has been suggested, the second pallet would be processed independently. Since the first pallet has been moved into an empty pick bin on the same row and bin class, that bin is no longer empty and will not be selected as an empty bin for the second pallet even if the bin allows multiple pallets.

For the second pallet to be suggested into the same bin as the first, there would have to be no other empty bins on the same row with the same bin class. The processing of the second pallet will not find any bins that meet the criteria of the first row in the WAP template and will move to the second row of the WAP Template.

The bin that was suggested for the first pallet would now meet the criteria of the second row in our WAP template (Not Full w/Same Item, By Row No., Same Bin Class) and the process would suggest dropping pallet two in the same bin as the first pallet. Each Item’s demand would be processed a pallet at a time until the WAP is completed.

9. After the Movement Worksheet is populated, you will want to print the WAP Movement Worksheet from Actions à Print à Worksheet and give it the appropriate Warehouse staff to complete the product movement.

Note: That several Sorting Method options are available on the Movement Worksheet. The Sorting Method selected here will also be used when printing the WAP Movement Worksheet report. Depending upon your desired scanning preference you can select to print the Barcode for the Item or the Pallet on the WAP Movement Worksheet report. If you are not using a handheld scanner the Item/pallet Barcode can be omitted by selecting the blank option.

Below is an example of the Movement Worksheet:

10. All entries in the WAP Movement Worksheet are suggestions and may be changed prior to posting the worksheet. Fields have been provided on the printed report to allow warehouse staff to substitute pallets or adjust quantities to drop.

WAP Movement Worksheets work in conjunction with the Automated Data Capture System (handheld scanners) and can be processed via functions on the handheld menu. Please refer to Warehouse ADCS Scanners documentation for information on automating the WAP via the handheld scanners.

11. Once the product drop has occurred, the WAP Movement Worksheet must be registered (posted). Registering the product movements will complete the Bin-to-Bin movements and complete the process so that order fulfillment can be completed. To register the WAP, click Actions à Register Movements.

Note: Refer to the Warehouse Activity Plan and Default Picking Bin for additional information on processing the WAP.

Clearing and Deleting the WAP

1. If you find it necessary to delete a single or several lines in the WAP, click on the three vertical dots on the line and select Delete Line. A dialog box will appear asking you if you want to delete the selected line or lines. Select Yes to delete the lines, and No to cancel the request.

2. To clear all WAP lines click Actions à Create à Clear WAP Lines.

3. Once the WAP lines have been cleared or deleted, all associated lines on the Agency Order are un-linked and may be modified until the WAP is rerun.