The Warehouse Pick Assignment feature allows you to estimate warehouse picks and see them with Graphical Scheduler. You can configure pick estimates either manually or automatically, depending on whether the customer already knows average pick times.

Limitations

The following are limitations of the Warehouse Pick Assignment feature:

• Internal picks and inventory picks are not supported in this feature.
• Warehouse Employee Setup is a prerequisite to using this feature:
  • You cannot assign to a warehouse employee at a different location than on the pick.
  • If no warehouse employees are defined or a pick is unassigned, picks show up against special ‘Unassigned’ Capacity No.
• The calculation considers only data from picks that were fully registered after the 1.7 update was installed.
• The event to allow for opening of the Pick Card (and similar for other documents) was only introduced in Business Central 16 / 17; prior to that, the list page opened instead.

Configure Pick Estimates

The Warehouse Pick Assignment feature allows supervisors to assign warehouse picks to warehouse employees.

Configure pick estimates either manually or automatically, depending on whether the customer already knows average pick times. Configure pick estimates by completing the following:

1. Navigate to the Pick Assignments page and select Configure Pick Estimates.
2. Create rules for pick times as needed:
   • Type
     • Company Wide
     • Item
     • Bin
     • Location
     • Warehouse Employee (employee’s pick time may vary based on physical limitations)
     • Special Equipment code (e.g., a forklift code).
     • Item Category
   • No.
   • Minimum Time Per Task
   • Average Time Per Unit

Configure Pick Estimates Example

For each pick line, Graphical Scheduler evaluates every applicable estimate rule and uses the longest calculated duration. For each rule, the calculated duration is the greater of the Minimum Time Per Task or Average Time Per Unit multiplied by the outstanding quantity in the item’s base unit of measure. The estimated duration of the warehouse pick is the sum of the estimated durations of its pick lines

You have the following three rules:

1. A companywide rule of a minimum of 1 minute 30 seconds per pick.
2. A per item rule for a bicycle 1000 of minimum 1 minute minimum and 45 seconds per unit.
3. A per bin rule for bin ‘A-1-1’ as 30 seconds minimum and 1 minute per unit.

You have a pick that picks:

• 3 bicycles from A-1-1
• 3 bicycles from B-2-2
• 3 hats from A-1-1
• 3 hats from B-2-2
• 20 hats from B-2-2

The system estimates the following for the pick:

• 3 minutes for the first line of 3 bicycles from A-1-1   (because the rule about the bin would be the item would be the biggest, 3 * 1 minute = 3 minutes).
• 2 minutes and 15 seconds for the second  line of 3 bicycles from B-2-2 ( because the rule per item would be the biggest 3 * 45 seconds = 2 minutes 15 seconds )
• 3 minutes for the third line of 3 hats from A-1-1 (the bin rule would apply, 3 * 1 minute = 3 minutes)
• 1 minute 30 seconds for the fourth line of 3 hats from B-2-2 ( the company wide rule would apply for a minimum of 1 minute 30 seconds per pick).
• 1 minute 30 seconds for the fifth line of 20 hats from B-2-2 ( the company wide rule would apply for a minimum of 1 minute 30 seconds per pick).

That overall pick is estimated at 11 minutes and 15 seconds.

Drag and drop the picks around and across different warehouse employees to create a pick plan, or re-assign picks as needed.

If the company already knows average pick times based on bin location, or item, or employee, or even across the board, fill in that data.

Update Picks

When picks are first created or have their assignment altered, their estimated time is re-calculated. You can re-calculate estimated pick times using Update Picks.

The actual start time is set on the pick line the first time that the Quantity to Handle changes on that warehouse pick line.

Update Picks Example

If you’re using Warehouse Insight or WMS Express and it alters Quantity to Handle, Update Picks uses that time.

If the actual start time is unknown, Update Picks assumes that the printing date and time are the start of the pick if set; if not set, Update Picks assumes the assignment date and time are the start of the pick.

The actual end time is set on the pick line when the quantity outstanding reaches 0. If that does not happen, it is the timestamp that the pick was registered (to handle the scenario of multiple registrations per pick).

Update Picks creates estimates per:

• Item
• Bin
• Assigned user
• Special equipment.
• Location
• Company wide

Create Recommendations

When using Create Recommendations, review the estimated picks. The estimates assume specific processes (e.g., if you use Warehouse Insight or WMS express to process your picks, the estimates are more accurate; if you are doing picks manually, they are going to include all of the back office overhead time as well ).

1. Select Create Recommendations to create the recommendations.

Updating Existing Picks vs. Creating Recommendations

The Update Picks and Create Recommendations actions serve different purposes. Update Picks recalculates the estimated duration of existing warehouse picks using the pick estimate rules currently configured. Use this after changing estimate rules when you want existing open picks to reflect the new calculations.

Create Recommendations works in the opposite direction. It analyzes historical registered picks that contain actual start and end times and creates calculated estimate rules based on the observed picking activity. This can help establish realistic estimates using actual warehouse performance.

User-Entered and Calculated Estimates

Each pick estimate has a State that identifies whether it was entered manually or calculated from historical data. User-entered estimates can be maintained manually and are protected when recommendations are generated.

When you run Create Recommendations, you can choose how existing user-entered estimates are handled. You can Replace matching user-entered estimates, Skip them, or Prompt before replacing each one. By default, manually configured estimates are skipped so that historical calculations do not overwrite deliberate configuration.

How Pick Time Is Calculated

For each pick line, Graphical Scheduler evaluates all applicable estimate rules. Rules can be configured for the company, location, warehouse employee, bin, item, item category, and special equipment.

For each matching rule, the estimated duration is the greater of the Minimum Time or the Average Time multiplied by the outstanding quantity. If several rules apply to the same pick line, Graphical Scheduler uses the rule that produces the longest estimated duration. Matching rules are not added together.

The estimated duration of the warehouse pick is then based on the estimated durations of its individual pick lines.

Quantities and Units of Measure

Average pick time calculations use the outstanding quantity in the item’s base unit of measure. This is important when warehouse picks use alternate units of measure because the quantity displayed on the warehouse document may differ from the base quantity used to calculate the estimated duration.

When Pick Estimates Are Recalculated

Graphical Scheduler recalculates estimated pick times as warehouse picks and their lines are updated. Changes such as assigning a warehouse employee or changing quantities can therefore update the estimated duration automatically.

The Update Picks action is useful when you have changed the pick estimate configuration and want to recalculate existing open picks in bulk using the new rules.

What Scheduling a Pick Changes

The Pick Assignments page uses the warehouse pick’s Assigned User ID to determine which warehouse employee the pick is assigned to. Moving a pick in the scheduler can also update its planned start time.

The scheduler uses the pick’s planned start time together with its estimated duration to display the work on the schedule. This means that assigning and moving picks in the scheduler updates scheduling information in Business Central rather than only changing the graphical display.

Using the Unassigned Row

Warehouse picks that do not have an assigned warehouse employee appear in the Unassigned row. You can drag an unassigned pick to a warehouse employee to assign it.

You can also drag an assigned pick back to Unassigned to remove the warehouse employee assignment.

How Warehouse Employees Are Displayed

The Pick Assignments page builds its employee list from the Warehouse Employees configured in Business Central. If the same user has Warehouse Employee records for multiple locations, that user is shown once in the scheduler rather than once for each location.

When available, Graphical Scheduler displays the employee’s full name from the related Business Central user. Otherwise, it displays the user name or User ID.

Creating Recommendations from Historical Pick Data

The Create Recommendations action can analyze registered warehouse picks and create estimated picking times for several types of criteria, including Item, Item Category, Bin, Warehouse Employee, Location, Special Equipment, and Company Wide estimates.

The recommendation report can also be filtered so that you analyze only relevant historical activity. For example, you can filter by warehouse employee, assignment or registering date, item, bin, location, special equipment, or due date.

Only registered pick lines that contain usable actual start and end times are included in the analysis. This means that historical picks created before Graphical Scheduler began recording these times may not provide enough information to generate recommendations.