Many a Dynamics 365 SCM user and consultant stumbles in their daily work over field names that raise questions. One of these, for us, was the 'Catch…
Many a Dynamics 365 SCM user and consultant stumbles in their daily work over field names that raise questions. One of these, for us, was the 'Catch Weight Item' ('Artikelgewichtsartikel'). A field that crops up in many places throughout the system. What lies behind it is what we want to clarify here. An example is easy to set up and has already been used at a customer. This customer trades in food, including liver sausage. The liver sausages are purchased from the butcher by the piece or by the box, and are stored and sold by the piece. However, the goods do not have a unit price but a price per kilogram. A liver sausage does not have a fixed weight, and there is a tolerance. In this specific case, a liver sausage has to weigh between 600 and 700 grams. The following article explains how this requirement can be modelled in the standard system and integrated into the warehouse management (Advanced Warehouse) processes. Why declare an item as a Catch Weight Item Before we go into the settings and the procedure, we would like to explain what the advantages are. It was mentioned at the outset that the requirement can also be modelled with a normal item. To do this, the item simply needs an appropriate unit conversion. The unit of measure for purchase and sales orders is pieces, while it is stored in kilograms. Now 1 piece is ordered, which, after the unit conversion, is 650 grams. On put-away, a weight of 700 grams is recorded. Converted, this means that there are now 1.08 pieces in stock. If there are several such discrepancies, then at some point there will, in calculation terms, be more pieces in stock than there actually are. With our customer, this therefore repeatedly led to cases where the warehouse was empty but, according to Dynamics 365 SCM, goods were still available in stock. This shortfall would be written off via an inventory adjustment. The unfortunate thing is that this represents a loss, even though it is not one at all. Catch Weight Items prevent this