Creating Inventory Movement to production from the Production Order, using Simple Locations

In Business Central you can supply items to a production order using an inventory movement instead of an inventory pick when you work with simple locations. A simple location is one that does not require shipments or receipts.

An inventory movement moves items into the production order area without posting consumption. The movement only creates warehouse entries. It does not create item ledger entries. You post the actual consumption later from the production journal when the items are used.

To use this method, refresh the production order, create the inventory movement directly from the production order while deselecting Pick and selecting Movement, fill in the quantity to handle, and register the movement.

Using inventory movement instead of inventory pick for production orders

When you work with simple locations in Business Central, you have an alternative to the inventory pick for production orders. Instead of posting an inventory pick, you can create an inventory movement. This lets you move items into the production order area and then consume them from the production order separately.

A simple location in this context is a location that does not require shipments or receipts. That is what makes the inventory movement approach available.

Setting up the production order and creating the movement

In this example the production order is for item 1250, with a quantity of 3 pieces, on location code DISTRIBUTE. That location is a simple location.

The first step is to refresh the production order. After refreshing, you can create the inventory movement directly from the production order. When you create the activity, deselect Pick and select Movement instead. This creates an inventory movement activity, which you can then open from the menu.

How the inventory movement activity works

The inventory movement is a take and place activity. On the lines you can see the quantities, where to take the items from, and where to place them. You are posting a movement of the item rather than consumption.

On the activity you can change the quantity on the lines or the bin code you pick from. You need to fill in the quantity to handle if it is not already filled in. You can also use the Autofill Quantity to Handle function to fill in everything at once. Then you register the inventory movement.

What gets posted: warehouse entries versus item ledger entries

Registering the inventory movement posts warehouse entries from the warehouse into the production order. It does not post item ledger entries.

You can confirm this on the production order. If you navigate to the item ledger entries after registering the movement, nothing has been posted yet. If you navigate to the warehouse entries, you can see all the warehouse entries created by the movement.

Posting consumption from the production journal

With this strategy you first move the items into the production order. Then you post consumption later, from the production journal, when you are ready. This means the production staff can use the items as needed, or you can post consumption directly from the journal.

You also have flexibility on quantities. For example, if you only take one or two pieces to begin with for some reason, you can post consumption on those after making your movement. This gives you another way of working with production orders and supplying items to them, as an alternative to the standard pick for production order.

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