Auto-release shipment for cross dock
Important
This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.
| Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
|---|---|---|
| End users by admins, makers, or analysts |  Jan 27, 2020 |
To be announced |
Feature details
The auto-release shipment feature builds on the cross-docking framework and has these characteristics:
- It supports only production orders as supply and only sales and transfer orders as demand.
- The cross-docking operation can be started even if the demand order wasn't released to the warehouse before the supply receipt was registered (that is, before the production was reported as finished).
This cross-docking functionality has two advantages:
- The warehouse operations can skip the step of putting away quantities of finished goods to the regular warehouse storage area if those quantities will just be picked up again to fulfill an outbound order. Instead, the quantities can be moved one time, from the output location to a packing/shipping location. In this way, the functionality helps minimize the number of times that stock is handled and, ultimately, helps maximize time and space savings on the warehouse shop floor.
- The warehouse operations can postpone the release of sales orders and transfer orders to the warehouse until the output of finished goods for the associated production order is reported as finished. This advantage might be especially relevant in make-to-order production environments where manufacturing lead times tend to be longer than the lead times in make-to-stock environments.