Greetings
Good day, I hope this message finds you all doing well. Before diving into the topic at hand, I would like to take a moment to apologize for my recent period of inactivity. The past few months have been quite intense, and I have been working hard to deliver my project. But now, I am back and ready to share my latest insights and updates with you. Thank you for your patience and continued support.
Prologue
I would like to share my recent project journey with you. Our team was tasked with customize Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations to work with a new Automated Storage & Retrieval System (ASRS) of our client and reconfiguring the warehouse process. Additionally, we were asked to develop an app to replace the Microsoft Warehouse Management app they were currently using.
This project was quite challenging, but also very exciting. I am thrilled to provide you with the overview of our project. Let’s delve into it together.
Before I dive into my recent project, I want to be upfront that some parts of this post contain paid sponsorships and marketing language.
As this project involves our clients’ intellectual property, as well as that of our company, I am unable to share every detail. However, I will provide as much information as possible while still maintaining confidentiality. This is why I stated this post as PoC. Thank you for understanding
Why Power Apps
As you may know, Microsoft provides a standard Warehouse Management app that seamlessly integrates with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations. However, despite this, our client required a new app for several reasons.
- It’s not customizable – the standard app is not customizable enough to meet our client’s specific needs. For instance, they were unable to request the running of F&O batch jobs, which was an essential requirement.
- It’s not suitable for ASRS – The standard app is not suitable for use with an Automated Storage & Retrieval System (ASRS). Our client needed to send outbound requests to the ASRS, instructing it to retrieve pallets from storage and deliver them to the desired gate. This process necessitated significant customization, which was not possible with the standard app.
Overall, the limitations of the standard Warehouse Management app made it impractical for our client’s unique business requirements, and a custom solution was deemed necessary.
How it’s work
Let’s take a closer look at our implementation and see how it works. The following picture illustrates the process flow
- Power Apps: Provides the user interface for warehouse workers. It informs them of their tasks and collects all necessary work-related information such as items, batches, and license plates.
- Power Automate: Handles HTTP requests since Power Apps cannot send them out via custom connector. This component accepts the requests from Power Apps and forwards them to Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.
- Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations: Serves as the backbone of our solution, handling all data and processing business logic as per our configuration.
- Warehouse Automation System: In this case, the ASRS is the robotic worker that can handle thousands of tons of pallets. It is an integral part of the solution.
What’s the challenge?
I agreed that the solutions above may appear to be basic at first glance, the real challenge lies in the details of the implementation. Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that each component requires careful planning and expertise to ensure that they are configured to work together seamlessly.
While every project comes with its unique set of challenges, I would like to focus on those that I encountered as a Power Platform developer.
Building a dynamic Power Apps
As a low-code application development tool, Power Apps is well-suited for pre-built screens and controls. However, the structure of the app is static and cannot be easily changed. Users must navigate through screens in a predetermined order, and the data displayed on each screen is fixed in position.
This approach is not suitable for Warehouse Management System (WMS) applications, where almost everything is configurable, and data display and screen navigation are entirely dynamic. Therefore, we cannot rely on static logic in our Power Apps solution.
Instead, we must allow Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations to determine all of the logic, such as what the next screen should be and what data the user needs to input. Power Apps only serves as the user interface, without any business logic.
Fortunately, Power Apps now has the necessary functions and features to accomplish this, with some assistance from Power Automate by using function like xml(), json(), ParseJSON() Gallery, Collection
Result
After months of close collaboration with our client and internal development team, we are pleased to announce that we have successfully developed a dynamic Power Apps solution that is fully suitable for warehouse workers while maintaining its configurable nature. The IT Admin can configure the work menu and work confirmation steps from Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, and these changes are instantly reflected in the Power Apps interface.
Moreover, the solution now enables workers to use Power Apps on their handheld devices to send inbound items to the ASRS storage or request outbound items from the ASRS with ease. This feature streamlines the process and improves efficiency for the workers.
App Screenshot
Once it allow from our client, we will happy to share you more detail, Stay tuned!
Hall of Fame
The success of this project would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions and support from the following parties.
- Client – the main sponsor who worked closely with us throughout the project.
- The ASRS Engineer team – who worked tirelessly to provide the necessary support to get the machines working as intended.
- Quick ERP – the consulting and Dynamics 365 development team who worked diligently to configure the system and perform some truly impressive coding feats.
While we are only able to name one party specifically, we extend our thanks to all those who played a vital role in the success of this project.
