In standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management, the selection of shipping carriers is not validated against the storage conditions required by the items being shipped. This may lead to the selection of carriers that are not suitable for transporting products requiring specific environmental conditions (for example temperature-controlled shipments).
Life Sciences Supply Chain Management introduces the possibility to assign storage conditions to shipping carriers and delivery modes, and to validate that the selected carrier is compatible with the storage requirements of the items during sales and transfer order processing.
Depending on the configuration, the system can either allow the selection, display a warning, or block the transaction when an unsuitable carrier is selected.
Configuration
Before using this functionality, storage conditions must be defined and approved, and items must have an active storage condition assigned.
Storage conditions are assigned to shipping carriers at carrier service level. To configure this, open the Shipping carriers form (Transportation management > Setup > Carriers > Shipping carriers), select the relevant carrier, and in the Services FastTab assign a value in the Storage condition field for each carrier service. Only approved storage conditions can be selected.
The same storage condition is also visible and can be maintained in the Modes of delivery form (Sales and marketing > Setup > Distribution > Modes of delivery). When a mode of delivery is linked to a carrier service, the value is automatically aligned between the two configurations.
In order to activate the validation logic, it is required to define the behavior at item level. This can be done either through the item check group or directly on the released product.
In the Item check groups form (Inventory management > Setup > Inventory > Item check groups), the field Approved shipping carrier check method determines how the system reacts when the selected carrier does not meet the storage requirements. The following options are available:
No check
Warning only
Not allowed
The value defined in the item check group is inherited by the released products assigned to that group. It can be overridden at item level in the Released product details form (Product information management > Products > Released products, Manage inventory FastTab).
Shipping carrier check
The validation is applied during sales and transfer order processing when a mode of delivery is selected, and items are added to the order.
When a user creates a sales order (Sales and marketing > Sales orders > All sales orders) or a transfer order (Inventory management > Outbound orders > Transfer orders), the mode of delivery can be specified in the order header.
When order lines are added, or when the mode of delivery is changed, the system checks whether the storage condition assigned to the mode of delivery is compatible with the storage condition of the items included in the order.
If the validation is enabled (‘Warning only’ or ‘Not allowed’), the system performs the check automatically.
If a mismatch is detected:
If Warning only, the system displays a warning message and allows the user to continue
If Not allowed, the system displays an error message and prevents the action
If No check is configured, no validation is performed and the process continues without any system message.
Validation logic
The system validates the compatibility between item storage conditions and carrier storage conditions by first comparing the storage condition identifiers.
If the identifiers are different, the system evaluates the individual storage condition parameters (for example, temperature range or humidity). The carrier is considered suitable only if its storage conditions satisfy the requirements defined for the item.
If at least one requirement of the item is not fulfilled by the carrier, the system generates a warning or an error depending on the configured validation method.
Considerations
The validation is performed only when a mode of delivery is defined on the order. If no mode of delivery is specified, no checks are executed.
In the case of sales orders, changes to the mode of delivery at the header level do not automatically update the existing order lines. Users must ensure that the selected mode of delivery is consistent for all lines.
The validation is performed based on the storage condition assigned to the item. Storage conditions at batch or sub-batch level are not considered.