Intro

Short Picking in D365 Warehouse Management shouldn’t break your inventory accuracy. Right now, when a short pick defaults to the inventory UOM instead of the work UOM, it can silently create major stock and fulfillment issues. Let’s make short picks smarter — consistent, accurate, and configurable — so operators can focus on picking, not fixing data errors.

Problem

In D365 SCM, when a Released Product has an inventory unit of measure (UOM) of eaches, but sales transactions use a different UOM (e.g. a case of 1000 – CA/1000), short picking can create serious discrepancies.

When an operator performs a short pick in the Warehouse Management mobile app, the system defaults the short pick quantity to the inventory UOM instead of the UOM of the original work line. If the operator doesn’t manually switch to the correct UOM, inventory accuracy and order fulfillment integrity are both compromised.

Scenario:

1. Sales order picking work: 10 × CA/1000
2. Operator can only pick 4 × CA/1000
3. Short Pick initiated
4. Warehouse App prompts for the actual picked quantity
5. Operator enters “4” and confirms
6. System interprets “4” as 4 eaches instead of 4 cases of 1000, deducting only 4 eaches from inventory instead of 4000.

This leads to:

• Inaccurate available physical inventory
• Incorrect picking work for the order and item
• Incorrect work generation for future picks
• Misleading operational metrics

Even experienced operators can easily miss this under real warehouse conditions.

Proposed Solutions

Option 1: Default Short Pick to Work UOM

Automatically default the short pick entry to the same UOM as the original work line. This ensures consistency and aligns operator input with the work’s intended UOM.

Option 2: Parameterize Short Pick Behavior

Introduce a configurable parameter (e.g., in Warehouse Management > Setup > Parameters, or on the Unit Sequence Group) that allows each business to define the default UOM behavior for short picks:

• Default to the work line UOM (recommended default)
• Default to the inventory UOM (legacy behavior)

This approach provides flexibility while maintaining data integrity across operations.

This improvement addresses one of the most common, costly, and easily preventable operational errors in D365 Warehouse Management. Fixing it will directly enhance trust in the Warehouse App, improve data accuracy, and streamline picking performance.

Why This Matters at Scale

In high‑volume warehouse environments, Short Picks are a routine and expected part of daily operations — not an exception. Warehouses often process hundreds or thousands of picking work lines per shift, across multiple operators, locations, and unit configurations.

At scale, warehouse execution relies heavily on system defaults being correct, as operators are trained to move quickly and trust the mobile device workflow. Requiring operators to notice and manually correct a unit of measure during a Short Pick introduces unnecessary risk, especially when the picking work was originally created in a different UOM than the inventory UOM.

When this behavior occurs repeatedly across many orders:

• Inventory discrepancies accumulate gradually and are difficult to trace back to the root cause
• Available inventory becomes unreliable for planning, wave creation, and replenishment
• Subsequent picking work may be created in inconsistent units of measure, reducing predictability and efficiency
• Exception handling and inventory reconciliation efforts increase significantly

In automated or semi‑automated warehouses — where work is released in waves and execution is designed to be fast and repeatable — this issue does not scale well. It places a critical control point on the operator rather than the system, which is counter to the design goals of Advanced Warehouse Management.

Aligning Short Pick behavior with the original work UOM (or allowing it to be parameterized) would significantly reduce operational risk, improve inventory accuracy, and support reliable warehouse execution at scale.

Call to Action!

If your warehouse depends on accurate UOMs and efficient short picking, please vote to help Microsoft prioritize this fix. Every vote brings us closer to more reliable, operator-friendly warehouse execution in D365!