Overpicking for production: when more is used than planned

Production needs 30 pieces, but the item comes on pallets of 100. It is natural to take the whole pallet to the line and put the rest back. For a long time you could not do this kind of overpick in BC. Now you can, to a certain extent. Here is what standard covers, what it does not cover, and how to post the extra consumption. It is written for the production planner and the warehouse manager.

What standard can do now

According to Microsoft Learn, you can pick more raw materials for a production order than the order originally requires. The feature is switched on per item: switch on Allow Whse. Overpick on the item card. The same field exists on the item template, so new items inherit the setting.

You can then change the quantity on the Take line in the warehouse pick for the production order. Microsoft states that the feature became generally available on 1 April 2025.

The limits

Read the small print. Learn writes that the feature only applies to warehouse picks for production orders. Inventory picks and warehouse movements are not supported, and neither are warehouse picks for other source documents. If you have a simple location with inventory picks, your experience is different from that of a company with warehouse picks.

How to handle the surplus

The surplus can be put back in stock. Microsoft points to the movement worksheet and the Get Bin Content action. The extra consumption is posted in one of two ways:

Increase the Quantity per field on the production order component, so that consumption matches what was used.
Enter the actual quantity directly in the consumption journal or the production journal. If the new quantity is less than or equal to the picked quantity, you can post the consumption.

What may still be missing

The idea on our list is about overpicking with tolerance rules and a log, that is, being allowed to pick up to a certain percentage more, for example, and being able to see who did it. Standard has not shown us such a tolerance, but we have not reviewed every setting. Check the item card and the manufacturing setup yourself.

The question is also whether what was picked but not consumed should go back to the warehouse immediately. Agree a fixed routine, so that production does not leave leftovers by the line that the accounts do not know about.

Checklist

Which items may be overpicked? Switch the feature on item card by item card, or through a template.
Do you use warehouse picks for production? If not, the feature does not apply.
Who posts the extra consumption, and when?
How do you move leftovers back, and who checks them?

Example

Suppose a production order needs 30 pieces of a component, and the item is on a pallet of 100. If you switch on Allow Whse. Overpick on the item, the warehouse can change the Take line to 100 in the warehouse pick. Production uses 34. You can then raise the component's Quantity per so that consumption becomes 34, and move the remaining 66 back with the movement worksheet. Without the feature, the pick had to be held at 30, and the last four pieces had to be handled as a separate transaction.

How to test it

Create a test item with Allow Whse. Overpick switched on, and a production order with a single component. Create the warehouse pick, raise the quantity on the Take line, and register. Then try to post consumption with a larger quantity than the order, but no more than the picked quantity. Also try to go over the picked quantity, and see which error appears. Then you know where the limit lies before production runs into it.

The idea on our list

The idea Overpick has 196 votes at Microsoft. At Addverk we collect ideas for small apps that could close gaps like this. They are ideas we are considering, not something you can download or buy today. The list of 30 ideas is on the Coming up page, and you can see which of them look like what you are missing yourselves.