We create packages of products to sell and when the invoice/packing list/pick list is generated we need to have that information included in those documents as they list the items in the package.
I have added the woocommerce suggested code to have the product variation descriptions added to the woocommerce emails and that works as it should they appear in the proper location they just do not appear in the PIP invoices
This is the code that I added to functions.php in the theme
//ADD VARIATION DESCRIPTION TO EMAILS

addfilter( 'woocommerceorderitemname', 'displayproducttitleaslink', 10, 2 );
function displayproducttitleaslink( $item_name, $item ) {

$product = getproduct( $item['variationid'] ? $item['variationid'] : $item['product_id'] );

$link = getpermalink( $product->id );

$vardescription ='';

if ( $item['variationid'] ) {
$vardescription = $product->getvariationdescription();
}

return ''. $itemname .''. $var_description ;
}