Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts within Shipping Execution

 

An Oracle White Paper
November 2004
Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts within Shipping Execution
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
Oracle Shipping Execution is dynamically designed to support the most
complicated shipping operations and flexibly designed to support the
most basic shipping operations. This versatility allows the user to match
their business operations with actual computer application processes. A
user can control business processing through setting up parameters and
scheduling concurrent programs. Additionally, the user interfaces can be
changed in terms of content and layout that makes sense for your
operations. This paper explains the key features and functions in Oracle
Shipping Execution that can be used as tips, tricks, and shortcuts to
automate the shipping process.
INTRODUCTION
Many steps in shipping operations are routine and repetitive. These
types of business scenarios provide a opportunity to streamline the
business process by allowing the computer application automatically
complete the steps. This paper will discuss setting up features that
increase processing efficiencies while eliminating common processing
steps for the user.
USE A PICK RELEASE RULE TO SIMPLIFY PICK RELEASE
A pick release rule can be defined that allows you to pre-determine the
options selected on the pick release form. If you typically perform pick
release using the same options then you should define a pick release rule.
A pick release rule can be invoked manually within the pick release form,
which may be desirable if you have multiple pick release rules.
The benefit of using a pick release rule is that users who repetitively
select the same options in the pick release form will eliminate the need to
manually select the options and avoid these steps.
USE A SHIP CONFIRM RULE TO SELECT COMMONLY USED SHIP
CONFIRM OPTIONS
A ship confirm rule can be defined that allows you to pre-determine the
options selected on the ship confirm form. For example, if you
commonly generate a bill of lading as part of the ship confirm process,
you can define a ship confirm rule and select the option for Create Bill of
Lading, then invoke this rule during ship confirmation. You can set up
one rule, or multiple rules to suit your business needs.
A ship confirm rule can be manually selected during ship confirmation,
or the ship confirm rule can be defaulted by setting it as a Shipping
Parameter at the Shipping Transactions tab.
You can also override the defaulted ship confirm options shown in the
Confirm Delivery form.
The benefit of using a ship confirm rule is that users who repetitively
perform the same option selection process while ship confirming
deliveries will be able to avoid having to select options each time.
KEY METHODS OF AUTOMATING SHIPPING PROCESSES
Several concurrent programs support the shipping functionality. You
can use the concurrent programs to automatically progress the delivery
line through the various shipping processes to ship confirmation. The
concurrent programs can be setup and scheduled to run periodically to
suit your business needs. Flexibility is a significant aspect of the
concurrent programs. You can define and schedule these programs to
match your business processes today, and in the future, create new
concurrent programs to meet changes within your business processes.
The concurrent programs include: Release Sales Orders SRS, Auto-Pack
Deliveries SRS, Process Deliveries SRS, Automated Carrier Manifesting,
and Ship Confirm Deliveries SRS. A brief description of each
concurrent program is provided below.
You can schedule your pick release process to occur automatically
using the Release Sales Orders SRS
The Release Sales Orders SRS allows you to pre-determine the picking
criteria used when the system considers lines eligible for pick release.
Other criteria in this concurrent program determine the operations
performed on the order lines submitted for release, such as, allocation,
pick confirm, packing, appending deliveries, assigning deliveries, and
staging location.
Using the Release Sales Orders SRS, you can determine the degree of
user intervention necessary to carry out the pick release process. You
can setup the concurrent program as a: 3-step process, 2-step process, 1-
step process, or 0-step (automatic) process.
One of the most important features of the Release Sales Orders SRS is
that you can create a moving pick window. By creating a picking
window, you setup the system to consider orders for pick release within
+/- ‘x’ number of days of the system date and then schedule the Release
Sales Orders concurrent program to run at intervals that suit your
business needs. The system will then initiate pick release automatically
each day without user intervention.
You can allow the system to auto-pack your assigned delivery lines by
using the Auto-Pack Deliveries SRS
The Auto-Pack Deliveries SRS allows the system to perform pack
planning on delivery lines assigned to deliveries. If you typically pack
items into containers, then this concurrent program can be used to
perform this operation on multiple deliveries on an ad hoc basis or
scheduled to occur automatically. The program criteria can be set up to
pack items into a container, or pack the items into a container and then
pack the container into another container.
You can also prevent individual deliveries from being packed during the
Auto-Pack Deliveries process. In the Shipping Transactions form, query
the delivery that you want to exclude from auto-packing and uncheck the
‘Enable Auto-pack’ field.
You can allow the system to automatically assign delivery lines to
deliveries or assign deliveries to trips using the Process Deliveries
SRS
The Process Deliveries SRS serves a dual function, it allows the system
to assign delivery lines to deliveries and it allows the system to assign
deliveries to trips. These operations are separate functions that are setup
within the same concurrent program.
One variation on assigning delivery lines to deliveries is that the program
can be setup to first append lines to existing deliveries, and if no eligible
open deliveries exist, then the system will create a new delivery before
assigning the delivery line.
The benefit of this concurrent program is that it allows the system to
automatically group matching delivery lines into deliveries, and matching
deliveries into trips, thereby eliminating the manual effort and creating
fewer deliveries and trips in the system. By having fewer shipping
entities to manage, system performance stays efficient.
You can allow the system to automatically manifest delivery lines by
using Automated Carrier Manifesting
The Automated Carrier Manifesting allows the system to select delivery
lines and manifest them to a manifest partner. You can schedule this
concurrent program so that the process is initiated automatically. The
system sends a message to the manifest partner with the delivery details.
The partner responds with a message that confirms acceptance of the
package and populates the following details within Oracle Shipping
Execution: tracking number and freight cost. A prerequisite for the
delivery detail to be manifested by the Automated Carrier Manifesting
concurrent program is that the delivery line must be packed and staged.
If you have unpacked, staged lines that you would like the system to
consider for manifesting then set the AutoPack option in the concurrent
program to YES. You must have Oracle Transportation Execution
installed to use this functionality.
The benefit of this concurrent program is that if you manifest all your
parcels, then you can automate this process and eliminate the manual
effort. Like other concurrent programs, you can run this program on an
ad hoc basis or have it initiated automatically by scheduling it.
Streamline the ship confirmation by using Ship Confirm Deliveries SRS
The Ship Confirm Deliveries SRS allows the system to select deliveries
whose assigned delivery lines are all staged. The system then ship
confirms the deliveries. You can schedule this concurrent program so
that the process is initiated automatically.
The benefit of this concurrent program is that you can ship confirm
many deliveries simultaneously, either as a manual or automatic process,
which will help eliminate processing steps.
You can also prevent individual deliveries from being ship confirmed
during the Ship Confirm Deliveries process. In the Shipping
Transactions form, query the delivery that you want to exclude from
being selected by the Ship Confirm Deliveries SRS and uncheck the
‘Enable Auto Ship Confirm’ field.
MANAGE SHIP CONFIRMATION USING FEWER WINDOWS/STEPS BY
USING QUICK SHIP USER INTERFACE
The Quick Ship user interface is designed to give you the opportunity to
display, on a single window, as much information as is necessary about
your shipping entities and process them through ship confirmation. The
Quick Ship UI allows you to ship confirm deliveries or trips.
You cannot initiate pick release from the Quick Ship UI. All delivery
lines must be staged/pick confirmed using another process or window
before they can be ship confirmed from the Quick Ship UI.
An important feature of the Quick Ship UI is that it is highly
configurable so that you tailor the window to best suit your business.
You can: 1) show/hide fields, 2) change field names, 3) reposition field
names, 4) add tabs, 5) change behavior of the Ship Confirm button, and
6) select the Delivery Confirm view or Trip Confirm view.
The benefit of the Quick Ship UI is that the number of navigation steps
is minimized. Because all data attributes for the shipping entities are
displayed on a single user interface, you avoid having to navigate
between windows.
FLEXIBLY CONFIGURE YOUR USER INTERFACES IN SHIPPING
EXECUTION
Every business has its own set of needs in terms of the information that
requires processing. The user interfaces that support Oracle Shipping
Execution can be modified in several ways to fit your business. Also, as
your business needs change in the future, you can easily modify the
interfaces to include new data attributes that are relevant, or exclude data
attributes that may have become unnecessary.
Shipping Transactions Form Query Manager UI
Within the Shipping Transactions form Query Manager, you can use
folder technology to hide/show fields. If the top query window
becomes full, you can add a tab (a secondary window) through the folder
form to post additional query criteria fields. You can also reposition
fields using the folder technology to conform to the data entry sequence
that is common to your business. To create new folders select Folder
from the menu bar.
Shipping Transactions UI
Within the Shipping Transactions form, you can use folder technology to
hide/show fields, reposition fields at the detail level, display as many as
three actions as buttons at each shipping entity level and in the detail
windows. To create new folders select Folder and then New from the
menu bar. When activating a different action as a button in the folder
you can create your own prompt name for this action, which will appear
as the name on the button. You can also change a column prompt name
by right clicking on the prompt name or drag and drop columns at the
entity summary level.
Quick Ship UI
Within the Quick Ship form, you can use folder technology to
hide/show fields, show an additional tab in the delivery region and in the
trip region, and reposition fields for deliveries and/or trips. Within the
Delivery folder you can also select the options ‘Show Trip Information’
and ‘Show Ship Confirm Options’. If you select Show Trip Information,
then the trip region will appear in the Quick Ship form. If your business
does not use the concept of trips, then you will probably want to hide
this region. If you select Show Ship Confirm Options, then whenever
you ship confirm the delivery the Confirm Deliveries window will be
displayed for you to select options prior to submitting the ship
confirmation. If you disable Show Ship Confirm Options in the folder,
then you must specify a ship confirm rule in the delivery region and the
system will automatically process the ship confirmation request using the
options setup in the Ship Confirm Rule. The Ship Confirm Rule can be
defaulted in Shipping Parameters at the Shipping Transactions tab.
To create new folders select Folder and then New from the menu bar.
When you attempt to add an additional tab for a delivery, or a trip, the
cursor must be positioned within the desired region (delivery region or
trip region) before selecting Folder. The additional tab can be used to
display more data attributes for that shipping entity.
You can also change a column prompt name in the Delivery
Lines/LPNs region by right clicking on the prompt name.
If you prefer to confirm trips to process your shipments, then you can
easily change to a Trip Confirm view. At the menu bar, select Tools and
then Change View. This view displays the trip along with all assigned
deliveries and delivery lines. Ship confirming in this view will confirm all
eligible deliveries assigned to the trip. If you prefer the Trip Confirm
view, then you can set it up as the default view by navigating Edit >
Preferences > Profiles. Query ‘WSH: Quick Ship Default View’ and
select Trip Confirm view.
USE ‘PICK AND SHIP’ ACTION TO EXPRESS SHIP
If your shipping process is simple, then you can take advantage of the
Action ‘Pick and Ship’. This feature is selected from the Action menu
within the Shipping Transactions form at the delivery line level or
delivery level. When this action is initiated then the shipping entity is
simultaneously pick released and ship confirmed. A couple of
prerequisites apply before you can use this feature. A Ship Confirm Rule
must be specified in the Shipping Parameters for the organization and
the user must have the privilege granted for Pick and Pack.
USE ‘PICK, PACK, AND SHIP’ ACTION TO EXPRESS SHIP
Pick, Pack, and Ship is a feature very similar to Pick and Ship, except that
it automates another step in the process. When this action is selected
from the Action menu, then the delivery line(s) is pick released,
systematically packed, and ship confirmed. A couple of prerequisites for
packing to occur are that the shipping parameter for Auto-pack options
must be selected and that a container-item relationship must be predefined prior to selecting the action. If no container-item relationship is
defined then the delivery line will be picked and shipped without
packing.
The benefit of ‘Pick and Ship’ and ‘Pick, Pack, and Ship’ is that you can
quickly progress a delivery line from Ready to Release status to Shipped
status and eliminate a number of processing steps.
A few prerequisites apply before you can use this feature. A Ship
Confirm Rule must be specified in the Shipping Parameters for the
organization, a container-item relationship must be defined, and the user
must have the privilege granted for Pick, Pack, and Ship.
GAIN EFFICIENCY BY ALLOWING THE SYSTEM TO ADD NEW
DELIVERY LINES TO EXISTING DELIVERIES
For efficiency reasons, you might prefer to add (append) delivery lines to
an existing delivery. When the proper setup is in place to allow
appending, the system automatically combines delivery lines with
existing, eligible deliveries based on grouping attributes. If no match can
be found, then the system creates a new delivery and assigns the delivery
line. Appending can be initiated during pick release or through the
Process Deliveries SRS.
Appending delivery lines to existing deliveries has economic advantages
of minimizing freight cost by placing more items within a single
shipment. It has computer system advantages of minimizing the number
of deliveries in the system, which helps maintain system performance.
AUTOMATICALLY CONSOLIDATE BACKORDERED DELIVERY LINES
If a delivery line is split during processing, you can have the system
automatically rejoined the split lines when they are backordered. For
example, if you have a line with a quantity of 10 that is split into two
lines of 5 during a packing operation, then these two lines can be
automatically rejoined into a single line of quantity 10 if you backorder
the lines. A prerequisite is that the global shipping parameter named
‘Consolidate Backordered Lines’ must be enabled.
The benefit of this feature is that you will have fewer delivery lines to
manage.
BROADEN THE SCOPE OF SHIP CONFIRMATION BY SHIP
CONFIRMING TRIPS
If you use the concept of trips in your business process, you should be
aware that you can ship confirm at the trip level. Ship confirming a trip
will process all shipping entities assigned to that trip (delivery lines,
LPNs, and deliveries).
This feature eliminates processing steps because you are ship confirming
a single trip versus ship confirming multiple deliveries.
RIGHT CLICK FOR COMMON ACTIONS
In the Shipping Transactions form and the Quick Ship form, you can
right click your mouse to pull up a list of commonly used actions and
make a selection from this list. This feature gives you an alternative to
selecting from the Actions menu and selecting GO. This list is seeded
and additional actions cannot be added to the list.
MANAGE ACTIONS MENU THROUGH ROLES & USERS SECURITY
The can determine the list of actions that is displayed while right clicking
or through the Actions menu by selecting, or deselecting the actions
within Roles & Users Security. If an action is deselected, then the user
will not have access to that privilege and the action will not appear in the
Actions menu, nor will it display when he/she right clicks in the
Shipping Transactions form or Quick Ship form.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about setting up Oracle Shipping Execution
features and functions, including: pick release rules, ship confirm rule,
concurrent programs, consolidation of backordered delivery lines, and
appending deliveries see the Oracle Order Management Implementation
Manual.
For more information about configuring a user interface, Quick Ship UI,
ship confirming a trip, and pick/pack/ship see Oracle Shipping
Execution User’s Guide.