Shipping Rules

Shipping Rules

During shipping process, we make use of some rules which are used in the process of picking the items from stores to staging area. In general, there are 4 rules which will be used during order booking process. These are:

1.)   Release Rule : It is used to determine as which line will be released first

2.)   Release Sequence Rule :  It is used to determine as to which details items needs to be allocated first (In case if sufficient items are not available)

3.)   Picking Rule : It will determine as from which locations the goods needs to be picked first by pickers

4.)   Pick slip grouping rule : It is to determine as to by what criteria the details will be clubbed together

We’ll see all these rules one by one

1.) Release Rule: Navigate to Setup > Shipping > Picking > Define Release Rule Form & create a new rule as shown below

Here we have created a rule where lines (or details, as what is known in shipping terminologies) whose Scheduled Ship Date (SSD) is within 5 days will be shipped first

Table impacted is ‘WSH_PICKING_RULES’

2.)   Release Sequence Rules: In case if there is not sufficient items available in our inventory then on what criteria the items will be allocated

Navigate to Setup > Shipping > Picking > Define Release Sequence Rules & give details as shown below

Consider an example where we have received an order of 400 items (in the form of couple of sales order & each sales order is having multiple lines), then as per our Release sequence rule, the details (or lines) which have higher shipment priority will be allocated items first. In case if more then 1 detail have same shipment priority then we’ll see as whose scheduled date is earlier. If SSD is also same then system check as to which order has departure date earlier. Even if departure date is also same then we’ll check for order. In case even after applying all priorities, the items in inventory fails to satisfy the required demand then the line will be backordered

Table Impacted is: WSH_PICK_SEQUENCE_RULE

3.)   Picking Rules: It will determine as from which locations the goods needs to be picked first by pickers. We have already discussed it in Inventory module so not repeating the same thing again

4.)   Pick Slip Grouping Rule:  It is to determine as to by what criteria the details will be clubbed together or we can say that this rule will decide as how many move orders needs to be created

Navigate to Setup > Shipping > Picking > Define Pick Slip Grouping Rule & give details as shown below

It means that the details will be first grouped by order number & if order number is same then it will be clubbed by customer details

Underlying table is ‘WSH_PICK_GROUPING_RULES’

Understanding Shipping Process in detail

Shipping process mainly contains 3 steps

1.)   Pick Release

2.)   Pick Confirm

3.)   Ship Confirm

We’ll see each of these steps in detail

Pick Release: Once the order is booked & we intend to ship it then we’ll go to Release Sales Order form. From here the Pick release process will start

1.)   Lines will come to Shipping department as details

2.)   Status of Line (in sales order form) is now ‘Awaiting Shipping’ & status of Detail (in Shipping transaction form) is ‘Ready to Release’

3.)   Launch Pick Release will run & lines will be released based on the released rules which we have defined. In case the inventory does not have the requested mount then lines will be released based upon Release Sequence Rules

4.)   In order to move the lines, Move Order will be created in the warehouse

5.)   Status of Details will be changed to ‘Released to Warehouse’

With this the Pick Confirm Process ends

Pick Confirm: In Pick confirm, the goods will be moved to staging sub inventory & will be arranged there

1.)   Warehouse people allocate the move order transactions (this is done either manually or using picking rules). It is the process where it will be identified as what goods are picked & from which subinventory, locator etc.

2.)   Pick slip report will be generated based on Pick Slip Grouping Rule & handed over to stores in charges. The goods will now be collected & sent to staging sub inventory

3.)    The goods will be arranged in staging sub inventory based on our details (Details includes Item, Quantity, Ship-To & Ship-From). It means that the goods will be arranged in such a manner so that it is ready to be shipped (It can be arranged as per the customer or Ship-To etc.)

4.)   Transact Move Order: With this the On-Hand quantity will be reduced in Sub Inventory & increased in staging

5.)   Status of Line will change to ‘Picked’ & that of Details will change to ‘Staged’

With this the Pick Confirm process ends