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

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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, 1step 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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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).

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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 Users Guide.

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Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts in Shipping Executions November 2004 Author: Timothy Conroy

Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Fax: +1.650.506.7200 Web: www.oracle.com This document is provided for informational purposes only and the information herein is subject to change without notice. Please report any errors herein to Oracle Corporation. Oracle Corporation does not provide any warranties covering and specifically disclaims any liability in connection with this document. Oracle is a registered trademark, and Oracle Order Management is a trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of Oracle corporation. All other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright Oracle Corporation 2003 All Rights Reserved