Master Shipments

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), such as FIAT Chrysler Automobiles or Ford, use a logistics process. This process requires shipment coordination between suppliers and customers through a consolidation center in a distribution network: Goods are not sent directly to the respective OEM site by the supplier, but first go through a flow-through center and are then distributed to the individual OEM sites.

Several shippers for the same customer are combined into one master shipment if they use the same trading partner and pool point. This is based on the shipper information that is provided by the ERP system. The combination can be achieved automatically, based on the master shipment's build parameters, or manually, based on the existing shippers' data.

Next, the shippers are delivered to a consolidation point, referred to as the pool point. From there, they are transported to their final destination.

This procedure requires the master bill of lading, which is a document in addition to the individual waybills. This document contains information on all the shippers that are summarized in the master shipment.