Central distribution center

Set up a central distribution center when you stock most of your inventory in a central warehouse and transfer products to the ordering or branch warehouses to fulfill orders. The Central Distribution Center (CDC) feature in Distribution SX.e automates the process of order fulfillment and shipment by augmenting the Sales Warehouse feature and providing additional measures to track these orders.

When you use a sales warehouse, any sales orders created by the originating or branch warehouse are credited to that branch. The branch is considered the “sales” warehouse. However, if the sales warehouse is associated with a CDC warehouse, the CDC warehouse fills the order with its stock and then transfers the carton or shipping container to the sales warehouse to be shipped. The sales warehouse finishes shipping the order to the customer or stages it in the warehouse for customer pickup.

To set up a true central distribution center, you must activate both the Sales Warehouse and CDC features in SA Administrator Options-Documents-Sales Orders-Entry Options. Select both the Use Sales Warehouse and Allow Central Distribution Center (CDC) options. You must also set up your branch warehouses to associate them with a CDC warehouse, and identify each customer or customer ship to’s home (sales) warehouse.

As a CDC order moves from order entry to shipment, additional order stages are applied to track its progress after shipping as it is sent to the branch and delivered to the customer. If a sales order is a CDC order, the CDC Status field reflects the stage. These new stages also represent the status of a CDC order. When a CDC order is created in Sales Order Entry, the CDC Status is Assigned. If the order is not a CDC order, or if the customer service rep overrides the Assigned status upon entry, the CDC Status is Not Set. These additional stages are assigned:

• Transfer Route

  Order is shipped from the CDC to the ordering branch (sales warehouse). This status is updated during Sales Entry Shipping Feedback or WL Entry Batch Shipping. It is also assigned to a TWL shipping carton or pallet that is shipped for a CDC order.

• Received In Sales Warehouse

  Order is received in the sales warehouse and staged for delivery to the customer. This status is updated in Sales Central Distribution Center Inquiry or in TWL RF Distribution-CDC Handling.

• Shipped to Customer

  Order is shipped to customer or picked up by customer in the branch warehouse. This status is updated in Sales Central Distribution Center Inquiry or in TWL RF Distribution-CDC Handling.

These functions support central distribution center processing when it is activated:

• Sales Order Entry

  Stock Order (SO) order types entered for a customer or customer ship to set up to use a Central Distribution Center will have the Sales Warehouse set to the Warehouse value from Customer Setup or Customer Ship To Setup. The order Warehouse is set to the Central Distribution Warehouse assigned in Product Warehouse Description Setup for that customer/ship to’s warehouse. The CDC Status on the order is set to Assigned when the order is created.

  If a back order is created for a CDC order, the CDC Status is Assigned.

  CDC orders can be copied in Sales Order Entry. The CDC Status for the new order is defaulted as Assigned.

  If you’re integrating to another application through ION, you can add the oeeh.cdcstatus element as an Extra Level 1 field to the SalesOrder BOD in SA Administrator ION Noun Setup.

• Sales Order Inquiry

  You can search for orders with a particular CDC Status by selecting the status in the Advanced Search panel. The CDC Status is displayed on the Header tab. You can also add it to the Orders grid using Personalization. If the sales warehouse is a TWL warehouse, you can view the status on the Cartons grid on the Warehouse Logistic Inquiry view.

• Sales Shipping Feedback Entry

  Use the Sales Warehouse and Central Distribution Center Status fields in the Additional Criteria section of the Search panel to ship only CDC orders for a specific sales warehouse.

  When a CDC order is shipped in Sales Shipping Feedback Entry, the CDC Status is updated to Transfer Route. CDC orders can be staged for shipping to the appropriate sales warehouse based on the Sales Warehouse noted on the pick ticket or shipping label.

• Sales Entry Pick Tickets Report

  When you print a pick ticket for a CDC order, a CDC indicator is printed in the Extended Shipping Instructions section to indicate the order is a CDC order, and to show the CDC and sales warehouse names. For example, CDC:CDC1>Main indicates a CDC warehouse name of CDC1 where the order is filled and shipped from, and that it is being shipped to the Main sales warehouse.

  If you set up your pick tickets to print to Format 4 for Infor Document Management (IDM) or third-party forms printing, the CDC status is included in the XML output, but you must customize your IDM pick ticket template to include the oeeh.cdcstatus field.

  If you use IDM to print your TWL labels for Order Drop or Picking, you can customize your labels to include the CDC Status from the sales order. If you use IB Shipping Labels Report or IB Pick Labels Report, you can include the CDC Status on any labels that print sales order header data (OEEH table). These fields can be added to the label: xxoeeh.cdc (displays “CDC” for CDC orders), oeeh.whse, and oeeh.saleswhse.

• Sales Central Distribution Center Inquiry

  Use the Sales Central Distribution Center Inquiry to view and update the CDC Status of orders in process for a central distribution center (CDC).

  You can set up a CDC warehouse and sales warehouses as TWL-managed warehouses, or both warehouses can be non-TWL warehouses. Or, you may have a hybrid setup where, for example, the CDC is not TWL-managed, but the sales warehouses are. Non-TWL CDC warehouse personnel can use Sales Central Distribution Center Inquiry to update a CDC order’s status when it is shipped from the CDC warehouse to the sales warehouse.

• TWL RF Shipping

  For CDC warehouses that are managed by TWL, warehouse personnel ship pallets or cartons to the sales warehouse in the TWL RF Shipping screen. When a carton is entered in the Ship Verification and Ship to Dock screens in TWL, a dialog window is displayed that shows the sales warehouse the container is destined for. Depending on how you generate shipping labels, they can be customized to include the sales warehouse information.

• TWL RF Distribution-CDC Handling

  For sales warehouses that are managed by TWL, when warehouse personnel receive containers from the CDC warehouse, they can update the CDC Status in the TWL RF Distribution-CDC Handling screen. They also use the CDC Handling function to update the status when the order is shipped to or picked up by the customer.

  Note: TWL-managed warehouse personnel are not required to use the TWL RF Distribution-CDC Handling function to updated the CDC Status of orders. They can also use Sales Central Distribution Center Inquiry.

See Sales Warehouse for information about activating this required feature and how sales warehouse data is updated.