The shipment procedure

This topic describes all steps, also called activities, of the shipment procedure and shows how you can perform these steps. The shipment procedure comprises the activities that you must perform in LN to ship goods that were issued from the warehouse by means of the outbound procedure.

If a step is mandatory, this is indicated in the step description. You are not required to include non-mandatory activities in your warehousing procedures. In addition, you can specify whether an activity must be performed manually or automatically. For information on how to define warehousing procedures, see To define warehousing procedures.

The shipment procedure includes these steps:

  • Freeze/confirm shipment
  • Print shipping documents

If the Consolidate Stock Points in one Shipment Line check box in the Inventory Handling Parameters (whinh0100m000) session is selected, the outbound advices of the same order line with different stockpoint details are consolidated into a single shipment line even if the outbound advices contain multiple of:

  • Lots (in inventory)
  • Serials (in inventory)
  • Inventory Dates
  • Effectivity Units
  • E-Item Revision (via the lot)
Freeze/Confirm shipment

The Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads activity is a mandatory step of the shipment procedure. This step entails processing the shipments and loads generated during the outbound procedure.

In the outbound procedure, Warehousing generates shipments, shipment lines, and, if particular conditions are met, loads for the outbound order lines that obtain the Staged status. For further details on loads and shipments, see Shipments and loads.

Alternatively, you can use Freight to generate loads and shipments. This package has advanced transport planning options, which enables you to build more cost-effective loads, shipments, and shipment lines. For further information, see Freight.

The initial status of a shipment line, shipment, or load is Open.

Before you print the shipment documents and ship the shipments, you can, if required, change the item quantities of the shipments and adjust the shipment and load structure. While the shipment and loads are still being adjusted, you do not change the Open status. At this point, you can still indicate that a particular quantity of the goods listed on the shipment lines cannot be shipped and specify a reason. For further details, see Not Shipped.

The Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads activity enables you to allocate the Frozen status and the Confirmed status to a shipment line, shipment, or load.

Frozen

This status is optional, you can skip this status if freezing is not part of your business practice. Freezing shipments and loads means that you cannot change them because they are ready for shipping, but you can print the shipping documents, if printing shipping documents is included in the shipment procedure. Printing shipment documents is described in the next section, Print shipping documents.

Should any changes to item quantities and/or load structures be required after you froze them, you can undo the Frozen status of loads, shipments, or shipment lines. After the required changes are made, you can reset the shipments to Frozen and print the shipment documents again, which will then include the latest changes.

Confirmed

Finally, when the goods are loaded and are leaving the warehouse, you must confirm the shipment and loads. As a result, the status of the shipments and loads changes to Confirmed. If you did not allocate the Frozen status, you can print the shipping documents after the shipments and loads are confirmed. You cannot undo the Confirmed status.

When shipments are set to Confirmed, the status of the related outbound order lines and handling units changes to Shipped. For further details, see Shipment and load status.

Note

If the Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads activity is performed automatically, LN confirms the shipment lines, shipments, and loads and prints the shipping documents without enabling you to make any changes to the shipment line quantities or the shipment and load structure.

Print shipping documents

If shipping documents are used in the outbound flow of your warehouse, the shipping documents are printed after the shipment lines, shipments, and loads have obtained the Frozen status or the Confirmed status. The settings of the shipment procedures determine whether the documents are printed automatically or manually. These types of shipping documents are available:

  • Bills of Lading
  • Packing Slips
  • Packing Lists
  • Delivery Notes
  • Shipping Manifests