Outbound procedures and handling units

To retrieve and ship goods from a warehouse, warehouse processing is either based on handling units or outbound shipments and warehousing order lines. If you use handling units to process goods, the order lines and/or shipments related to the handling units are updated in the background. For more information on outbound order lines and shipments, see Warehousing orders and Shipments and loads.

Outbound warehouse processing is controlled by warehousing procedures. For more information, refer to To define warehousing procedures

Outbound warehousing procedures

Various settings are available to enable the use of handling units for inbound and/or outbound procedures, and for specific items and warehouses. For more information, refer to To set up handling units.

The warehousing procedures used to process handling units are identical to those used to process order lines. In LN, default outbound procedures are available that you can adjust to meet the requirements of various types of warehouses. You can choose the procedure steps that meet the requirements of your warehouse, but the procedures to generate and release outbound advice are mandatory.

The warehousing procedures that comprise the outbound flow are grouped into two main procedures, the Outbound Procedure and the Shipment Procedure. For more information on the LN warehousing procedures, see To define warehousing procedures. For more information on the shipment procedure, refer to Using handling units in the shipment process.

You can generate handling units for an order line when you create:

  • An outbound order line with the Planned or Open status
  • Outbound advice
  • An inspection
  • A shipment
  • A shipment line

If your warehouse uses handling units and the use of handling units is enabled in Warehousing, LN allocates handling units to the order line when an outbound advice is generated for the order line. This procedure is described in To generate handling units and To maintain handling units. For more information on the Planned status, see Planned status for Warehousing order lines. For more information on the shipment procedure, see Using handling units in the shipment process.

Note

In this topic, all procedure steps, also called activities, of the outbound flow are discussed, but you can specify that some of these activities are omitted or performed automatically. For more information, refer to To define warehousing procedures.

Outbound procedure
Step 1. Generate outbound advice

To retrieve the handling units that contain the goods listed on the outbound order lines from the warehouse, an outbound advice is created that lists the locations from which the handling units must be collected. If automatic creation of the outbound advice is not defined in your outbound warehousing procedure, you must generate the outbound advice in the Generate Outbound Advice (whinh4201m000) session.

If the use of handling units is enabled for the item and the warehouse listed on the outbound order lines, the search engine checks the warehouse for handling units. If handling units containing the required items are available, LN allocates these handling units to the outbound advice.

If suitable handling units are not available, or if handling units are not used in inventory, you can generate handling units for the outbound advice. For more information, refer to To generate handling units.

Handling units for which an outbound advice is created obtain the Allocated status. In addition, LN generates shipment lines for the outbound order lines related to the handling unit and the outbound advice. For more information on outbound order lines and shipments, see Warehousing orders and Shipments and loads.

Step 2. Release outbound advice

You can release the outbound advice immediately after the outbound advice is generated. Releasing the outbound advice implies that the handling units are moved from the storage location to the staging location. The handling unit obtains the Released status. For more information, refer to To release handling units.

Step 3. Generate picking list

After releasing the outbound advice, you can print picking lists. The picking lists includes detailed information about the locations from which the warehouse personnel must collect the handling units or the goods. For more information, refer to To generate picking lists.

Step 4. Pick advice

After the goods are collected as specified on the picking list (or the outbound advice, if the use of picking lists is not part of your outbound flow), you must use the Pick Advice option to indicate that the handling units are collected from the storage locations and moved to the staging location or inspection location. To access the Pick Advice option, select the Execute Inbound submenu on the appropriate menu of the Handling Units (whwmd5130m000) session.

If inspections are part of your outbound flow, the handling unit status becomes To Be Inspected.

If inspections are not included in your outbound flow, the handling units are moved to the staging location and the handling unit status becomes Staged. For more information, refer to the following section, Shipment Procedure.

Step 5. Inspection

If inspections are included in the warehousing procedure for handling units, the handling units are inspected at the staging location. In some cases, the goods undergo various tests. The handling units are approved or rejected.

Approved handling units will be shipped when the shipment is conformed. It depends on the shipment procedure whether this is done automatically or manually. Rejected handling units are unlinked from the handling unit structure and their contents are removed from inventory through an adjustment order.

After approval, the handling unit obtains the Staged status. For more information, refer to:

Shipment procedure
Step 1. Shipping

At the staging location, the handling units that have the Staged status are loaded onto a truck or other vehicle.

Step 2. Confirm shipment

After you load the handling units, you can confirm the shipments related to the handling units to indicate that the goods are loaded and leave the warehouse.

As a result, the handling units and the outbound order lines to which the handling units are allocated obtain the Shipped status.

For information on the shipment and shipment line status, refer to topic Shipment and load status.

You may want to keep the handling unit until the customer has paid for the goods, and then set the handling units to Closed.

If the customer returns the goods by means of a sales return order, you can use the handling unit to receive the returned goods. In the Warehouse Receipt (whinh3512m000) session, you can use the Receive option on the appropriate menu to zoom to receive the handling unit. The handling unit is then set to Receipt Open.

Before loading handling units, repacking and/or recomposing handling unit structures can be required, this depends on the packing requirements for the delivery address. For more information, refer to To maintain handling units and To set up handling units.

To confirm handling units for shipment, select the Confirm Shipment option on the Execute Outbound submenu of the of the Handling Units (whwmd5130m000) session.

Step 3. Set not shipped

If an outbound handling unit with the Staged status is not shipped immediately, for example, because the loading capacity of the truck was insufficient to take all of the handling units, you can place the shipment of this handling unit on hold. To place a shipment on hold, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the Handling Units (whwmd5130m000) session.
  2. Open the appropriate menu.
  3. Select the Execute Outbound submenu.
  4. In the Execute Outbound submenu, select Set Not Shipped. As a result, the quantity of the items of the handling unit that you put on hold appears in the Expected Not Shipped field.

If you confirm the shipment that includes the handling unit that could not be shipped, LN performs the following actions:

  • In the Handling Unit Process Outbound (whinh2123m000) session, the Not Shipped field shows the quantity of the items of the handling units that are not shipped.
  • The remainder of the shipment that included the handling unit is shipped and obtains the Shipped status.

  • The handling unit that could not be shipped obtains the Closed status if it contains multiple stock points. For more information, refer to Set and reset handling units to not shipped.

    Otherwise, the handling unit obtains the In Stock status and is (temporarily) stored on the staging location. You can process this handling unit as follows:

    1. Make this handling unit available for new outbound advice, so that you can ship this handling unit with the next shipment. For this purpose, select the Reset Not Shipped option on the Execute Outbound submenu on the appropriate menu of the Handling Units (whwmd5130m000) session.
    2. Move the handling unit back to the storage location because the handling unit will not be shipped after all. To move a handling unit back to the storage location in the warehouse, you can use the Return not Shipped Goods option on the appropriate menu of the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session to automatically create a transfer order for the storage location.
    3. Transfer the handling unit to another location for inspection. If the goods were damaged due to some accident, you must find out whether the goods must be written off or kept in inventory. For that purpose, you must manually create a transfer order. If the Automatic Adjustment of Quantity Not Shipped check box is selected in the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session, the handling unit is automatically deleted.
Step 4. Print shipping documents

If shipping documents are used in the outbound flow of your warehouse, the shipping documents are printed after the handling units and related shipments have obtained the Shipped status. The settings of the shipment procedures determine whether the documents are printed automatically or manually. For more information, refer to To define warehousing procedures.

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