Outbound procedures and handling unitsTo 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 shipment processes. You can generate handling units for an order line when you create:
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 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 orders and order lines. For more information on the shipment procedure, see Using handling units in shipment processes. 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, 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 outbound advice is created receive the Allocated status. If no handling units are found that contain the entire required quantity, part of the quantity of items contained in the handling unit is allocated to outbound advice. The status of the handling unit is then set to Partially Allocated. When allocating handling units to outbound advice, the application first searches for handling units that contain the entire required quantity. For example, if the required quantity is 100, the application searches for a handling unit that contains 100 items or multiple handling units that together contain 100 items. If not found, the application must partially allocate one or more handling units. For example, if the required quantity is 100 and four handling units each containing 30 items are available, three handling units are allocated and from the fourth handling unit, a quantity of 10 is allocated and this handling unit receives the Partially Allocated status. When partially allocating handling units, the application first selects handling units that were partially allocated in previous runs. If insufficient partially allocated handling units are found, the application partially allocates handling units with the In Stock status. Lot and serial registration is not allowed for handling units with the Partially Allocated status. The application will consume lot and serial numbers in alphabetic order when releasing outbound advice or confirming picking lists. 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. If a handling unit is partially allocated and the outbound advice of the allocated quantity is released or the picking list is confirmed, the allocated quantity is removed from the handling unit. Next, the allocated quantity is anonymously added to the shipment line and new handling units are generated for the shipment line according to the package definition of the related outbound order line. For more information, refer to To release handling units If present, the lot and serial information of the handling unit is also forwarded to the shipment line. To generate handling units for the shipment line, handling unit generation during picking or shipment creation must be specified in the setup. 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. Staging At the staging location, the handling units that have the Staged status are ready to be loaded onto a truck or other vehicle. Before loading handling units, repacking 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. Step 2. 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 is insufficient, you can put this handling unit on hold. This is done as follows:
Confirm shipment with Not Shipped handling units If you confirm the shipment that includes the handling unit that could not be shipped, LN performs the following actions:
Step 3. 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. You can also confirm the handling units that are linked to a shipment or shipment line. Handling units are confirmed after a successful scan if the scan-to-verify process is activated or after using the Confirm option on the Execute Outbound submenu of the Handling Units (whwmd5130m000) session. As a result, LN selects the Confirmed for Shipping check box for the handling unit. If the Confirm Shipment Lines when confirming Handling Units check box is selected in the Warehousing Order Types (whinh0110m000) session, the shipment line that contains the handling unit is also confirmed when all of the handling units are confirmed. If cleared, the linked shipment line must be manually confirmed. 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.
| |||