Alternative handling unit structures

In various industries, goods are picked from an anonymous stock, which means that no handling units are present in the stock, and moved to the staging area. At the staging area, final preparations are carried out to make the goods ready for shipment. Goods are packed in packaging materials such as crates and pallets.

In this business scenario, handling units are created automatically during the confirmation of the pick. LN creates handling units based on the package definition of the warehouse order outbound line. The packaging definition defaulted at the warehouse order outbound line is usually a packaging definition which is applied for the item or item/business partner combination under normal conditions.

At times there can be shortage of packaging materials. In most cases the shipment of goods cannot wait until the correct packaging materials are available. In practice, alternative packaging materials are used, for example, another type or size of box or another pallet can be used.

This means that an alternative package definition or handling unit template must be used.

For this purpose, on the appropriate menu of the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session, select Handling Units and either of these options:

  • Alternative Package Definition

    For details, refer to the online Help of the Select Alternative Package Definition (whinh4231m400) session.

  • Specific Packaging

    For more information, refer to Shipment line specific handling unit template.

Both options are unavailable if:

  • The Package Definition field in the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session is not of type Variable or empty.

  • The Package Definition Binding check box is selected in the Outbound Order Lines (whinh2120m000) session.

  • The status of the shipment line is not Open.

  • The handling unit does not refer to inventory. The handling unit linked to the shipment line contains information about the linked lots. In this scenario, the removal of handling units at shipment line level is not allowed because relevant inventory characteristic information only present at the handling unit linked to the shipment line will be lost. This information is not stored in the shipment line.

  • The generation of handling units is not allowed if:

    • The shipment line is marked as Manual in the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session.
    • The warehouse is WMS controlled.
    • The manual outbound process is not allowed.
    • Handling units are not in use in shipments.
    • The quantity Not Shipped Quantity in the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session is greater than zero.
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