The shipment procedure
The shipment procedure comprises the activities that you must perform in LN to ship goods that were issued from the warehouse through the outbound procedure.
The shipment procedure includes these steps, also called activities:
- Freeze
-
Print shipping documents. These types of shipping documents are available:
- Print Bills of Lading (whinh4470m000)
- Print Packing Slips (whinh4475m000)
- Print Packing Lists (whinh4476m000)
- Print Delivery Notes (whinh4477m000)
- Print Shipping Manifest (whinh4478m000)
- Confirm (mandatory)
- Process Pro Forma Invoices (whinh4279m000)
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.
Freeze is not a mandatory activity. If you exclude the Freeze activity from the shipment procedure, the shipping documents are printed when the Confirm activity is performed.
If Freeze is applicable and/or automatic, the Confirm activity cannot be set to automatic performance.
Freeze and confirm combined or separate activities
Freezing and confirming shipments and loads is a combined activity performed in the Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads (whinh4275m000) session for shipment procedures created before LN version 2021.04. If required, you can convert the combined freeze/confirm activity to separate freeze and confirm activities. See Freeze and confirm combined or separate activities.
Before freezing or confirming: adjust loads, shipments, and shipment lines
Initially, loads and shipments have the Open or Projected status.
Before you freeze or confirm the shipments and print the shipment documents, you can, if required, change the item quantities of the shipments and adjust the shipment and load structure.
You can specify quantities that cannot be shipped and create a transfer order to return the not-shipped goods to the storage location or create an automatic adjustment to remove the items from the inventory. For more information, refer to Not-shipped quantities.
While the shipment and loads are still being adjusted, the Open status is not changed.
Step 1. Freeze shipments
Perform the Freeze Shipments activity in the Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads (whinh4275m000) session. You can freeze shipment lines, shipments, and loads.
Freeze shipments, shipment lines or loads
Freezing shipments, shipment lines, and loads means that major changes are not allowed because they are ready for shipping, but you can print the shipping documents, if printing shipping documents is included in the shipment procedure. For more information, refer to Shipment and load status.
Freezing is optional, you can skip this step if freezing is not part of your business practice. To make freezing a mandatory step in your shipment procedure, set the Freeze activity to Applicable in the Activities by Procedure (whinh0106m000) session. For individual order types, select the Freeze Mandatory check box in the Warehousing Order Types (whinh0110m000) session.
Freezing shipments or loads is done by batch in the Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads (whinh4275m000) session. Alternatively, use the options displayed in this table:
| To freeze... | Use the command in... |
|---|---|
| Shipment lines | The Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session |
| Shipments | The Shipments (whinh4130m000) session |
| Loads | The Loads (whinh4140m000) session |
To freeze a range of shipment lines, shipments, or loads, use the Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads (whinh4275m000) session.
Reopen
If changes are required for any frozen shipment lines, shipments, or loads, you must reopen these shipment lines, shipments, or loads to be able to make these changes. You can only reopen shipment lines that have the Frozen status. To reopen shipment lines, use the command on the appropriate menu of the Shipment Lines (whinh4131m000) session.
When you reopen a shipment line, the related shipment and load are also reopened. The shipment documents must be printed again, after the final changes to the shipments have been made. The status of the handling units of the shipment and shipment line are changed from Shipment Frozen to Shipment Open. If you again freeze a shipment line or shipment and a handling unit already exists for the shipment or shipment line, the handling unit is regenerated automatically.
Shipment acceptance
To perform source acceptance, you must submit a shipment for acceptance and specify the accepted or not-shipped quantities when the shipment's status is Open. To complete the Source acceptance - procedure, you must freeze the shipment.
If a shipment is submitted for acceptance, the shipment's status is Open, but:
- You cannot modify the shipment except for the source acceptance fields.
- No new lines can be added to the shipment.
Step 2. 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 reached the Frozen status or the Confirmed status.
The settings of the shipment procedures specified in the Activities by Procedure (whinh0106m000) session determine whether the documents are printed automatically or manually.
If BOD publishing is implemented and LN is integrated with EXM, the shipping documents are printed when the shipments are confirmed.
For individual order types, you can specify that the shipping documents must be printed manually when the shipments are frozen. This facilitates additional checking and adjustment of the shipments prior to confirmation. See Printing shipment documents by external application.
Step 3. Confirm shipments, shipment lines or loads
The Confirm Shipments/Loads activity is mandatory in the shipment procedure. This activity entails processing the shipments, shipment lines, and loads generated during the outbound procedure. This activity is performed in the Freeze/Confirm Shipments/Loads (whinh4275m000) session. 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.
Step 4. Process pro forma invoices
Print the pro forma invoices of the goods listed on the shipments in the Process Pro Forma Invoices (whinh4279m000) session..