Load plan, load, and shipment statuses

Load plans, loads, and shipments go through various stages ranging from creation through execution to completion. For each of these stages, the load plans, loads, and shipments are given several statuses to indicate their progress.

Load plans are created for both incoming and outgoing goods transports. If your organization buys goods from a supplier, your organization can organize the transportation of the purchased goods by agreement with the supplier. As a result, the loads and shipments planned for the supplier are incoming goods for your organization's warehouse. When your organization sells goods to a customer, your organization plans the outgoing loads and shipments that go to the customer.

Load plans, loads, and shipments can obtain the following statuses:

Planned

The initial status of load plans, loads, and shipments created by the load building engine is Planned. If you create a load or a load plan manually, the initial status is also Planned. All changes that you make to planned load plans, loads, and shipments, either manually or by replanning using the load building engine, do not alter the status of these load plans, shipments, or loads. Only if you make a load plan Actual, the status of the shipments and loads of that load plan changes to Actual.

Actual

If you have created a load plan that you want to process in Warehousing, you must make the plan Actual. Actual load plans are transferred to Warehousing, where the inbound or outbound procedures are started. The goods can be collected in the warehouse and loaded onto a truck (or other means of transport), or, in case of incoming goods, receipt procedures can be started. For further information about the loads and shipments in Warehousing, see Shipments and loads.

When you make a load plan Actual, the freight orders on which the load plan is based and the loads and shipments of the load plan also receive the Actual status.

If the freight orders on which a load plan is based have changed, you receive a warning when you want to make the load plan Actual. This warning instructs you to replan the load plan, which means make a new load plan for the freight orders, or to replan only the freight order lines that have been changed. Replanning entails deleting the shipment lines related to the changed freight order lines and re-run the planning engine for the changed freight order lines. The setting of the Update Actual Load Data field and the Replanning of Freight Orders field in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session control the way in which replanning is carried out.

Note: 

To change an Actual load plan, you must select the Undo Actualize option first. This option is available on the appropriate menu of the Plans (fmlbd0110m000) session.

Shipments and loads based on freight orders that have been created from originating orders cannot be made Actual if the originating orders have not been released to Warehousing.

In Progress

If the warehouse has started the shipping procedures to process the loads and shipments of a load plan, the load plan receives the In Progress status; you can no longer delete the load plan.

If processing is started for one of the shipment lines of the load plan, the status of the shipment line is changed to In Progress. Shipment lines that have obtained the In Progress status cannot be changed in Freight.

Confirmed

When outbound loads and shipments are actually loaded onto a truck or other means of transport in the warehouse, the loads and shipments are confirmed in Warehousing. The shipments and loads receive the Confirmed status in Warehousing.

The Confirmed status is passed on to Freight as well, if the Automatically Change from 'Confirmed' to 'Shipped' check box in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session is cleared. In that case, the Confirmed status appears in the following sessions:

  • Loads (fmlbd4100m000)
  • Shipments (fmlbd3100m000)
  • Shipment Lines (fmlbd3150m000)

If the quantities of loads and shipments are changed in Warehousing, these changes are reflected in the shipments and loads after they are confirmed.

Shipped

After shipments and loads leave the warehouse, they receive the Shipped status in Warehousing. This status is passed on to Freight. If the Automatically Change from 'Confirmed' to 'Shipped' check box is selected in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session, shipments and loads that are Confirmed receive the Shipped status automatically in Freight. In the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session, you can give the Shipped status to loads and shipments that have been confirmed in Warehousing if the Automatically Change from 'Confirmed' to 'Shipped' check box is cleared in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session.

When inbound advance shipment notices are received in Warehousing and passed on to Freight, the related inbound shipments and loads obtain the Shipped status.

If you work without advance shipment notices, you can manually set shipment and loads to Shipped in the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session when the supplier notifies you of the arriving shipments and loads. You can access the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session on the appropriate menu of the Loads (fmlbd4100m000) session and the Shipments (fmlbd3100m000) session.

Completed

If outgoing shipments and loads have reached their destination and are ready for invoicing, they receive the Completed status. You can set loads and shipments to Completed in the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session, which you can access on the appropriate menu of the Loads (fmlbd4100m000) session and the Shipments (fmlbd3100m000) session.

When inbound loads and shipments have the Received status and the receipt is set to final in Warehousing, the loads and shipments obtain the Completed status in Freight.

Closed

If the carrier invoice and the invoice to the customer have been paid and approved in Financials, you can set the shipments and loads to Closed in the Close Loads / Freight Order Clusters (fmlbd4200m000) session.

Ignored and Replaced

If a load or shipment receives the Ignored status in Warehousing, the load or shipment and the shipment lines are set to Ignored in Freight. If a shipment or a load has received the Replaced status in Warehousing, the load or shipment and the shipment lines are set to Ignored in Freight. Based on the data of the new load or shipment with which the shipment or load is replaced in Warehousing, a new load or shipment is generated in Freight. For further information on the Ignored and Replaced statuses in Warehousing, see Planned Load/Shipment status.

You can also set redundant shipment lines to Ignored in Freight. For further information on how to set shipment lines to Ignored, see Set to Ignored.

Note

The loads and shipments of a load plan can have different statuses. This depends on the progress they make through the warehouse and transportation processes. For example, a shipment of a consolidated load can be delivered earlier than the other shipments of the load because the delivery address of the shipment was the first delivery address of the standard route that was traveled.

To statuses ranging from Confirmed to Completed, the following rules apply:

  • The status of a shipment changes when the status of all the shipment lines of the shipment have changed.
  • Similarly, the status of a load changes when all the shipments of the load have changed.

A load plan can only be Actual or Expired.

To loads and shipments with the Actual status, the following rule applies:

If one of the shipment lines of a load plan is set to In Progress, the parent shipment and load are set to In Progress. The other shipment lines, shipments, and loads are not affected, as you can see in the following diagram.

In the Planned Loads/Shipments (whinh4180m000) session, you can view the shipments and loads of load plans that are processed in Warehousing. To access the Planned Loads/Shipments (whinh4180m000) session, you can select the Planned Loads / Shipments option from the appropriate menu of the Plans (fmlbd0110m000) session. The information that appears in the Planned Loads/Shipments (whinh4180m000) session includes the status and the origin of the loads and shipments. Loads and shipments can be created by Freight and Warehousing.