Order Processing System Startup Tasks

Install Appropriate Programs and put on Menu. - The following programs are required for Scheduled Shipping.  These programs should be installed by Cove Systems personnel or your systems administrator.

Required Programs

Sales Order Entry - Used to enter sales orders into the system. 

Sales Order Reconciliation - This program is used to reconcile the Reserved and the Total Reserved quantities that are stored for each inventory item in the Inventory Master file.  When the scheduled shipping system is being used, this program is run on a daily basis.

Allocate Available Inventory - Used to allocate available inventory to backordered sales order line items.  This program allocates the available inventory to sales orders in sales order schedule date order and changes the status of the allocated to lines from "B" (backordered) to "O" (open) so that the picklists for the orders may be printed.  This program should be run daily.

Print Picking Lists - This program is used to print a single picklist or a range of picklists.  A picklist is a document produced by the system which lists the items which are required to fill a particular sales order and which have been allocated to the order by the system.  The picklist lists the items on the order that are available to be shipped to the customer.  Picklists may be printed automatically by the system each time an order is saved and they may also be printed in batches.  When the scheduled shipping system is used, picklists are printed automatically by the Sales Order Entry program.  Picklists are also printed in batches by sales order schedule date.  Each morning, the operator prints the picklists with schedule dates through which available inventory has been allocated. 

Procedures

Determine Scheduling Range to be Used - The scheduling range entered into the system determines how far ahead inventory is to be reserved to fill open orders.  If a sales order is entered into the system and it falls into the scheduling range, the system will allocate available inventory to the line items on the order at the time the order is entered into the system.  If the sales order does not fall into the scheduling range, the system will increment the total reserved quantity in inventory for the items on the order but the system will not allocate the on hand inventory quantities (if any) to that particular order at the time it is entered.  Companies which are able to order inventory and receive it in a short period of time may use a narrow scheduling range, while companies which produce their own goods or which have long reorder times to deal with will use a wider range.  As noted earlier the scheduling window can be either system wide or set on an item by item basis using the F248: SCHRANGE system control parameter.

Determine how frequently inventory is to be allocated to backordered sales order lines - When the scheduled shipping system is being used, inventory is allocated to sales orders in sales order number order.  In most cases, the shipper company allocates available inventory on a daily basis.  In some situations, (high inventory turnover rate, multiple inventory receipts per day) the shipper company may wish to allocate inventory more than once per day.  The allocation frequency to be used depends on the sales volume of the shipper and the number of inventory receipts that the shipper company enters each day.  The allocation frequency may also depend on the workload of the shipper company staff.  A greater allocation frequency provides the shipper company with more up to date inventory information.  More frequent allocation may also allow the shipper to process more orders in a given day.  The disadvantage to allocating more than once per day is allocation is a very system intensive process and may slow the system down.  Regardless of the frequency to be used, it is very important that the allocation procedure be performed on a regular basis.  A suggested schedule might be to run the procedure each morning before filling any orders and after the bulk of each day’s receiving is done.

Enter the Scheduled Shipping parameters into the System Control file - The scheduled shipping system makes use of the information that is entered for the following parameters in the System Control file (file 248).  These parameters must be properly set up by the system administrator or Cove Systems personnel prior to any sales order processing.  Please see the System Administrators Reference of the documentation for more information about the System Control file.

SCHRANGE - The scheduling range in days.  This parameter determines the # of days ahead for which inventory is reserved for sales orders.  The sales order entry program compares the scheduled date for each order line item to the system date and the scheduling range.  If the schedule date for the item is within the scheduling range, the system adds the order line item qty to the Reserved and the Total Reserved quantities for the item in the Inventory Master file.  If the schedule date for the line item falls outside the scheduling range, the system adds the order line item quantity to the Total Reserved qty for the item in the Inventory Master file.  The reserved qty for the item is not increased if the line item does not fall within the scheduling range.  If -1 is entered for this parameter, the system uses the lead days for each inventory item (from the Inventory Master file) as the scheduling window for that item.  If 00 is entered for this parameter, the system will use a scheduling range of 999 days for all inventory items.  If 00 or 999 days are entered as the SCHRANGE, the system will place all order lines in one scheduling window and the Inventory Reserved Qty for each item will always be the same as the Total Reserved quantity.

PLWINDOW - Number of days to print picklists ahead for.  This is used by the automatic print picklist routine that runs at the end of order entry and to set the default for the print pick list program.

Ship Complete Hold Processing

          (Beta Specification - Not implemented!!!)

In order to make the on-demand processing of pick lists more efficient a “hold” is used to delay shipment of “ship complete/no partials” orders.   This type of hold never appears in the “sales order hold” file and is used as an internal processing function.  The hold code (#) is visible but may not be processed by users with the Sales Order Release screen as the system maintains this automatically.  The following text describes its usage.

When an order is originally saved, but cannot be shipped completely a “#” hold is placed in the order header and in each of the sales order lines.   This causes the order to not automatically print at the on-demand station nor appear on the read-picklist queue.

The no-partial flag is processed at two points in the life of a sales order; first when the sales order is first saved, then each time goods are allocated to a line on the sales order.  When inventory is allocated to a sales order line the system checks the “partial” flag in the sales order header.  If the flag is set to no (“N”), and the system has just allocated enough to the line being processed to completely fill it, the system loops through all the lines of the sales order.  If it does not find any un-shippable lines the partial flag (“#”) is removed from all the lines on the sales order and the sales order header.

 

The Order Processing Programs are used to process or prepare sales orders and loaner or shipper orders so that they can be filled using the Order Fulfillment System.  The Order Processing Programs allow you to perform the following primary tasks or business processes.

Releasing Sales Orders from Hold

Defining the Safety Stock levels that are reserved in the system for specific customer and item combinations.  Safety Stock allows you to prevent the system from automatically allocating below a specific quantity for an item so that the item is always available for one or more particular customers.

Reconciling the Quantities that are maintained in each Inventory or Warehouse record based on the open sales, shop orders, and purchase orders for the item, and the backordered sales orders for the item.

Allocating Inventory to the Sales and Shop Orders that are entered into the system. 

Manually adjusting the Allocation for an Item as required to ensure that the desired sales or shop order receives the item (i.e. over-riding the automatic allocation that is performed by the system).

Producing reports on Open and Backordered Sales Orders and Sales Order Intake.

More:

Order Processing System Startup Checklist