As each sales order or shop order line for a stocking item is saved, the system examines the schedule date on the order line and the current status (quantities) of the item being ordered. The system also checks the replenishment/fulfillment flags that have been set at the inventory level and at the sales order line level for the item being processed.
The inventory and sales order replenishment flags are used to determine and control the replenishment/fulfillment method used for the item or sales order line being entered. The Replenishment/Fulfillment methods are described in more detail in later sections of this document. Basically, the options include
• Warehouse: The item is supplied from your on hand warehouse quantities for the item, or it is ordered based on the inventory quantities and reorder information for the item. The item is then received into stock (the warehouse) so that it can be shipped to the customer.
• Special Order: When a sales order line is entered as a special order line, a purchase order requisition is automatically created by the system for the specific sales order line being processed. The Requisition line is then converted to a PO line using the PO Requisition Management Program. The item on the PO is then received into stock and allocated to the specific sales order line it was created for. This logic is used to support situations where you only purchase the item when you have a specific customer order for it (you special order it as required).
• Vendor Ship: When a sales order line is entered as a vendor shipment, a purchase order requisition is automatically created by the system the specific sales order line being processed. The Requisition line is then converted to a PO line using the PO Requisition Management Program. The Vendor Ship purchase order that is created in the Requisition Management program is used by the vendor to ship the item directly to your customer (the item is never received into the warehouse, and the shipping information from the sales order is transferred into the vendor PO so that the vendor can deliver the goods directly to your customer).
• IFT: The Inter-Facility Transfer system is used to transfer goods between your physical warehouses and this method is not used to fulfill customer orders. The IFT System is described in more detail later in this document and in the documentation for the IFT System.
If the order line being processed is set up for warehouse fulfillment and sufficient stock is available, and the order is within the scheduling window (please see the Order Processing Manual for more information about the scheduling window), the system allocates the available stock to the order line. The system also updates the reserved, total reserved and allocated quantities for the item in the Inventory Master file as appropriate. If a sales or shop order for a stocking line is saved, and there is not any available stock for the item, the sales or shop order line is not allocated to, but the inventory quantities for the item are adjusted to show the additional demand for the item.
If the order line being processed is a warehouse shipment and it is entered with a schedule date outside of the scheduling window, the system will save the order line as Open, it will not allocate to the line, and it will update only the total reserved quantity for the item. Later, once the order line falls into the scheduling window, the system will add the open order quantity to the reserved quantity for the item, and it will either allocate inventory to the line (if available) or set the line to backorder status (if no inventory is available).
If the order line being processed is set up for special order or vendor shipment (only one of these methods may be selected on a single sales order line), the system automatically creates a PO requisition for the sales order line as the order is saved and the appropriate inventory quantity fields are updated.