Modules:Distribution Orders/User Documentation

This feature is available starting from 3.0PR17Q3.

Introduction

The purpose of this new functionality is to allow to distribute products between warehouses and organizations that belong to the same legal entity.

This is done by a pair of documents: The request document (Distribution Order Receipt) and the Issue document (Distribution Order Issue). The process can be initiated from both sides. Depending on the quantities requested, confirmed and finally issued in these documents, the goods movements are generated.

There is a different documentation wiki for Distribution Orders integrated with Advanced Warehouse Operations.

Group of Inventory- and Supply Chain Management functionalities

The Distribution Orders module has been created in order to enhance Openbravo with the ability to plan, organize and execute shipments from- and to sites (shops, warehouses, outlets) that belong to the same legal entity but are in a different physical location / address.

It is an important part of a set of functionalities that all together bring first class inventory management and supply chain capabilities. The complete set is:

• Enhancements in the Supply Chain concerning PLANNING & EXECUTION of INCOMING INVENTORY:
  • FairShare ('Push'-Model)

• Enhancements in the Supply Chain concerning MANAGEMENT of IN-HOUSE INVENTORY:
  • Unit of Measure Conversions
  • Inventory Status
  • Referenced Inventory
  • Advanced Warehouse Operations, including mobile inventory procedures.
  • Advanced Warehouse Operations for Manufacturing

• Enhancements in the Supply Chain concerning PLANNING & EXECUTION of OUTGOING INVENTORY:
  • Distribution Orders with Advanced Warehouse Operations
  • Vehicle and Transport management

Functionality

In the common 'pull' flow, a Distribution Order Receipt is created. When the status changes to 'Booked', it will then automatically create a Distribution Order Issue. In a less common 'push' flow, the Distribution Order Issue is created and, when 'Booked' it will create automatically the Distribution Order Receipt.

Distribution Orders can only be created across Organizations that belong to the same Legal Entity.

Configuration

Usually, there is no need to configure anything to work with Distribution Orders. By default Distribution Orders work within the legal entity scope, so we can send/receive goods from warehouses defined within the organization's legal entity scope.

However, we can configure the warehouses visible at Warehouse Issue and Warehouse Receipt selectors to fine tune the default behavior.

In Organization window we have the "Distribution Orders Configuration" section where we can select an organization in "Default DO Organization Tree Scope" selector. The warehouses configured for organizations in the child tree defined in this selector will be shown in the Warehouse Receipt for Distribution Order Issue and for the Warehouse Issue for Distribution Order Receipt. By default this field is set equals to the organization's legal entity, which is the usual configuration.

Besides, we can configure "Additional DO Warehouses" in the corresponding Tab inside Organization window. This tab allows to fine tune each Warehouse: whether we want it to be shown in the Warehouse Receipt for Distribution Order Issue, and for the Warehouse Issue for Distribution Order Receipt.

Both configurations will be considered to show the available warehouses for the Warehouse selectors in Distribution Order Issue and Distribution Order Receipt.

The US West Organization will be able to create Distribution Orders with warehouses defined within the US organization (its legal entity). Two exceptions are added: it won't be possible to create a DOr from the US East Coast warehouse, but it will be possible to create a DOr from España Región Norte warehouse (which is outside of the US child tree)

Documents

Distribution Order Receipt

Fields to notice:

In the Document Header:

• Document No.: By default, this number follows it's own unique sequence, but it can be set to match the Distribution Order Issue Document Number. The configuration is described in the Sharing document number in Distribution Order Receipt/Issue.
• Document Status: Shows the Status of the Distribution Order Receipt Document. It can be Draft, Booked, Confirmed or Closed.
• Receipt Status: Shows the percentage of stock received out of the confirmed quantity.
• Organization: Organization for which the Distribution Order Receipt is created.
• Warehosue Receipt: Warehouse that is going to receive the stock. This Warehouse must belong to the Organization of the document or to a child Organization of it.
• Warehouse Issue: Warehouse to which the stock is being requested. This Warehouse must belong to the join of warehouses configured for organizations in the tree of the "Default DO Organization Tree Scope" selector of Organization window and warehouses defined in "Additional DO Warehouses" Tab.
• Override DO Warehouses Configuration: Define if we override Warehouse configuration for DO Issue allowing to select all warehouses in Warehouse Issue and Warehouse Receipt selectors

In the Document Lines:

• Product: Product for which the stock is being requested
• Operative Quantity: The quantity ordered in the Alternative UOM.
• Alternative UOM: Defaulted with the primary logistic unit for this product.
• Ordered Quantity: Quantity requested for the selected Product
• Confirmed Quantity: Quantity that has been confirmed to be issued
• Issued Quantity: Quantity that has been already issued
• Received Quantity: Quantity that has been received

Create a new Distribution Order Receipt

This document is the request, where the organization requests the products to another organization, in the header the user must select the warehouse to which the products are requested and the warehouse where they will be received. In the lines the user has to select the product to request and the quantity needed.

The initial state of the document is Draft. When booking the document, the process will be responsible for creating the document Distribution Order Issue, creating a copy of this document for the organization that will deliver the products.

Once created, the Distribution Order Issue is associated with the document in the Referenced Distribution Order Issue field.

Document created by a Distribution Order Issue

If this document is created by Distribution Order Issue, the header and lines can not be updated. The status of the document will be Confirmed and associated with the source document.

Distribution Order Issue

Fields to notice:

In the Document Header:

• Document No.: By default, this number follows it's own unique sequence, but it can be set to match the Distribution Order Receipt Document Number. The configuration is described in the Sharing document number in Distribution Order Receipt/Issue.
• Document Status: Shows the Status of the Distribution Order Issue Document. It can be Draft, Requested, Confirmed or Closed.
• Issue Status: Shows the percentage of stock issued out of the confirmed quantity.
• Organization: Organization for which the Distribution Order Issue is created.
• Warehosue Issue: Warehouse that is going to send the stock. This Warehouse must belong to the Organization of the document or to a child Organization of it.
• Warehouse Receipt: Warehouse to which the stock is being sent. This Warehouse must belong to the join of warehouses configured for organizations in the tree of the "Default DO Organization Tree Scope" selector of Organization window and warehouses defined in "Additional DO Warehouses" Tab.
• Override DO Warehouses Configuration: Define if we override Warehouse configuration for DO Issue allowing to select all warehouses in Warehouse Issue and Warehouse Receipt selectors

In the Document Lines:

• Product: Product for which the stock is being requested
• Operative Quantity: The quantity ordered in the Alternative UOM.
• Alternative UOM: Defaulted with the primary logistic unit for this product.
• Ordered Quantity: Quantity requested for the selected Product
• Confirmed Quantity: Quantity that is confirmed to be issued
• Issued Quantity: Quantity that has been already issued
• Received Quantity: Quantity that has been received

Create a new Distribution Order Issue

This document is the planning of the stock that is going to be issued. Just like the Receipt Distribution Order, the user must select the warehouse from which the products will be obtained as well as the warehouse where they will be received. In the lines the user has to specify the product to be supplied, the quantity and the alternate UOM, if applicable.

The document is created in a Draft state. The booking process will be responsible for creating the Distribution Order Receipt document, creating a copy of this document for the organization that will receive the products.

Document created by a Distribution Order Receipt

If this document was generated from a Distribution Order Receipt, only the field Scheduled Delivery Date can be modified in the header and the field Confirmed Quantity in the lines. By setting the quantity of the product to be sent to the warehouse this will update the related Distribution Order Receipt. This quantity must be greater than 0.

The Confirm process updates the line quantities of the Distribution Order Receipt document according to the confirmed quantities.

Sharing document number in Distribution Order Receipt/Issue

This feature is available starting from 1.2.221000.

In order to use the same Document Number for both Distribution Order Documents (Issue and Receipt) it is necessary to configure the Document Types and the preference accordingly.

A possible configuration for this functionality could be:

1. Create a new preference. Create a new record in the preference window with the values

• Property: Copy Document Number In Distribution Orders
• Value: Y
• Visible at Client: Current client. This allows to override the default definition provided for System

1. Define a common Document Sequence for both Document Types. Create a new record in the Document Sequence Window. This new sequence will be used for the Distribution Order Documents.
2. Change the Document Sequence in the Document Types. Go to the Document Types used for Distribution Orders (by default, 2 are provided by the module) and set the previously created Sequence for both of them

Note: with this preference enabled, it might be also possible to have several Document Types for Distribution Orders defined for different organizations. In this case, each pair should have it's own Document Sequence defined for the correct organization, and it's highly recommended to define each document sequence with a unique prefix or suffix to avoid conflicts with the numbering.

Issue Distribution Order

Fields to notice:

In the Document Header:

• Organization: Organization for which the Issue Distribution Order is created.
• Distribution Order: The Distribution Order Issue Document that has been confirmed and needs to be delivered.
• In Transit Bin: The Storage Bin that will be used as a Transit Bin to move the stock from this Organization to the one requesting it.

In the Document Lines:

• Product: The Product that is being delivered
• Storage Bin: The Storage Bin from which the Product is being picked
• New Storage Bin: The Storage Bin to which the Stock is moved, it must be the same as the In Transit Bin of the Header
• Distribution Order Line: The Distribution Order Issue Line that has confirmed the delivery of this Product. This field is mandatory and must be filled always.

The Issue Distribution Order is the goods movement that is responsible for moving the products to a transit bin, the products are obtained from a Distribution Order Issue, which must be in a confirmed state. It only takes into account the quantity Confirmed selected in the Distribution order field. The user must also select the bin to where the products will be moved (In transit bin).

The Generate Issue button is responsible for obtaining the products that are present in the Distribution Order Issue and adding them to the movement, as well as looking for the bin where there is stock for them. The process is also responsible for updating the quantities and issue status in the related Distribution Order Issue and Receipt.

It is also possible to create an Issue Distribution Order Line manually, but this line must be related always to a Distribution Order Issue Line that has confirmed quantity for the same Product as the created line. Also, the New Storage Bin must be the same as the In Transit Bin of the Header and the Storage Bin must be one that has stock for the selected Product.

Receive Distribution Order

Fields to notice:

In the Document Header:

• Organization: Organization for which the Receive Distribution Order is created.
• Issue Movement: The Issue Distribution Order Document that has been completed to deliver the stock to the selected Organization.

In the Document Lines:

• Product: The Product that is being received
• Storage Bin: The Storage Bin that has the stock, is the same In Transit Storage Bin of the Issue Distribution Order Document
• New Storage Bin: The Storage Bin that is going to receive the stock
• Distribution Order Line: The Issue Distribution Order Line that has delivered this Product. This field is mandatory and must be filled always.

The Receive Distribution Order is the document responsible for the reception of the Stock of products sent in the Issue Distribution Order. To create it, select a Distribution Order Issue that is already completed (100% delivered).

The Generate Receipt button is responsible for obtaining the products of the Issue Distribution Order and generating the Receive Distribution Order lines for them. The user must also select the bin to where the products arrive. The process also updates the information in the associated Distribution Order Receipt and Issue documents.