Projects/Distribution Orders/User Document AWO
Contents |
Introduction
Distribution Orders
In a business environment with one or multiple distribution centers and a number of outlets/shops/local warehouses that all belong to the same legal entity, the replenishment (inter-warehouse replenishment) is to be executed with Distribution Orders (DO). For distribution of goods within a legal entity, a PO-SO (purchase order - sales order) pair can not be used since this implies a change of ownership and subsequent invoicing.
This implies the following characteristics:
- There is never a single DO, the DO is always a pair consisting of a DOr (Type 'Receipt') and a DOi (Type 'Issue');
- The sending warehouse is interested in the DOi while the receiving warehouse is interested in the DOr;
- From a logistical perspective the DO-pair behaves identical to the PO-SO pair;
- Unlike the SO, the shipping activity will not execute a Goods Issue transaction but a Goods Movement to an intermediate location with an In-Transit Status;
- Unlike the PO, the receipts activity will not execute a Goods Receipt transaction but a Goods Movement from the intermediate location;
- There will not be a Business Partner linked to DO but a sending and a receiving warehouse;
- There is no invoicing involved, but there might be a stock revaluation when the costs of a product is different in different warehouses.
It must be mentioned that, being part of the Advanced Supply Chain suite of Openbravo, the expected receipts and expected issues are only considered in the planning/MRP of the Advanced Forecasting and Planning module.
In Openbravo the DOi can be created first and it will automatically create the corresponding DOr. But also the DOr can be created first, this will create the corresponding DOi automatically. So it really does not matter where the distribution is initiated from, and this is done to facilitate both the Pull-model and the Push-model. This creation can be done manually or automatically with the Advance Forecasting and Planning software as mentioned here.
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:
- (17Q3) Distribution Orders. Integration aspects (configuration & operation) with Advanced Warehouse Operations are covered in this Wiki.
- FairShare and Push-Planning
- Enhancements in the Supply Chain concerning MANAGEMENT of IN-HOUSE INVENTORY:
- (16Q4) Advanced Warehouse Operations for Manufacturing
- (17Q1) Unit of Measure Conversions. Integration aspects (configuration & operation) with Advanced Warehouse Operations are covered in this Wiki.
- (17Q3) Inventory Status. Integration aspects (configuration & operation) with Advanced Warehouse Operations are covered in this Wiki.
- (17Q4) Advanced Warehouse Operations, including mobile inventory procedures.
- (18Q2) Referenced Inventory. Integration aspects (configuration & operation) with Advanced Warehouse Operations are covered in this Wiki.
- (18Q2) Controlled Attribute Change.
- Enhancements in the Supply Chain concerning PLANNING & EXECUTION of OUTGOING INVENTORY:
- (17Q3) Distribution Orders. Integration aspects (configuration & operation) with Advanced Warehouse Operations are covered in this Wiki.
- Vehicle and Transport management
Licences
- License: Public, except the integration with Advanved Warehouse Operations.
- Category: Module
Configuration
There is no specific configuration for Distribution Orders.
Configuration in combination with Advanced Warehouse Operations
Distribution Orders introduces three new Inventory Transaction Types (ITT) to Advanced Warehouse Operations (AWO):
- PIK-DO "Pick Distribution Order"
- ISS-DO "Issue Distribution Order"
- RCT-DO "Receipt Distribution Order"
In-Transit Warehouse
Inventory that is moved with distribution orders will not change ownership and subsequently should always be visible, including after the issue / before the receipt of the corresponding warehouses. For this reason an "In-Transit" warehouse is configured directly under the organization that is the legal entity and thus owner of the issuing/receiving warehouses.
Each bin in the "In-Transit" warehouse represents a truck or vehicle so that in case there are multiple trucks, there is always visibility of which goods are in which truck.
Routings
The Routings for the ISS-DO and RCT-DO should be defined as "External Routings" because they connect two different warehouses.
Referring to the image above, the Routing for the 'Issue' should have configured the Issue warehouse and the InTransit warehouse, and the routing for 'Receipt should have configured the InTransit and the receipt warehouse.
Routing- and Warehouse Algorithm Assignments
With the exception of the below, this functionality is identical to the Routing Assignments of Advanced Warehouse Operations.
There are no Business Partners involved in a Distribution Order as both from- and to- are warehouses within the same legal entity. However, in order to be able to assign different routings for different Business Partners and/or Categories, it is possible to connect a Business Partner to an Organization in the below tab.
Operation
The mandatory flow for Distribution Orders with Advanced Warehouse Operations is:
- Execute the Picking with the button "Pick" in the window Distribution Order Issue, or from the Front-End menu "Pick".
- Execute the Issue with the button "Issue" in the window Distribution Order Issue, or from the Front-End menu "Issue".
- Execute the Receipt with the button "Receive" in the window Distribution Order Receipt, or from the Front-End menu "Receive".
Create Distribution Order (of type) Issue
The DOi is created in status draft and after pressing "Book" will go to status "Confirmed". Not that the lines can be created in the Logistical Alternate unit of measure.
Note: When creating the DOi manually, the corresponding DOr is created automatically.
Create Distribution Order (of type) Receipt
The DOr is created in status draft and after pressing "Book" will go to status "Booked", awaiting that the issuing warehouse confirms the requested product. Note that the lines can be created in the Logistical Alternate unit of measure.
Note: When creating the DOr manually, the corresponding DOi is created automatically.
Confirm the quantities of the DOi
When the DOr is created manually and booked, the issuing warehouse must confirm the quantities before proceeding to the picking and issuing of the goods.
Pick and Issue the goods with AWO
Confirming the Picking will automatically generate a task with status "Reserved" for the later Issuing. This is done to protect the stock in the IRA after picking against reservations or direct-issues from that IRA.
Observe the goods In-Transit
Receive the goods with AWO
The receiving of the DOr has to be done in the receiving warehouse, either from the back-end or from the front-end. This process not only generates the AWO tasks but also updates the quantities in the DOi/r.
The Receipts process will check for confirmed tasks of the Issue-DO inventory transaction type and will receive all quantities that are found in these tasks, while matching the attributes if any. Tasks for all previous issues, regardless if the material was issued to different in-transit bins/trucks/vehicles, will be created. So in the case that material was issued to more than 1 bin/truck/vehicle, tasks will be generated showing the multiple from-bins and the operator should confirm with qty 0 those tasks that refer to a from-bin/truck/vehicle that was not received and cancel the corresponding delta. This is coherent with how the Reciept for Purchase Order works: Tasks are generated for all open quantities, regardless if the supplier delivered the product. As consequence, we strongly advice:
- Configure the Confirmed Quantity as not-defaulted.
- Configure the Routing as Manually Confirmed.
The Receipt Distribution Order will check for confirmed tasks of the corresponding Issue Distribution Order to ensure that the proper attribute values are received.