When a distribution order is released, a customer order line is created on the supply site and a purchase order line is created on the demand site. When you release distribution orders, you have four options:
Note: Also possible to release distribution order via distribution allocation.
The orders that can be merged must be in the Released or Reserved status, and the values in the distribution order must match the demand site, supply site, order type, delivery address, forwarding agent, language code, ship via, delivery terms, route, automatic receipt and currency. If an appropriate customer order and purchase order does not exist, new customer orders and purchase orders will be automatically created. You can add lines to a selected customer order and purchase order where all the currently released distribution orders have the same values for the demand site, supply site, order type, delivery address, forwarding agent, language code, ship via, delivery terms, route, automatic receipt and currency.
The customer order and purchase order are created in a background process to enable the use of the same reservation, shipment, and receipt processes for the distribution orders as for the customer orders and purchase orders respectively. The reservation, shipment, and receipt processes can be reached from the distribution order. Executing the processes are done in the same way, no matter what kind of order is executed. Note: the internal customer order lines are created with a supply code set to Inventory Order. The supply code will be set to Inventory Order regardless of how the sourcing option is set on the sales part.
By releasing a planned distribution order, the move is no longer planned but definite. At what point a distribution order should be released is an important decision that affects the flexibility in planning distribution orders. Usually, the coordinator is responsible that this becomes a balanced decision. Re-planning is easier for planned distribution orders, because they can be manually or automatically deleted. Released distribution orders cannot be deleted (manual change or cancellation is possible). The supply site (having a certain part lead-time) needs to have the distribution order released at some point or another. How long before the due date the distribution order should be released (i.e. the move becomes definite) depends on the planning environment to which the sites belong.
Depending on the order type and the automatic receipt parameter, the distribution order will be executed more or less automatically. The order type controls how the distribution order will be handled on the supply site, in the reservation, picking, and delivery process. The automatic receipt parameter controls whether the receipt will be done manually on the demand site. If the Automatic Receipt feature is used, the distribution order will be received into the proposed location instantly when the distribution order is delivered from the supply site. By using as much automation as possible, the release operation can get distribution orders delivered from the supply site, and received into stock on the demand site (i.e. Closed status) with only one user operation.