This activity is used to specify the different shipment types that are used in your company. The NA (Not Automatic), NR (Create New Shipment at Release), AR (Add to Existing Shipment at Release), NP (Create New Shipment at Pick List Creation), and AP (Add to Existing Shipment at Pick List Creation) shipment types are set up as part of the installation, however, these types can be changed and deleted as desired. Add a new type while using no more than 3 alphanumeric characters when entering the short code for the shipment type in the Shipment Type field. The task of entering or modifying shipment types is to be performed by a system administrator or an equivalent personnel, and should be considered carefully.
The shipment type is used to control the shipment flow. The shipment processes of your company determine how the shipment type should be defined to get a streamlined and effective process. Shipment types can be entered per site, per customer delivery address, per supply chain relation or per remote warehouse as a default.
In the context of customer orders the default shipment type defined per supply chain relation has the highest priority, then per customer delivery address and last per site. The default shipment type will be retrieved to customer orders, shipment orders and shipments but it can be changed manually if required. The control of the progress is handed over from the order type to the shipment type as soon as a shipment is created.
In the context of shipment orders, the default shipment type is dependent on the sender and receiver on the order. For details about the fetching process, see About Shipment Order.
The shipment type controls which events in the shipment flow are performed automatically and which events must be performed manually. This is controlled by enabling the Stop After option for an event. If, for example, you enable it for the Print Pick List and Report Picking events, this means that you must pick report the parts and complete the shipment manually, but all the other events in the shipment flow will be done automatically.
In addition, the shipment type can be used to trigger optional events at the execution of an event in the main flow. This is done by connecting optional events to the main event. If you, for instance, want to generate a handling unit structure and print transport labels at pick list creation, these optional events are connected to the Create Pick List event. It is also possible to Send Freight Booking Message automatically at any main event, for instance, when completing the Shipment.
The Packing Proposal, if entered, controls what Handling Unit Types should be considered and what methods to use when running the packing proposal for a shipment. The field is inherited to the shipment but can be updated if needed.
If you enable the Use Shipment Inventory option, then shipments associated with this shipment type will use a shipment inventory location once the items are picked, for the purpose of collecting or staging the goods together before delivery. Note that a shipment inventory location will be used if a shipment has a default shipment location entered, regardless of whether the option is enabled or not.
If you enable the Keep remaining reservation at Partial Picking option, then when you partly pick a pick list line the reservation will be kept and you will be able to pick the remaining quantity on the same pick list later. This is useful if you are not able to pick everything at the same time due to some constraint (e.g., what you pick does not fit on the forklift or in the handling unit you pack into), then you can pick multiple times until you have picked everything.
If you enable the Online Processing option, the steps are processed online (preventing you from doing any further work until the shipment events are processed). If the option is disabled, the shipment events are processed as a background job, allowing you to continue with other work in the application. Note that if you are working with large shipments with many lines and shipment types that perform a lot of events automatically, you might experience poor performance while processing the events online.
If the Approve Shipment before Delivery option is enabled, the shipment delivery will be halted where additional documents are required, until such documents have been received.
The Shipment Creation field specifies whether shipments should be created automatically based on a certain triggering point in the source object. In the context of customer orders, you can automatically create a shipment when releasing a customer order or when creating a pick list. In the context of shipment orders, you can automatically create a shipment when releasing a shipment order. In the context of supplier return, you can automatically create a shipment at reporting the return. The parameter will be defaulted to the order via the shipment type.
The Consolidated Shipment Creation field specifies whether the new shipments should be connected to consolidated shipment automatically. This is defined by the Automatic Creation of Consolidated Shipment toggle which is in disabled status by default. You can enable this toggle for new shipments to be connected to existing or new consolidated shipments automatically.
Optionally you can define consolidation parameters for shipment to be used when order lines are connected automatically to shipments. The following consolidation parameters are available: source ref 1, planned ship date, planned delivery date, route, forwarder, reference ID, dock code, sub dock code and to location. So for instance, by adding planned ship date and route as consolidation parameters, only order lines with the same planned ship date and route will be consolidated automatically into the same shipment. The consolidation parameters are not considered when you manually connect an order line to a shipment.
Additonally, you can define consolidation parameters for the consolidated shipment to be used when the new shipments are connected automatically to exsiting or new consolidated shipments. The following consolidation parameters for consolidation shipments are available: Planned Ship Date, Route, Ship-via Code, Forwarder, Shipment Location.
For Shipment Orders, the setting Automatic Receipt can be enabled if you want the shipment order to be automatically received at the same instant as the delivery of the shipment. The functionality includes the usage of DESADV so the message class needs to be configured as well for the flow to work. As an example, this can be useful when parts in a shipment should be picked up at sender location. The delivery and receipt can then be executed in one step and the parts are immediately transferred to the receiving inventory.
This activity has no prerequisites.