Loading of Consolidated Shipment
General Information
Loading Process
Find or Create
Consolidated Shipment
Load Handling Unit
Unload Handling Unit
Finish Loading
Re-open for Loading
Restriction
when Loading is Started or Finished
In the outbound logistics process, the loading of transport vehicles is
an important step to ensure that the right material is delivered to the right
place in the right time. The consolidated shipment represents the transport
vehicle i.e., one departure of one or several shipments from the specified
site, to all the delivery addresses of the connected shipments. Handling
Units from different shipments can be loaded to a consolidated shipment.
The benefits with using the loading process in the outbound logistics
process are:
- Improve Quality of Logistics - Enhance accuracy and customer
satisfaction by confirming the loading of handling units, ensuring that
the right handling unit is loaded and delivered to the right place in
the right time.
- Simple & Efficient Process - Experience the perfect balance of
simplicity and accuracy with this streamlined process, ensuring
efficiency for the warehouse worker.
- Handling of Exceptions - Being able to handle exceptions efficiently
e.g., more handling units can be loaded as there is more room on the
vehicle.
- Efficient Planning – Easy to plan and replan. Transport Planner can
replan in efficient way e.g., deliver what is loaded and deliver what
was not loaded in the next vehicle
- Flexible Process – Loading based on plan vs execution. Depending on
the operation and the situation, the most suitable and productive
approach can be used.
- Reduce Environmental Footprint – Increased utilization of the
transports with this flexible solution, minimizing environmental impact.
Depending on situation and you operation two different approaches for
loading exists:
- Loading based on plan – the scope of the consolidated shipment is
planned in advance
- Loading is a matter of confirming that handling units are loaded
according to the plan
- Possible to handle exceptions e.g., there are room for more
handling units in the transport vehicle
- Useful when more preparation is needed e.g., transports must be
booked early; a lot of paperwork, administration and approvals are
needed
- Loading based on execution – the actual loading decides the scope of
the shipments and the consolidated shipment
- Loading initiated by for instance route, forwarder or similar,
the consolidated shipment is created when the transport vehicle
arrives
- Loading proceeds until capacity of the transport vehicle is
reached or there is nothing more to load
- Used if it is more of a constant flow of material and transports
can be easily booked
The loading process is managed in the Load Consolidated
Shipment page and consists of the following steps:
- Find or Create Consolidated Shipment
- Load Handling Unit
- Unload Handling Unit - if changes are needed
- Finish Loading
- Re-open for Loading - if changes are needed
Each of the steps will be described more in detail below.
During the execution of the loading process, the progress can be followed
via the loading indicator on the shipment and the consolidated shipment,
possible values are:
- Not Started
- Shipment - no handling unit in the shipment is loaded
- Consolidated Shipment - no handling unit from any shipment is
loaded
- In Progress
- Shipment - at least one handling unit in the shipment is loaded
- Consolidated Shipment - at least one handling unit from any
shipment is loaded
- Finished
In addition, the development of weight and volume of the loaded handling
units can be followed and compared against the capacity of the consolidated
shipment as you load and unload handling units.
The first step in the loading process is to find an exiting or create a
new consolidated shipment that should be loaded in the Load
Consolidated Shipment page. Depending on the loading approach
used you take different actions:
- Loading based on plan - filter out the planned consolidated shipment
- Loading based on execution - create a new consolidated shipment
In the consolidated shipment desired information can be entered about
forwarder, ship via, shipment location, planned ship date/time, route,
capacity etc. For planned consolidated shipment these are most likely
entered in advance.
Next step is to load the handling units that are picked, packed, labeled
and ready for loading. This is done in the Handling Units to
Load tab, where you can filter out the handling units you want
to load and then execute the Load Handling Unit command.
There are different possibilities to filter out the handling units to load
depending on the need:
- Search Contexts can be used for quick filtrations
- Connected Shipments - When ticked only the
handling units of the shipments connected to the consolidated
shipment will be shown. This is useful when loading based on plan,
and will be ticked by default when connected shipments exists.
- Planned Ship Date/Time - provides possibility
to filter out handling units from shipments using planned ship
date/time.
- All Dates - no filtration on planned ship
date/time - useful in the planned scenario as everything should
be included, or if you have available capacity and want to find
more to load
- Matching or Earlier - will show
handling units from shipments with planned ship date/time same
or earlier than the consolidated shipment - useful to include
handling units not delivered in previous delivery
- Matching - will show handling units from
shipments with planned ship date/time same as the consolidated
shipment - useful to include what is planned distinctly
- Matching Forwarder / Matching Ship Via / Matching Route
/ Matching Shipment Location / Matching Shipment Type
- Used in case any of the these parameters entered on the
consolidated shipment should be used to filter out handling
units from shipments with the same value on the parameter. As an
example if loading of a certain route should happen, create
consolidated shipment with that route ID, select Matching Route
and then start loading of the handling units from shipments
having that route ID.
- In addition normal list filtration could be used e.g., filter on
receiver, source reference, receiver address, shipment ID.
When the Load Handling Unit command is executed, the
handling unit is connected to the consolidated shipment via the source
references on the handling unit and can be seen in the Loaded
Handling Units tab. Furthermore, this can be seen in the
Loaded to Consolidated Shipment ID field in other pages
e.g. the Shipment Handling Unit Structure page. If
this is the first handling unit that is loaded the loading indicator will be
set to In Progress.
Note: it is only in the planned scenario and when
loading according to the plan, that the shipment and handling unit is
connected to the same consolidated shipment. In addition handling units from
the same shipment could be loaded to different consolidated shipment. When
loading is done, the Finish Loading command will adjust the scope of the
shipments and establish the correct connection to the consolidated shipment
based on the loading done.
In the Loaded Handling Units tab the loaded
handling units can be seen and it is possible to unload the handling unit
via the Unload Handling Unit command. This is
useful to handle exceptions and mistakes e.g., incorrect handling unit was
loaded, turns out that the handling unit will not fit in the transport
vehicle.
At unloading, the handling unit is disconnected from the consolidated
shipment, and the handling unit can no longer be seen in the
Loaded Handling Units tab. Furthermore, the Loaded to
Consolidated Shipment ID field will be empty. If this is the last
handling unit that was loaded the loading indicator will be set back to
Not Started.
When the loading is done it is possible to finish the loading using the
Finish Loading command in the Load Consolidated
Shipment page. This will change the loading indicator to
Finished on the consolidated shipment and its connected
shipments. The loaded handling units will decide the scope of the shipments
and connect them to the consolidated shipment if not connected already. The
algorithm when loading is finished for a consolidated shipment is described
below:
- The loaded handing units decides the scope of the shipments:
- If all handling units of a shipment have been loaded into the
consolidated shipment, then the scope of the shipment is kept
- If any handling unit of a shipment has not been loaded into the
consolidated shipment, then reassign all handling units loaded into
the consolidated shipment, into a new shipment
- When the scope of the shipments is adjusted via bullet 1, the
connection to the consolidated shipment should be managed:
- If all handling units in the shipment has been loaded into the
consolidated shipment, then connect the shipment to the consolidated
shipment (if not connected from before)
- If any handling unit has not been loaded to the consolidated
shipment, then disconnect the shipment from the consolidated
shipment (if connected from before)
When loading is finished the shipment process can continue with the next
steps in the shipment flow i.e., complete, deliver, close.
When loading is finished for the consolidated shipment, it is still
possible to re-open for loading in case it turns out that more loading or
unloading of handling units is needed. This can be done using the
Re-open for Loading command in the Load Consolidated
Shipment page. This will turn the loading indicator back to
In Progress. Note: the restructuring of the shipments and
connection to consolidated shipment done at finish loading will not be
reverted.
When loading is started or finished some of the other activities in the
shipment are restricted. It is not possible to:
- Change the content or the structure of a loaded handling unit e.g.,
change parent, attach parts, unattach parts
- Return, scrap or move in shipment inventory after loading
- Deliver when loading has started but is not finished
- Cancel shipment when loading is in progress
- Connect or disconnect shipment from consolidated shipment when
loading is finished
- Change the scope of the shipment when loading is finished e.g.,
connect/disconnect lines, modify quantity
- Reassign is not possible when loading is finished