Sales Order Consolidation

The Sales Order Consolidation function assists with handling Sales Orders at a line level. It can be used in conjunction with the Batch Sales Order Line Processing function.

While Batch Sales Order Line Processing allows separate treatment of Sales Order lines for processing at each stage of the delivery cycle it has no ability for resulting documents (e.g. packing slips, Invoices etc) to span the boundary of each original order number. In an organisation where individual customers place frequent orders it becomes likely that products for multiple Sales Orders are shipped simultaneously to a customer. There are often gains to be achieved by consolidating lines from individual orders for a customer to single consolidated Sales Order for shipping and subsequent invoicing.

Such a business process requires validation of stock prior to dispatch so that consolidation does not occur for Sales Order lines where stock is physically unavailable. EXO Business provides for signalling confirmation of stock to the database using the optional Picking capability of the software. This allows the operator to enter quantities for stock physically picked (prior to dispatch) as a confirmation that the stock is physically available. Typically at this point the stock has been physically removed from the pick face and placed in a carton, pick tray (or similar) marked for that customer.

To accommodate split quantities (multiple deliveries) per line, the consolidation process relies on the calculation picked, which is supplied when identifying lines as candidates for consolidation. Additional filters may be applied to limit candidate orders by other factors e.g. location, branch, customer, etc. The choices are similar to the Batch Sales Order Line Processing process using the same Task Setup function.

With consolidated orders it is important to identify, for each line, the source origin of the line. This is done from a customer perspective and hence uses the Customer Order Number (usually corresponds to the customers own purchase order number). Each consolidated line has a line level customer order number field set to that of the header of the originating order. Non-consolidated orders leave the line level reference blank.

It is anticipated that customisation of Clarity documents for packing slips, invoices etc will be undertaken by the implementer to conditionally print line level references where non-blank (informing the customer of the origination order number). Where no customer reference was supplied (i.e. left blank) the consolidation process will generate one for the consolidated lines (contains internal Sales Order number)

Prerequisites

Picking must be active and used in Sales Orders, i.e. the Company profile setting Enable sales order pick quantity must be set true.

Workflow processes for a picking phase in the dispatch cycle must also be implemented.

Workflow summary

The following describes a typical workflow surrounding the consolidation process and shows how it may be used in conjunction with Batch Sales Order Line Processing. Functions performed by Batch Sales Order Line Processing in this example could also be manually processed on an individual order basis.

Orders are collected and entered in the normal way.
Batch Sales Order Line Processing is used to create a batch of (unconsolidated) order lines in which Release quantities are activated for allocation of stock
Picking slips printed as instruction to the warehouse.
Picked quantities are entered and processed (possibly by the warehouse staff) as stock is physically verified.
The Sales Order Consolidation process is run to select picked (but unsupplied) quantities and move/split these to consolidated orders grouped by customer code. This requires election of a pre-defined task to activate any filtering that might be required (similar to Batch Sales Order Line Processing).
- The output is a modified set of Sales Orders.
- The Sales Order history data is updated for the contributing orders with a new event class to indicate consolidation has occurred (and quantity moved).
- The released and picked quantities of the contributing lines are reduced by the picked quantity moved and the correction quantity of those lines is updated with the same figure to indicate that the order requirement has been downgraded (shifted to other order lines). Note that if the picked quantity is less that the released quantity then the residual released but not picked quantity remains in the original line.
The Batch Sales Order Line Processing process created another batch of picked but unsupplied so as to process the supply and invoice of the picked but unsupplied orders (including the consolidated ones).
- Packing slips (from supply quantity) and/or Invoices (from invoice quantity) are produced at this point. Paperwork produced will need to be matched with the already picked stock prior to dispatch.
- Note that this is a fresh batch with its own task (selection criteria) and could potentially include a differing set of lines from that processed in the consolidation run including unconsolidated orders and output from multiple consolidation runs.

Limitations

Not all features of EXO Business are supported by the Sales Order Consolidation function. Exceptions are detailed below.

Workflow timing

The consolidation function processes quantity which is picked but not supplied.

The picked quantities must be processed (not just keyed) before consolidation will occur.
Supply quantities may optionally have been keyed but must not have been processed (i.e. quantity which is already part of a Stock transaction will not be consolidated). Any previously processed supply quantity will remain with the original order

These business rules permit multiple dispatch cycles to have occurred for any given line, but only unsupplied goods will be consolidated. These business rules preclude the consolidation phase being between supply and invoice phases.

Amalgamation

Lines for identical products do not amalgamate to a single line per product in the consolidated order. Each line may carry a unique customer reference that must be retained.

When grouping orders the parent /child nature of head office accounts is ignored. Orders for child accounts will amalgamate separately as it they were non-child accounts rather than all child accounts being amalgamated to a single order for head office. This retains reporting integrity for sales analysis purposes.

Stock Batch and Serial numbers

Stock batch codes will travel with the line as it moves to the consolidated order. This is achievable as there can only be one batch code per Sales Order line.

Serial numbers are not processed by the consolidation process. It is not practical to identify which serials of those that may have been pre-assigned should be selected for moving to the consolidated order.

There may also be other serials tagged to the Sales Order which are already supplied (associated with the Stock Transactions that depleted them from stock). As supplied quantity is never moved to the consolidated order the serials for this line which are no longer in stock are not an impediment for consolidation. Only pre-assignment is an impediment.

Credits

Sales orders which have a negative order quantity will eventually result in stock inward and a credit note. The system has been designed to ignore such orders in the consolidation process. It is considered that amalgamation of credit orders would likely defeat business controls associated with the return of goods.