Grouping Customer Orders into one (daily) shipment. Anyone have a good setup that’s functional?

Good Day Everyone!

Included in our portfolio of Customers, we have Customers that order from us a few times a week...and we also have some large Customers that order from us several times a day.

If a Customer places ten orders with us throughout the day, some don’t want to get (or have to pay shipping) for ten separate independent shipments a day.

They have indicated to us that they want their Daily (or Weekly) orders grouped together and sent to them in one "shipment".

We call these Customers "Consolidated Customers", and in our old system we’d set aside all the orders and then at the end of the day process them all together into one shipment.

I’d like to know if anybody has a good working model / process / setup of this in M3?

Obviously this is customer specific, and there are two different choices: Daily Consolidation and Weekly consolidation.

We've tried a couple of setups with different Order Types to identify the Customers, and setting up Shipments...although we had an issue with Shipments not being "customer" specific. I just don’t think we've hit the correct combination.

Any insight would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Steve

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Accepted answers

Justin Wang

Hi Steve,

For (a), have you checked the settings in MWS010, DRS005, and DRS100?

M3 can do the order consolidation at two levels:

1. consolidate orders into the one delivery, controlled by the "One order per delivery number" (DNSP) field in MWS010 (line 020):

The field indicates whether a separate delivery number is created for each order.

Select the check box if a separate delivery number should be created for each order.

If you don't select the check box, then an existing delivery number can be accumulated if it involves:

- Same direction (inbound or outbound)

- Same dispatch policy

- Same order category (CO, DO, RO, MO, and such)

- Same consignee (customer/address ID for CO)

- Distribution orders have the same receiving warehouse

- Same estimated dispatch date & time

- Same terms of delivery

- Same transportation method

- Same delivery note reference (CO via delivery schedule)

2. consolidate deliveries into one shipment, controlled by the "Auto connect to shipment" (AUCO) field in MWS010 (line 330):

The field indicates under what conditions new deliveries are to be automatically connected to a shipment.

Alternatives

0 = No automatic connection

1 = Automatic connection to next open shipment if transport capacity is sufficient

2 = Automatic connection to next open shipment. If transport capacity not is sufficient, no connection will be made. If no open shipment exists, one will be created automatically.

3 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity

4 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity. If no open shipment exists, one will be created automatically.

5 = Automatic connection to next open shipment. If transport capacity not is sufficient, or no open shipment exists, a new shipment will be created for the next possible departure time.

6 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity. If no open shipment exists, a new shipment will be created for the next possible departure time.

7 = Automatic connection to next open shipment. If transport capacity not is sufficient, or no open shipment exists, a new shipment will be created for the same departure time and with the best possible route/departure.

8 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity. If no open shipment exists, a new shipment will be created for the same departure time and with the best possible route/departure.

Note

Alternatives 5 and 6 are for situations where the warehouse will send on the next delivery if the truck is full. Alternatives 7 and 8, on the other hand, are for situations where the warehouse will find another truck to depart the same time if the current truck is full.

Automatic connection only applies to route types with scheduled route departures (that is, route type 4-6), and to those that allow automatic connection to shipment (see (DRS005/F)).

Deliveries are only connected to shipments with matching place of loading, route/route departure, and departure date/time. Closed shipments, shipments that are past deadline, or shipments that are manually prevented from being used for automatic connection (see (DRS100/E)) are not considered.

and the "Shipment consolidation point" (TSIN) field in MWS010 (line 160):

The field indicates the planned time for manual shipment consolidation (except for alternative 8, see Note) and can be used for the selection and grouping of delivery numbers in (MWS410).

Alternatives

0 = Shipment consolidation is optional and can be performed at any time

1 = Before a picking list is created

2 = After a picking list is created

3 = After packing is completed

4 = After goods are moved to docking location

5 = After final report of the picking list

8 = Automatic connection failed - handle as alternative 1

9 = Shipment consolidation is not used.

Note

Alternative 8 is used when an automatic connection to a shipment is initiated and has failed. You can select setting 330 in (MWS010) for automatic connection to shipment. Automatic connection to shipment is always initiated when a new delivery number is created. Deliveries that are not connected to a shipment cannot be released for picking if this value is 1 or 8.

The consolidation of multiple deliveries will only be needed for LTL or parcel (UPS, FedEx, etc.) type of deliveries. For TL type of deliveries, there will not be possible to consolidate multiple TL deliveries into one shipment.

Will the combinations of these settings be able to meet your requirements?

For (b), I guess it will be more of an operational decision - it depends on how busy your warehouse is and how much time it will take to get all the orders on one shipment picked.

Normally for a busy warehouse, the warehouse operations team would love to get all the deliveries released as early as possible. In my previous company (a wholesale distribution company), we let M3 to consolidate multiple orders into one delivery, and then release the delivery to the warehouse as soon as no more change on the orders will be needed. For LTL and Parcel deliveries, our warehouse operation team will do the manual shipment consolidation in WMS.

All comments

jon-litofsky

Hi Steve,

If I am understanding your scenario correctly, we are doing something like this. Our customer orders are not always time bound (day/week as you mention) but they often want to combine orders to optimize shipping or fill a truck. We use an order type that automatically combines orders on a delivery (based on pre-defined rules or via manual adjustment by customer service). Then we release the delivery as a single shipment. We don't actually use the "shipment" functionality in M3 to do this (we use shipments for other reasons). We have also configured summary invoices at the delivery/payer level so we can present a single invoice for the delivery (versus each order) if the customer so desires.

Does that sound like your situation?

Jon

Legacy Contributor

That is exactly our scenario,

Today our team is trying to release, pick, and pack individual orders and then "consolidate" them.

Whereas you guys put all the orders in a Delivery, and then release the Delivery, pick, and pack it?

I'd be interested to hear more about:

(a) how you automatically combine the Orders
(b) how does releasing all those orders at once affects productivity?

Thanks!

Steve

Justin Wang

Hi Steve,

For (a), have you checked the settings in MWS010, DRS005, and DRS100?

M3 can do the order consolidation at two levels:

1. consolidate orders into the one delivery, controlled by the "One order per delivery number" (DNSP) field in MWS010 (line 020):

The field indicates whether a separate delivery number is created for each order.

Select the check box if a separate delivery number should be created for each order.

If you don't select the check box, then an existing delivery number can be accumulated if it involves:

- Same direction (inbound or outbound)

- Same dispatch policy

- Same order category (CO, DO, RO, MO, and such)

- Same consignee (customer/address ID for CO)

- Distribution orders have the same receiving warehouse

- Same estimated dispatch date & time

- Same terms of delivery

- Same transportation method

- Same delivery note reference (CO via delivery schedule)

2. consolidate deliveries into one shipment, controlled by the "Auto connect to shipment" (AUCO) field in MWS010 (line 330):

The field indicates under what conditions new deliveries are to be automatically connected to a shipment.

Alternatives

0 = No automatic connection

1 = Automatic connection to next open shipment if transport capacity is sufficient

2 = Automatic connection to next open shipment. If transport capacity not is sufficient, no connection will be made. If no open shipment exists, one will be created automatically.

3 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity

4 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity. If no open shipment exists, one will be created automatically.

5 = Automatic connection to next open shipment. If transport capacity not is sufficient, or no open shipment exists, a new shipment will be created for the next possible departure time.

6 = Automatic connection to next open shipment regardless of transport capacity. If no open shipment exists, a new shipment will be created for the next possible departure time.

Note

Automatic connection only applies to route types with scheduled route departures (that is, route type 4-6), and to those that allow automatic connection to shipment (see (DRS005/F)).

and the "Shipment consolidation point" (TSIN) field in MWS010 (line 160):

The field indicates the planned time for manual shipment consolidation (except for alternative 8, see Note) and can be used for the selection and grouping of delivery numbers in (MWS410).

Alternatives

0 = Shipment consolidation is optional and can be performed at any time

1 = Before a picking list is created

2 = After a picking list is created

3 = After packing is completed

4 = After goods are moved to docking location

5 = After final report of the picking list

8 = Automatic connection failed - handle as alternative 1

9 = Shipment consolidation is not used.

Note

Will the combinations of these settings be able to meet your requirements?

For (b), I guess it will be more of an operational decision - it depends on how busy your warehouse is and how much time it will take to get all the orders on one shipment picked.

jon-litofsky

Justin - Excellent response with lots of details (more than I would have been able to provide).

We do exactly as described in point 1 and summarized by "we let M3 to consolidate multiple orders into one delivery, and then release the delivery to the warehouse as soon as no more change on the orders will be needed." 99% of the time, we are not using shipments and only use them manually to link two deliveries for a customer that are going to different addresses but will share a truck.

The settings are as Justin noted in MWS010. When customer service creates orders that meet the criteria, M3 automatically consolidates the lines on one delivery. Customer service is able to adjust manually (in or out) if they need to change the delivery.

This process let's the warehouse manage at the delivery level and saves them a significant amount of time and paperwork. i.e. one pick list per warehouse zone instead of one pick list per order per zone. They really don't have to worry about the order level details.

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