As the produced bikes have now been delivered to the sales order stock of The Bike Company, the outbound delivery to the customer can be created in the next step.
Creating the delivery is the ninth step in the overall MTO process and the first step in the outbound delivery sub-process.
The outbound delivery sub-process contains the following steps:
- Creating the outbound delivery
- Picking
- Sending the goods to the customer and posting the goods issue
When creating an outbound delivery, a delivery document is created. The delivery document is also a sales document with the structure you are already familiar with. The delivery document contains all details related to the delivery. Amongst other things, it contains the delivery schedule with different dates, such as the picking date or the planned goods movement date, which is the planned date for goods issue. In addition, in the delivery document, the status of further shipping activities can be monitored. Data that is generated during shipping processing is included in the delivery.
In an MTO scenario, an outbound delivery is always created with reference to the respective sales order. In this case, data from the preceding sales order is copied into the outbound delivery.
Once the delivery is created, the system automatically updates the delivery status in the sales order at header and item level. The delivery status of the entire order is based on the delivery status of all items.
The following delivery statuses are available:
Partially Delivered: All items in the order have not yet been fully delivered.
Fully Delivered: All items in the order have been fully delivered.
A prerequisite for creating a delivery with reference to a sales order is that the required quantity of the material is available. If the material availability is not confirmed, no outbound delivery can be created for the sales order (item). Material availability is checked by the product availability check (PAC).
The product availability check is a function that provides information about the date and quantity for which a requirement (for example, a sales order item) can be fulfilled. The result of the product availability check is the confirmation of the delivery date (i.e., the delivery date the supplier has committed to), as well as the committed delivery quantity. After the product availability check is executed, the material quantity is reserved. In addition, shipping activities such as picking, loading, and transportation that are already scheduled may be rescheduled, and the outbound delivery can be created.
Note
The Track Sales Orders app can be used to check material availability and to create an outbound delivery with reference to a sales order. The delivery document is then displayed in the app’s process flow diagram for the respective sales order.
In The Bike Company, all ordered bikes are delivered at once according to customer request and material availability. However, in other scenarios, due to customer request or material availability, material may also be delivered in several partial deliveries at different dates.
