Execution of Freight Orders
The transportation execution process (scope item 6W3) deals with the reporting of execution statuses of freight orders and freight bookings. Depending on the context of the base process (for example, Sell from Stock (BD9)) and mode of transport it involves different steps. Let's start with the most simple process being a sales order delivered by road from the shipping point to the customer. In this case, the transportation execution process would involve the following steps.
Process Steps for an Outbound Road Process
| Process Step | User Role |
|---|---|
| Set Truck to Arrived and Checked In at Shipping Point | Dispatcher |
| Load the Truck | |
| Set Truck to Checked Out and Departed at Shipping Point | Dispatcher |
| Post Goods Issue | Shipping Specialist |
| Set Truck to Arrived at Customer Location (optional) | Dispatcher |
In an inbound rail process, the process will involve the following steps.
Process Steps for an Inbound Rail Process
| Process Step | User Role |
|---|---|
| Set Railcar to Checked Out and Departed from Supplier (optional) | Dispatcher |
| Set Railcar to Arrived and Checked In at Receiving Point | Dispatcher |
| Unload the Railcar | |
| Set Ready for Warehousing | Dispatcher |
| Set Railcar to Checked Out and Departed at Receiving Point | Dispatcher |
In general, the execution process can involve multiple pick-up and delivery locations. In an outbound road process, the material may be loaded in multiple shipping points and delivered to different customer locations with the same freight order. Thus, the involved process steps can be executed several times within the same freight order. The same is true for inbound processes. In transportation processes by sea or air, the execution steps can occur in the freight orders (for pick-up and delivery) representing the pre-carriage and on-carriage as well as in the air and ocean freight bookings representing the main stage.
Hint
You can also skip status settings. If you set a status value, the previous status values are set automatically by the system.
From a transportation management perspective, a freight order execution starts with the departure/checkout of the truck or freight order. You can monitor the execution of a freight order using the Monitor Execution - Freight Orders app. Using this app, you can create deliveries for selected freight orders, change statuses, check-in and check-out freight orders to enable freight cost confirmation. In addition, you can revoke the checkout. Furthermore, you can use this app to do the following:
- Search for freight orders using, for example, the assigned carrier or partner reference number
- Select freight orders from a list and check them out to enable freight cost confirmation
- Display freight orders in a detailed view, where you can see additional information such as the individual transportation stages and the events that have already been posted
- Check in/out individual stages of a freight order
- Revoke the checkout of freight orders in the freight order list, as well as in the detailed view for individual stages
- Create deliveries for freight orders, if it has not already been created before
- View the posted events for a freight order on its Execution tab
- Set the status Ready for Warehouse Processing to hand over the responsibility to the warehouse clerks in an inbound process
Freight Order Statuses
You can perform a checkout for freight orders with only one pickup stop, but also for freight orders with several pickup stops. If the last (or only one) pickup stop of the freight order has been checked out, the posting status of this freight order is set to Ready for Confirmation. You can then view the freight order in the Monitor Accrual Postings - Freight Orders app in order to confirm it for the posting of accruals.
You can revoke the checkout as long as the posting status is still set to Ready for Confirmation. If it has already been set to Posted, you can not revoke the checkout with this app anymore. Using the Monitor Accrual Postings - Freight Orders app, you can, however, cancel the posting and reset the status to Ready for Confirmation.
To check out freight orders or revoke the checkout, you have the following options.
- Freight orders with one pickup stop
In this case, you can use the list view of this app, which enables you to display freight orders according to certain criteria such as the assigned carrier or the partner reference number. For each freight order, information such as the planned departure and arrival dates or the execution status is displayed. In addition, you can see the last reported event and the last reported checkout date. This can also refer to another stop, separate from the last pickup stop of the freight order. The corresponding location is also displayed in the list.
- Freight orders with several pickup stops
In this case, the detailed view of this app offers you additional information. If you double-click on a freight order from the list, you can see information such as the individual stages of the freight order and all the events that have already been posted for this order (in the Execution tab). Then you can perform the checkout for one or more individual stages of the freight order or revoke the checkout of these stages.
If the lifecycle status of the freight order is In Planning, it is set to In Execution after the first pickup stop of the freight order has been checked out. If a delivery has not yet been created for a freight order that you want to check out, you have the option to create deliveries.
Hint
Local APIs (C1-released) and OData APIs (C2-released) are enabled to set freight orders and freight bookings to Ready for transportation execution or Not ready for transportation execution, Likewise local APIs (C1 released) and OData APIs (C2 released) can be used to set freight order items as Loaded or Not Loaded.