We need some help in Shipping & Receiving. Currently we build loads based on Orders for multiple customers with multiple line items. We are trying to use Fulfillment Workbench as a means to organize our loads before they hit production and as Orders / Jobs move through our Plant. It’s my understanding that Fulfillment Workbench will only work with Jobs that have been fulfilled or completed through the Plant and perhaps Material Request Queue would allow us to choose some of the items to put on a load, but we typically pre-plan this step (in the office as an Admin) before it hits Material Request Queue (for the Shipping person on the floor). So not sure if just using Material Request Queue without Fulfillment Workbench in a different way than we’re thinking would be a possible solution?
We’d ideally like to note a Load Number for the Parts we’re making for an Order / on a Job. We organize our loads by city and state usually on the up front and as items progress through our Plant. We do not need a full blown Transporation Management System (TMS) but would like some more of these control points in Shipping.
We’ve been told we maybe need a custom dashboard for Shipping. Looking for ideas on any of this or a dashboard that has worked well for anyone in this Epicor Community? Thanks!
Do you have access to PCIDs? (I think it requires Advanced Mtl Mgmt license, iirc).
A PCID could be a virtual container that identifies a Load#, and it can contain other PCIDs (e.g., each smaller PCID could be one SO release shipment). Then the load mgmt becomes a matter of managing these smaller PCIDs into the load PCID.
If the Load# PCID is created ahead of time, then perhaps the jobs/releases could be somehow tagged w/that PCID# (even if it was only in the job comments) so that upon finishing the job, they know to receive to a unique PCID for that shipment, and then move that PCID inside the appropriate load# PCID.
We don’t do loads, just individual customer shipments, but we find that receiving jobs into inventory as PCIDs makes customer shipment easier. We have a dashboard of pending shipments for the site and SO releases scheduled to ship. A detail pane shows available PCIDs in stock as well as non-PCID stock available to ship for that release.
An alternative way to do it is to use Staging and Stage Ship confirm, along with the Process Ship confirm if you want just use the set and forget option, similar to posting invoices.
You can free type into the Stage field in customer shipment entry. You could use this to group all your packs together depending on whatever designation. Then select by stage in the Stage Ship Confirm screen (You can also select by pack).
You can then use the Actions menu in Stage Ship Confirm screen to ship all your staged packs.
There is another concept of Master Pack, but that only allows you to group/select all packs that are being delivered to the same address. So if you are looking for a solution where you are loading trucks to do a delivery route then master pack would not be of any use.
The other options may be a custom dashboard that gives you a bit more information about the jobs/orders and having the similar shipping functionality Stage Ship Confirm. Or you could modify the stage ship confirm screen to show more information as well.
If you wanted a document that encompassed all shipments on that truck then you could use BOL Entry, but that adds a second step to what is a rather complicated shipment process.
My experience is that despatch departments have a very low tolerance for holdups and delays when it comes to getting data out of the system and getting drivers out the door.
Thank you for the idea on Staging. It seems like a potentially viable option at a glance. Would you be available to show us how this works? You could email me at tkraemer@kasotasf.com with a few times you’d be available if this is something you’d be willing to help us do.
Thanks for your input on PCIDs. I ran this by our Ops Consultant and he thought it was a potential way to accomplish what we’re looking for. Would you be available to show us how you use PCIDs and your Dashboard that you described? If so, please shoot me an email with a few potential times at tkraemer@kasotasf.com .
For a similar scenario we did create a custom dashboard. In our case, we were assigning a truck number rather than a load number, but similar concept. It did add an extra step between Fulfillment Workbench and actually executing the picks, but it works for our use case.
We created a updatable dashboard against the material queue and added the UD field for the Truck Number. We also use the mobile warehouse, so we were able to create custom material queues that don’t show any picks that lack a truck number.
The pickers select which truck they want to load, and only see the picks that have been assigned to that truck.
As i mentioned, we don’t do loads; just individual order releases. We also mostly build to order, so each job will correspond to one SO release. Therefore, for us the PCID makes a nice virtual container for the serialized product being produced, which can then easily be shipped in Customer Shipment Entry by entering a single PCID# into the shipment, and then all s/n’s come over without needing to scan them.
Make-to-Order could also accomplish this, but MTO is very inflexible. PCID Build/Split/Merge allows modifying PCID contents easily when customers change their order qty.
On the last job operation, we do not auto-receive into inventory. This allows us in MES to generate a new PCID and place the produced assembly into that PCID. Then we do a Job Rcpt to Inventory and just move that PCID to a finished good stock area.
Below is our PCID template. These are dynamic PCIDs since they are only temporary - they “go away” after the PCID is shipped. And since these are for individual job outputs we don’t allow mixed parts. But you can also see how it is an option to allow child PCIDs inside of other PCIDs, and to allow mixed parts, s/n’s, lots.
The PCID counter in this case is only 4 digits, and for our site the range FG1001-FG1999 is available. Another site might have FG2001-FG2999. Once the last PCID# is reached (‘FG1999’) for our site, it then loops back around starts at FG1001. Since we are low-volume, 999 PCIDs are more than enough per site to not be concerned about overlap due to looping around. Other companies might choose more digits or more segment in their schemes.
