Sourcing
Sourcing is the process of determining from which node or supplier a product should be shipped.
In the most simplistic scenarios when you have just a single distribution center, you already know the shipping node. In such cases you can pre-specify the shipping node in the inquiry function or specify it on the order line. If this node is a firm pre-defined node, an order line is only sourced from that ship node. You need not do any sourcing configuration in this case.
However, if the node is not a firm pre-defined node, the remaining sourcing setup is used. If the node specified on the line is not a firm node or in more complex situations, you may have multiple nodes and suppliers from which you source the products.
The requirements for selection of the correct shipping location may be based on:
- What product is being shipped.
- Ship to location - typically you would want to ship out of the closest shipping location but you still need to ensure that geopolitical requirements are met. For example, if shipping to El Paso, Texas you may want to ship the product from a distribution center located in the United States even though a Mexican distribution center is closer to El Paso.
- Product availability at different locations. A warehouse may or may not have inventory for a given item. However, a manufacturer may want to always assume that any demand can be fulfilled using existing raw material at the node. To achieve this, Sterling Order Management System can be configured to never perform inventory checks on schedule and release for certain items, at any node. You can enable this functionality at the item level.
- Total number of shipments that are required to complete the request. This, in some ways, reflects the transportation and handling costs associated with the entire shipment. If an order is placed for 3 items and one of your nodes carries all three and another node carries only 2 them, you may want to ship from the node carrying all 3 items in just one shipment compared to two shipments in the other case.
- Prioritization of nodes. You may want to first ship out of your own locations and then use drop-ship suppliers when no product is available in your own nodes.
- Customer specified constraints such as ship together dependencies and fill quantities being met from the selected node.
- Ability to perform services for a work order. This could include kitting and dekitting services, and ability to supply services for buyer compliance.
- Ability to perform gift wrapping services. A ship node may or may not offer gift wrapping as a fulfillment option for an item. You can enable this functionality at the node attribute level.
- A customizable order sourcing classification. For example, an enterprise may want to use a customer attribute as a sourcing parameter. The order sourcing classification enables this flexibility.
The following sections discuss the configuration required to achieve these requirements. When making sourcing and date decisions, Sterling Order Management System uses the configuration setup for the:
- Enterprise on the order. Exceptions to this rule are noted in individual cases.
- Primary Enterprise of the Organization code passed in on-the-fly inquiry APIs.