RE: back to back Shipments (AKA direct shipments)

This is how direct shipments work (with Advanced Order Entry) for us:

1) Order is entered  (AOE) for item to be direct shipped (this can be made
the default order method in item maintenance on an item by item basis, but
it can be overridden on an order line basis).  Normally AOE pops up with
supplier and PO price but we modified AOE to skip this step.
2) AOE automatically creates a requisition for the item/order line
3) You must go through the normal process to turn a requisition into a
Purchase Order and then release and print the PO (We've automated this
entire process and created a custom PO which is autofaxed using Quadrant
FastFax)

now to your question...
4) When the manufacturer indicates the item has been shipped to the customer
(typically by them invoicing you for the product), you go into Purchase
Order Receiving and do a receipt for the PO line (same item quantity the
customer ordered).  This is where the Reservation monitor kicks in.  It
watches for receipts against direct ship Purchase Orders and automatically
takes the item right back out of inventory and creates an invoice for the
product to the customer.

There is a decision to be made about items that always direct ship.  They
can be set up as stock or non-stock items (not to be confused with order
method).  An item can be a stock item even though it always direct ships.
The difference is that for stock items you will have entries in the stock
movements file (INP95) showing the product receipt and direct shipment.  No
entries are made in stock movements file for non-stock items.  If the item
is stocked, you have to do 5/INM item stockroom maintenance for each
warehouse it is ordered out of (yes I know this seems silly since the item
is direct shipped).

We've used this whole process quite extensively in V3.5.0 and it works very
well for us.  The mods I mentioned in step 3 are pretty essential for having
the fulfillment process running "lights out".  I can elaborate on our
methods if anyone is interested.  We also modified the receiving process in
step 4 to allow the entry of shipping charges (since these may not be known
until the manufacturer invoices us) that will appear on the customer's
invoice.  This was more difficult programming than you might imagine.  We
couldn't use "trailer" charges in order entry because A) We don't know the
amount at order entry time  B) Trailer charges appear on every single
invoice against that order and typically we'll take orders from customers
that have a mixture of items that we ship and ones that are mfg direct
shipped.

We also had to modify AOE to use different regional suppliers of direct ship
items depending upon the customer.

Bottom line is that standard JBA handles this process satisfactorily.  With
the mods we've made it works really well for us.

Dan Thomas
Sr. VP Information Systems
MDI
4500 Progress Blvd.
Louisville, KY  40218-5058
Phone (502) 454-9013 ext. 120
www.mdiweb.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Faulhaber [mailto:mfaulhaber@griffinind.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 2:02 PM
To: JBAUSERS-L@midrange.com
Subject: back to back Shipments (AKA direct shipments)


At the Financial User's Group meeting, I was told that we should consider 
using direct shipping (aka back to back shipping) for situations where we
buy 
an item and then have it shipped directly to our customer without  going 
through our inventory.

I've searched the 3.5.1 online documentation and all I can find is where to 
turn on the Reservation Monitor.  The docs say that it handles the back-end 
processing for direct shipments.

What I need is to know how to actually do a back to back shipment.  Can 
anyone point me to the relevant documentation?
Mark A. Faulhaber
Director I/S
Griffin Industires
4221 Alexandria Pike
Cold Spring, Ky 41076

Phone 606-572-2507
Fax 606-572-2575
+---
| This is the JBA Software Users Mailing List!
| To submit a new message send your mail to JBAUSERS-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to JBAUSERS-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to JBAUSERS-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner: doug333@aol.com.
+---
+---
| This is the JBA Software Users Mailing List!
| To submit a new message send your mail to JBAUSERS-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to JBAUSERS-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to JBAUSERS-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner: doug333@aol.com.
+---