distributed wms white paper

Distributed Warehouse Management

System

(Architecture and Solution Overview)

An Oracle White Paper

June 2009

Oracle Corporation of 46

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 DISTRIBUTED WMS SOLUTION – THE NEED .............................................................. 4

SALIENT FEATURES........................................................................................................................ 5

2 ARCHITECTURE AND BUSINESS FLOWS ..................................................................... 6

2.1 INBOUND MATERIAL FLOW ............................................................................................... 7 2.2 OUTBOUND MATERIAL FLOW ............................................................................................ 9 2.3 INTERNAL MATERIAL TRANSFER FLOW .......................................................................... 10 2.4 RETURN MATERIAL AUTHORIZATION (RMA) ................................................................. 11 2.5 MANUFACTURING TO DISTRIBUTION CENTER MATERIAL FLOW .................................... 12 2.6 INVENTORY MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................. 13 2.7 SYNCHRONIZATION OF REFERENCE DATA ...................................................................... 13

3 SOLUTION ............................................................................................................................ 14

3.1 INBOUND MATERIAL FLOW ............................................................................................. 14 3.1.1 Create and Approve PO in Host System .................................................................. 15 3.1.2 Populate PO Interface on Distributed Instance ....................................................... 16 3.1.3 Process Interface Data to Create PO in Distributed System ................................... 16 3.1.4 Receipt of Material in the Warehouse ..................................................................... 17 3.1.5 Populate Receiving Open Interface in the Host System ........................................... 17 3.1.6 Process Receipt Information in Host System ........................................................... 18 3.1.7 Other Considerations ............................................................................................... 18

3.2 OUTBOUND MATERIAL FLOW .......................................................................................... 21 3.2.1 Create and Book Sales Order in Host System ......................................................... 22 3.2.2 Run Concurrent Program to Generate Shipment Batches ....................................... 22 3.2.3 Transfer Shipment Request to Distributed System ................................................... 22 3.2.4 Process Shipment Request in Distributed System .................................................... 23 3.2.5 Pick, Pack and Ship Material against Shipment Request in Distributed System ..... 24 3.2.6 Generate Shipment Advice XML Message in the Distributed System (If using XML

Gateway) 24 3.2.7 Import Shipment Advice in the Host System ............................................................ 25 3.2.8 Process Shipment Advice in the Host System .......................................................... 25 3.2.9 Other Considerations ............................................................................................... 25

3.3 INTERNAL MATERIAL TRANSFER .................................................................................... 29 3.3.1 Create and Approve Internal Requisition/Internal Orders in Host System ............. 30 3.3.2 Run Concurrent Program to Generate Shipment Batches ....................................... 30 3.3.3 Transfer Shipment Request to Distributed Shipping Instance and Purchase Order

Data to Receiving Distributed Instance ................................................................................... 30 3.3.4 Import Shipment Request and Ship Material from Distributed Shipping Instance .. 31 3.3.5 Import and Process Shipment Advice in the Host System ........................................ 31 3.3.6 Import and Process PO in Distributed Receiving Instance ..................................... 31 3.3.7 Receipt of Material in the Receiving Warehouse ..................................................... 32 3.3.8 Populate Receiving Interface and Process Receipt Confirmation in Host System .. 32 3.3.9 Other Considerations ............................................................................................... 32

3.4 RETURN MATERIAL AUTHORIZATION (RMA) ................................................................. 34 3.4.1 Create and Book RMA in Host System .................................................................... 34 3.4.2 Populate Order Interface on Distributed System ..................................................... 35 3.4.3 Process Interface Data to Create RMA in Distributed System ................................ 35 3.4.4 Receipt of Material in the Warehouse ..................................................................... 35


3.4.5 Extract RMA Receipt Data from Distributed and Import into Host System ............ 35 3.4.6 Process RMA Receipt in the Host System ................................................................ 36

3.5 MANUFACTURING TO DISTRIBUTION CENTER MATERIAL FLOW .................................... 37 3.5.1 Create and Approve Job order in Host System ........................................................ 38 3.5.2 Create and Approve Intransit Shipment in Host System .......................................... 38 3.5.3 Transform Intransit Shipment into Equivalent PO and Populate PO Interface

Tables of Distributed System. .................................................................................................. 38 3.5.4 Import and Process PO in Distributed System ........................................................ 39 3.5.5 Receipt of Material in the Warehouse ..................................................................... 39 3.5.6 Import Receipt Confirmation in Host System .......................................................... 39 3.5.7 Other Considerations ............................................................................................... 39

3.6 INVENTORY MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................. 41 3.6.1 Inventory Adjustments .............................................................................................. 41 3.6.2 On Hand Balances ................................................................................................... 42

3.7 SYNCHRONIZATION OF REFERENCE DATA ...................................................................... 42 3.7.1 Import Item Information .......................................................................................... 44 3.7.2 Import Supplier Information .................................................................................... 44 3.7.3 Import Customer Information .................................................................................. 44

3.8 SALES ORDER AND PURCHASE ORDER MANAGEMENT ................................................... 45

Oracle Distributed WMS Solution


1 Distributed WMS Solution – The Need

The current Oracle EBS Warehouse Management system (WMS) is an integral part of Oracle E-Business Suite and hence both the transaction source systems such as Purchasing and Order Management and execution systems like WMS reside and operate within the same instance. The main advantage of such an integrated solution is that it eliminates the need for reference and transaction data integrations, which are needed for a typical ‘bolt-on’ WMS solution. At the same time it makes it difficult for the customers to implement Oracle EBS WMS outside the framework of an E-Business solution. This limitation restricts the potential target markets of Oracle EBS WMS due to the below mentioned reasons:

Figure 1: Need for a Distributed WMS Solution

� Customers or prospects who are considering a long-term transition to Oracle Supply Chain, but currently operate with (some) existing legacy transaction systems, may prefer a distributed WMS solution due to its integration flexibility. Many customers are looking to

logistics and execution-based projects as preferred investment area due to its more immediate ROI and a Distributed WMS solution will help to fulfil this requirement.

� Business like Logistics Service Providers (LSP) have thin transaction source system requirements, but integrate with a variety of transaction sources, will look for simplicity of operation and setup, and so will tend to prefer distributed WMS.

� There are customers who prefer to ‘de-couple’ the execution systems from their main ERP system so that mission critical applications like WMS are available 24 by 7 even when the central ERP or host system is down for maintenance or other reasons.

Ensure High Availability • How to ensure that a

mission critical application like WMS is available 24*7?

WMS instance decoupled from EBS

Easily integrate with host system

Streamlined processes & visibility

Distributed WMS

Leverage Features in Recent WMS Release

• How can I use the features in the latest WMS release without upgrading the whole application suite?

Facilitate Outsourcing

• How to serve the needs of LSPs for a warehouse solution that handles complexity and integration with client systems?

WMS for Non-EBS Host • How can I use WMS to

manage my warehouse with a non-EBS host system?



� A distributed WMS system capable of integrating with the host system enables the customer to leverage the features available in the latest Oracle EBS WMS release without having to upgrade the whole application suite.

The distributed WMS deployment is potentially targeted for prospects that are planning to use Oracle WMS due to any of the above business drivers. The deployment options for WMS now provide the customers significant flexibility to use WMS in their application landscape. This white paper documents the solution and also explains in detail the integration approach with the backend host or ERP system. At a high level it also provides an insight as to how customers can implement this solution. The target audience for this document are customer as well as sales and implementation consultants.

Salient Features

Some of the salient features of the Distributed WMS solution include the following

� Distributed WMS solution is an independent ERP instance capable of serving multiple independent warehouses or organizations.

� Distributed WMS enables you to integrate with any host system including legacy systems, other ERP system like SAP etc. or another Oracle ERP system.

� Distributed WMS is an independent WMS solution with minimal set up requirements. It supports all the routine warehouse and inventory functions available in the E-Business suite today.

� Distributed WMS is a pure execution system and does not have any costing or accounting implications of material transactions. The financial implications of the transactions are maintained in the host system.

� Transaction sources like Sales Orders and Purchase Orders are created in the host instance and are communicated to the distributed instance. The distributed system executes the transactions and provides a mechanism to send the confirmations back to the host system.

� Any change management supported for the transaction documents like Sales Order and Purchase Order in the E-Business Suite today are also supported in the Distributed system.

� Distributed WMS solution provides a mechanism through which any inventory adjustments or current on hand inventory snap shot can be sent to the host system as needed.

� Distributed WMS is a distributed deployment of WMS. A new profile option ‘WMS: Deployment Mode’ is provided to identify the instance as distributed.

� Minimum licensing requirements are Oracle WMS (enabled for distributed deployment) with Oracle Inventory, with the minimum WMS user licenses. The customer no longer needs Order Management, Purchasing or Financials for the distributed instance.

Detailed steps to configure a Distributed WMS instance and its implementation will be captured in a separate white paper.



2 Architecture and Business Flows A typical business with the need for a Distributed WMS solution will have a central ERP system which will be responsible for planning, procurement, demand management and maintaining financial, HR and reference data. The warehouses or the organizations will operate on a distributed instance and will be responsible for execution of transactions like receipts and shipments. Oracle Distributed WMS solution will communicate with any host system through an integration framework to accomplish these transactions as shown in the following figure–

Figure 2: Distributed and Host System Integration The host system will receive the demand from the customers and will procure the raw material from its suppliers. It will communicate the demand and supply source documents to the distributed system using the integration framework. After the transactions are completed in the distributed instance, they will be transmitted to the host system through the integration layer. The actual steps to configure a distributed instance will be captured in a separate white paper. The following process flow diagram depicts the typical flow of documents between a distributed warehouse, its host system, customers and suppliers.

Host System (EBS or Non-EBS)

Finished Goods

Warehouse`

Raw Material

Warehouse

Distribution Center 1 Distribution Center 2

Integrated but decoupled WMS Instances

Procurement``

Order Management

Financials

Master Data Management

Integration Framework



Supplier S1

EDI856ASN

Distributed WMS

WMS

Receiving

Inventory

Shipping

Outsourcer O1

ReceiptConfirm

ation

Purchase Order

Lightweight

PurchasingLeightweight

Order Management

Customer C1

Sales Order

Supplier Customer

Host System

OTM

Onhand

synchronization

Ship

Material

Reference Data –

Item, Customers,

Suppliers etc.

Inventory Adjustm

ents

Payment

Invoice For Goods

Invoice

Payment

Shipment Confirm

ation

Shipment Request

Purchase Order

EDI 856 ASN

Physical Arrival of Goods

EDI 856 ASN

Figure 3: Process flow involving a distributed system, its host, customers and suppliers.

In the above figure, the warehouse is using Oracle Distributed WMS solution in a distributed deployment for supply chain execution, while the host system can be Oracle EBS or legacy system or other ERP system.

In order to better understand these flows, we have classified them into following functional areas

2.1 Inbound Material Flow

The following figure depicts the steps involved in a typical inbound flow:



Create or update PO

3 Create & update PO

9 Perform receipt, close PO &

finish payment

Supplier Suppliers

2 Send PO details to

6 Create ASN on top of the PO

Warehouse execution (receipt/inspect/putaway)

8 Send receipt

confirmation to

ERP

7 Send goods to

Instance

Note - Steps 4,5,6 are optional. One can receive directly against a PO without getting a ASN

Create or update PO

3 Create & update PO

9 Perform receipt, close PO &

finish payment

Host

Distributed WMS

Supplier Suppliers

2 Send PO details to Distributed Instance

6 Create ASN on top of the PO

Warehouse execution -

7 Send goods to

Distrib

uted

-

Figure 4: Inbound Material Flow in a Distributed Environment

1) The ‘Host’ system plans for material and places purchase orders on its

suppliers to ship the material to the warehouse. 2) After the supplier accepts the purchase order, host system is responsible for sending

the information about these purchase orders to the warehouse so that material can be received against the purchase order in the warehouse.

3) The distributed warehouse system creates purchase orders based on the information

sent by the host. 4) Sometimes, after the supplier finalizes its delivery schedule, it sends an advance

shipment notice (ASN) to the distributed system with information about the details of the shipment. The ASN can also be sent to the host system which can then send the information to the distributed system.

5) After the distributed system receives the ASN from the supplier, it can plan its labour

better and make receipts against these ASNs when material arrives.

6) The distributed warehouse imports ASNs based on the information sent by the host.

7) When material arrives, warehouse receives the material against the purchase order (or the ASN, if ASN information was sent).

8) After material is received, warehouse provides a mechanism through which the host

system can pull the information about the receipt that was made against the purchase order or the ASN.

9) The host system performs the receipt transactions and updates the account payable

system for the material received.



2.2 Outbound Material Flow

The following figure depicts the steps involved in a typical outbound flow –

Create & update Sales Order

3 Create & update Orders

7 Perform shipping, close SO & finish invoicing

Host

Customer Customers

1 Customer Orders

Material

2 Send Orders to ship to Distributed Instance via

Shipment Request

Warehouse execution (pick/load/drop/consolidate)

6 Send shipment

confirmation to

ERP

5 Ship goods to

Customer

4 Pick release orders to prepare for shipping

Create & update Sales Order

3 Create & update Orders

7 Perform shipping, close SO & finish invoicing

Host

Distributed WMS

Customers

1 Customer Orders

Material

2 Send Orders to ship to Distributed Instance via

Shipment Request

Warehouse execution (pick/load/drop/consolidate)

5 Ship goods to

Customer

Figure 5: Outbound Material Flow in a Distributed Environment 1) Customer places a sales order on the host system to ship goods to an address. 2) Host system performs sourcing optimization and determines that it needs to

ship the goods from a warehouse to the customer. Host system sends a Shipment Request that has information about one or more sales orders, to the warehouse.

3) The distributed warehouse creates sales orders based on the information sent by the

host system

4) Warehouse releases the orders to the warehouse. Material is packed and deliveries are consolidated for shipment.

5) The goods are shipped to the customer and an ASN is sent to the Customer.

6) Once the goods are shipped, warehouse provides a mechanism through which host

system can pull the information regarding the shipment transaction.

7) Host system updates its order management system with the shipment information and updates the accounts receivables for the goods shipped.



2.3 Internal Material Transfer Flow

The following figure depicts the steps involved in an Internal Material Transfer flow assuming the shipping and receiving warehouses are on separate distributed instances. This can be achieved using the outbound and inbound flow described above.

4 Send shipment

advice (945) to

host

5 Send PO (850) to

Instance 2

2 Send shipment

request (940) to

Instance 1

8 Send receipt

confirm

ation

(944) to host

8 Send receipt

confirm

ation

(944) to host

Figure 6: Internal Material Transfer Flow in a Distributed Environment

1) Host system creates an internal requisition/internal order to move material from one

warehouse to another warehouse. 2) Host system sends the shipment request to the distributed instance representing the

shipping warehouse. The distributed warehouse creates sales orders based on the information sent by the host system.

3) The order is released and the material is picked and shipped to the destination

warehouse.

4) A shipment advice is sent to the host system after the material is shipped.

5) An equivalent purchase order is created from the internal order and sent to the instance representing the receiving warehouse so that it can receive the material.

6) Optionally the shipping instance can also send an ASN message along with the

shipment. The distributed destination warehouse imports ASNs based on the information sent.

7) When material arrives, receiving warehouse receives the material against the

purchase order (or the ASN, if ASN information was sent).



8) After the material is received, the receiving instance provides a mechanism through which host system can pull the information regarding the receipt transaction so that inventory can be updated in the host system and requisition can be closed.

2.4 Return Material Authorization (RMA)

The following figure depicts the steps involved in a typical RMA flow

Create & update RMA

3 Create or update RMA from Host RMA Information

Host

Distributed Instance

Customer Customers

1 Customer Calls to

Return Material

2 Send RMA details to Distributed Instance

6 Perform receipt, close RMA & finish payment

4 Warehouse execution (receipt/inspect/put-away)

5 Send receipt

confirmation to

ERP

Send goods to

Distrib

uted

Instance

Figure 7: Return Material Authorization Flow in a Distributed Environment

1) Customer calls to return material. An RMA is created in the host system to receive it. 2) RMA information from the host system is sent to the distributed system.

3) RMA is created in the distributed system. RMA number is same as in the host system.

4) When the goods are received from the customer, it is received against the RMA.

5) After material is received, warehouse provides a mechanism through which the host

system can pull the information about the receipt that was made against the RMA.

6) The host system performs the receipt transactions and updates account payable system for the material received.



2.5 Manufacturing to Distribution Center Material Flow

The following figure depicts the steps involved in a flow of finished goods from a manufacturing plant to a distribution center. Manufacturing is either a separate system or part of the host itself

Create & update Work order

Create PO

7 Perform receipt

Host

Distributed Instance

Manufacturing Plant Plant

1 Send work order

details to plant

4 Transform and send inter org-details to distributed instance

to create equivalent PO

5 Warehouse execution (receipt/inspect/putaway)

6 Send receipt

confirmation to

Host

Send goods to

warehouse

2 Complete Work Order

3 Create Inter- org transfer to move material from

mfg to DC

(receipt/inspect/putaway)

4 Transform and send inter orgdetails to distributed instance

to create equivalent PO

2 Complete Work Order

3 Create Interorg transfer to move material from

mfg to DC

Create & update Work order

7 Perform receipt

Figure 8: Manufacturing to Distribution Center Material Flow

1) Host system creates a work order to produce finished goods. The information is sent

to the manufacturing system. 2) Work order is completed and information is sent back to the host system

3) The host system creates an internal order or inter-org transfer to move the finished

goods from plant to the distributed warehouse.

4) The internal order information is then sent to the distributed system to create an equivalent purchase order so that material can be received in the warehouse.

5) When the goods are received from the manufacturing plant, it is received against the

PO.

6) After material is received, warehouse provides a mechanism through which the host system can pull the information about the receipt that was made against the PO.

7) The host system transforms the PO receipt and performs the intransit receipt

transactions and updates the inventory to close the internal order.



2.6 Inventory Management

The host system needs to track inventory of material at different warehouses so that it can plan and source material. This can be achieved if

1) The distributed warehouse management system provides a mechanism through which the host system can periodically derive a snapshot of inventory at the warehouse. The host system can compare its own inventory with the snapshot of the inventory derived from the distributed system.

2) Sometimes, inventory may be updated at the warehouse due to a variety of reasons other than inbound and outbound shipments such as cycle count or miscellaneous receipts/issues. The distributed warehouse system is able to provide a snapshot of these adjustments to the host system so that the inventory is always synchronized between the distributed warehouse management system and the host system.

2.7 Synchronization of Reference Data

In order to execute the above flows, reference data such as item, customers, and suppliers must be synchronized between the host system and the distributed system. The host system is the owner of the reference data. The following flows are required between the host and the distributed system

1) Whenever an item is created or modified in the host system, it sends that information

to the distributed system. 2) The distributed system processes the information and creates or modifies that item.

3) Whenever a vendor (or supplier) is created or modified in the host system, it sends

that information to the distributed system.

4) The distributed system processes this information and creates or modifies that vendor.

5) Whenever a customer is created or modified in the host system, it sends that

information to the distributed system.

6) The distributed system processes this information and creates or modifies that customer.

Reference data needs to be synchronized between the host system and the distributed system so that transactions do not fail due to lack of reference data. In some cases such as customer data, reference data can also be created while processing the transactions (sales orders).



3 Solution

This section focuses on the solution and implementation of Oracle Distributed WMS solution for the distributed warehouse. This assumes that the host system can be another EBS instance, legacy system, other Oracle or non-oracle ERP system. The following picture describes the responsibility across host and distributed system for various business functions to enable Oracle Distributed WMS solution for the distributed warehouse.

Purchase Order ASN Receive

and InspectPutawayand Store

Cross docking

AP Process

Inbound Logistics

Outbound Logistics

Warehouse Functions

Setup & Master Data

Order Entry Order Release

Wave Planning

Pick and Pack

Ship Confirm

AR Process

Transfers and Moves

Wave & Labor Plan

Count and Adjustment

Labeling & Value Adds GL Process

Products Customers Vendors Rules Layout

Wave & Labor Plan

Host Function Warehouse Function Joint Function

Figure 9: Business Functions in Distributed and Host System

The following section uses the individual flows identified in the earlier section and describes how they can be fulfilled using Oracle Distributed WMS solution for the distributed warehouse.

3.1 Inbound Material Flow

The steps involved in implementing information flow between the host system and the distributed system for material inbound to the warehouse are described below



Inbound Process Flow

Create and Approve

Purchase Orders (PO)Process the receipt

transactions

Initiate payables for

the material received

Populate PO interface on

distributed instance

Populate the

Receiving open

interface.Host (EBS 11.5.10)

Distributed W

MS

(EBS 12.1)

Process interface data to

create PO

Receive and Putaway

the material

Out of the boxImplementation StepPlease refer to Distributed WMS technical white

paper for more details on implementation steps.

Figure 10: Inbound Process Flow

In the above figure the host is assumed to be EBS 11.5.10 and the distributed system is EBS 12.1. However the host system can be any other version of EBS, other ERP or legacy system. Steps described below are applicable only for an EBS host and may change for a different ERP or legacy system. We can break down the above flow in the following steps – 1) Create and approve Purchase Order (PO) in the host system 2) Use Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) maps or using published APIs create and schedule

concurrent program to extract the PO to be received from the host system and insert into interface tables of distributed system.

3) Import and process purchase order in the distributed system. 4) Receive and putaway the material in the warehouse. 5) Use ODI maps or using published APIs create and schedule concurrent program to

import receipt information from distributed system into Receiving Open Interface of the host system.

6) Process receipt transaction in the host system. 7) Initiate payables against the lines received.

3.1.1 Create and Approve PO in Host System

The host system creates and approves the purchase orders. If the host system is an Oracle EBS system, purchase orders can be created using forms or purchasing open interfaces. Please refer to “Oracle Purchasing Users Guide” for detailed information on how to create new purchase orders.



3.1.2 Populate PO Interface on Distributed Instance

The host system is responsible for transmitting purchase order information to the distributed system. If the host system is an Oracle EBS system, purchase orders can be transmitted using ASC X12 850/EDIFACT ORDERS or its XML equivalent. Any changes to purchase orders can be transmitted using ASC X12 860 or its EDI or XML equivalent. During implementation, systems integrator will need to read or extract these purchase orders from the host system and populate the PO interface tables in the distributed system using the Purchasing Document Open Interfaces. This can be achieved by –

• Creating and scheduling a concurrent program – Using published APIs and processes, the system integrator can create a concurrent program to extract the PO data from the host system and insert into PO interface of the distributed system. It should also perform any code conversions as well as mapping required to populate the interface tables in the distributed system.

• Using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). For more details on how to create and configure an ODI map, please refer to Distributed WMS white paper (Integrations).

The host can pass specific receiving controls such as receipt routing, over receipt tolerance, receipt days early or late for each PO line. If this information is not passed, then it will default from the receiving parameters defined in the distributed system for that organization. System Integrators are also responsible for keeping the information updated in the distributed system as the purchase orders are updated or cancelled in the host system. They will have to call appropriate purchasing public APIs to orchestrate these changes.

3.1.3 Process Interface Data to Create PO in Distributed System

The Purchasing Documents Open Interface uses Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to process the data in the Oracle Applications interface tables to ensure that it is valid before importing it into Oracle Purchasing. New purchase orders can be imported into distributed warehouse (operating on Oracle Distributed WMS solution) by processing information in the purchasing documents open interface. They cannot be imported through EDI or XML gateway.

After the interface tables have been loaded, the “Import Standard Purchase Order program” must be run in the Distributed system to import the data from the interface tables into Oracle Purchasing. The Purchasing Documents Open Interface program receives the data, derives and defaults any missing data, and validates the data. If no errors are found in the submission process, the data in the Purchasing Documents Open Interface tables is loaded into the purchasing base tables to create the standard purchase order. The purchase order should be created in approved status and should have the same document number as in the host system. If the Purchasing Documents Open Interface program finds errors in the interface tables, the record identification number and the details of the error are written to the PO_INTERFACE_ERRORS table. You can launch the Purchasing Interface Errors Report in Purchasing to view the rows that were not imported by the Purchasing Documents Open Interface along with the failure reason(s) for each row. The Purchasing Documents Open Interface errors out on a line-by-line basis. This means that if an error is found in a document line, only that line is rolled back (not submitted to Purchasing), and you can find the error in the PO_INTERFACE_ERRORS table. The



error records in the interface tables must be updated before the re-run of the import program. Because the Purchasing Documents Open Interface saves or errors out line by line, it can accept partial documents. Assumption for importing purchase orders into the distributed system is that the required reference data such as item, supplier (or vendor), supplier site, buyer information, UOM, organization, subinventories, locators must already be set up in the distributed system. Please refer to “Oracle Purchasing Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on what fields to populate for importing new purchase orders.

3.1.4 Receipt of Material in the Warehouse

When material is physically received in the warehouse, it is received against the purchase order (or the ASN) in the distributed warehouse. Users can configure the put away rules using WMS rules engine to direct the users to put away the material to appropriate locations based on the business constraints. Please refer to “Oracle Warehouse Management Users Guide” for detailed information on how to perform receiving transactions.

3.1.5 Populate Receiving Open Interface in the Host System

After the material is received in the warehouse, distributed system provides a mechanism such that the host system can update its inventory system with the receipts, procurement system for the purchase order (or ASN) against which receipt is made, and the accounts payable for the value of the material received. The host system may also use receipt and inspection information to monitor supplier compliance. Historical information about the receipts made and results of quality inspection etc. are stored in RCV_TRANSACTIONS (RT) table in Oracle Purchasing. Distributed solution will provide a view ‘RCV_RECEIPT_CONFIRMATION_V’ which will contain all the detailed information about the receipt transactions that have been ‘Delivered’. The view contains information like source document number (PO#), line number, shipment number, item, quantity received, unit of measure etc. and contains information about the following transaction types – PO Receipt, Return to Receiving, Corrections, RMA Receipt, Internal Requisition Intransit Receipt, Inventory Intransit Receipt. Only those transactions which affect on hand will be retrieved by the view and therefore Return to Receiving will be played back as Return to Vendor or Return to Customer in the host system based on source document type. System Integrators can query this view directly to fetch all the new receipts for which confirmation has not been sent to the host system. They can then convert this information into appropriate format to populate the receiving interface tables of the host system. This can be achieved in either of the following ways –

• As an implementation step, create and schedule a concurrent program or

• Create and configure ODI maps. For more details on how to create and configure an ODI map, please refer to Distributed WMS white paper (Integrations).

A new flag ‘RECEIPT_CONFIRMATION_EXTRACTED’ in the RCV_TRANSACTIONS table has been created, which can be updated to indicate the status if the receipt confirmation has been sent to the host system or not. After the confirmation is successfully sent to the host system, a new public API will allow the users to update ‘RECEIPT_CONFIRMATION_EXTRACTED’ flag in the RT table. Customers can update the flag with the values which can indicate any of the following status:



NULL – Receipt confirmation not sent to the host system Sent Pending Confirmation – Receipt confirmation sent to the host system but awaiting confirmation from host Sent Confirmed - Receipt confirmation successfully received by the host system.

3.1.6 Process Receipt Information in Host System

The host system processes the receipt information obtained from the distributed system and update its inventory records, procurement system for the purchase order (or ASN) against which receipt is made, and the accounts payable for the value of the material received. If the host system is an Oracle E-Business Suite, then the information can be written directly into the “Receiving Documents Open Interface” of the host system. System integrator loads the receipt information of distributed system in the receiving interface tables of the host system. After the receipts have been imported into “Receiving Documents Open Interface”, one can periodically schedule the “Receiving Transaction Processor” to process these transactions and create receipts in the host system. Please refer to “Oracle Purchasing Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on how to make use of “Receiving Documents Open Interface” to update receipt information in the host system.

3.1.7 Other Considerations

Change Management - Purchase Order Changes and Cancellations

If the host system has modified or cancelled the purchase order after it has been downloaded in the distributed system, such changes can be transmitted to the distributed system using the public APIs. All the PO change management supported currently in the Oracle EBS is supported for the distributed system as well. The purchase order change API allows you to update quantity, price or promise date on standard purchase orders or cancel an existing purchase order. These APIs perform all the necessary validation before updating the changes. The system integrator will be responsible for transmitting and populating the change data or calling the appropriate APIs.

Please refer to “Oracle Purchasing Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on how to invoke purchase order change and cancellation APIs. Import ASNs Supplier sends the ASNs to the distributed system. One can import ASNs into Oracle Distributed WMS by passing the data in the form of ASC X12 856 EDI or its equivalent XML transaction. For the EDI/XML import to successfully go through suppliers and supplier sites should be defined as trading partners and Oracle e-Commerce Gateway should be appropriately set up. After all the setups are complete, one can run the Oracle e-Commerce Gateway import program to process the transactions. Supplier can also send the ASNs to the host system from where they can be imported into the Distributed System by a variety of methods – iSupplier Portal, EDI, or XML.

If the required data is not provided in the transaction, the Oracle e-Commerce Gateway import process fails the transaction and an exception message is displayed in the View Staged Documents window. If the trading partner is valid and the transaction is enabled, the import process proceeds to validate the transaction using the user-defined column rules. If no process or column rule exceptions are detected, the Oracle e-Commerce Gateway import program will write the transaction to the “Receiving Open Interface” tables to be processed by the Receiving Open Interface API. The system integrators can



also write the ASN information in the “Receiving Open Interface” tables directly using the public APIs. To successfully import ASNs into Oracle Purchasing, one must run the “Receiving Transaction Manager”. Please refer to “E-commerce PO Implementation guide” for detail information on how to import new ASNs.

Purchase Order Visibility and Status The distributed system enables users to query the purchase orders created against the receipt advice sent by the host system using the Purchase Order and Purchase Order summary windows. The assumption is that the purchase order is created in the distributed system with the same number as the purchase order number in the host system. Therefore, in the distributed system, users can directly query the purchase order using the host system’s purchase order number. The Purchase Order window can also be utilized to manually create a purchase order in the distributed system when the integration layer is down and receipt advice cannot be sent or received. The purchase order number in the distributed system should be same as purchase order number in the host system. Reverse Logistics Distributed system users can perform a ‘Return to Receiving’ transaction to initiate a return to vendor. After the ‘Return to Receiving’ transaction is completed in the distributed system, the goods will move from inventory to receiving and on hand will get decremented. The Receipt Confirmation view will pick these transactions and once the host interface tables are updated, the Return to Vendor transaction will be created in the host system even if the distributed system has performed only Return to Receiving transaction. This is necessary for inventory synchronization. If for some reason, distributed system decides to put the material back into inventory (Deliver transaction), then a correction against the Return to Vendor transaction needs to be done in the host system and a deliver transaction should be created. Mapping of Job Role, Responsibility and Flow Steps

The following table specifies who executes the steps mentioned in the flow diagram and maps it to their job role and application responsibility

Job Role Responsibility Implementation Step Order Entry Clerk/Buyer

Purchasing User Create Purchase Order and submits for approval in host system.

System Integrator Distributed Warehouse System Administrator

Creates the program to extract the purchase order lines from host system and group them by PO number. Insert the data into purchasing interface tables of distributed system.

Warehouse User/Receiving Clerk

Distributed Warehouse User

Receives the item against the PO created in the distributed system.


Creates the program to extract the receipt information from distributed system using receipt confirmation view and insert into receiving interface tables of host system

Assumptions – Some of the key assumptions for the inbound flow described above are summarized again:



1) All the required reference data must be created in advance in the distributed system before purchase order is sent.

2) There should be one to one mapping of purchase orders between the host and distributed system i.e. for every PO in the host system, a corresponding PO will be created in the distributed system.

3) The purchase order in the distributed system should be created in approved status and its number should be same as purchase order number in the host system.

4) If the host system requires specific receiving controls on a given PO line, then the receiving controls must be passed to the distributed system along with the PO information. Otherwise system will default the receiving controls from the Receiving Parameters defined in the distributed system. For simplicity it is recommended that receipt routing for PO in the host system be ‘Direct Delivery’ while it can be ‘Standard’ or ‘Inspection Required’ in the distributed system based on the requirements.



3.2 Outbound Material Flow

The steps involved in implementing information flow between the host system and the distributed system for material outbound from the warehouse are described below -

Host (EBS 11.5.10) Create and book Sales

Order.

Outbound Process Flow

Generate shipment

batches.

Import shipment advice

Distributed

WMS (EBS 12.1)

Process shipment

request to create

shipment

Pick and stage

materialShip material

Out of the boxImplementation stepPlease refer to Distributed WMS technical white


Transfer shipment

request to distributed

instance.

Invoice for material

shipped

Process shipment advice

Figure 11: Outbound Process Flow In the above figure the host is assumed to be EBS 11.5.10 and the distributed system is EBS 12.1. However the host system can be any other version of EBS, other ERP or legacy system. Steps described below are applicable only for an EBS host and may change for a different ERP or legacy system. Customers can transfer the shipment data from the host system to distributed system and shipment advice from distributed system to the host system using any of the following ways – 1) Using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) – Customers can configure the ODI maps to send

shipment request to the distributed system and process the shipment advice extracted from the distributed system.

2) Using Oracle Open Interfaces and Public Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) - To insert shipment data into interface tables of the distributed system and to process the shipment advice extracted from the distributed system.

3) Using XML Gateway - Oracle XML gateway can be configured to insert the shipment data passed from host system into shipping interface tables of the distributed system and invoke appropriate program to process this data.

We will discuss each of these methods for data transfer while describing the steps for the above flow. We can break down the above flow in the following steps:



1) Create and book Sales Order in the host system 2) Run concurrent program ‘Create Shipment Batches for Fulfillment’ to group delivery

details into shipment request batches. 3) Transfer and insert shipment batches into interface tables of distributed system. 4) Process shipment request in the distributed system. 5) Pick, pack and ship the sales order in the distributed system. For this customer can

use the latest features available in WMS in Oracle 12.1 like wave planning, advanced replenishment to replenish your forward pick area, mobile personalization to personalize the mobile screens, WMS-OTM integration for dock synchronization and scheduling, rules engine to configure business rules, advance material status etc.

6) Generate the shipment advice message in the distributed system (If using XML Gateway)

7) Use ODI maps or schedule published APIs to extract shipment advice data from distributed system

8) Process shipment advices to ship confirm the corresponding SO lines in the host system.

9) Create invoice against the fulfilled SO in the host system

3.2.1 Create and Book Sales Order in Host System

The host system creates and books the sales orders for customer order Fulfillment. If the host system is an Oracle EBS system, sales orders can be created using forms, EDI transactions or Order Import Open Interface. The organization in the host system should check the ‘Distributed Organization’ flag in Organization parameters which will enable the Third Party Warehousing (TPW) functionality. This will prevent Orders from getting ‘Pick Released’ on the host instance and reduce the efforts (steps) when the shipment advice is received from the distributed system and played back in the host system. Please refer to “Oracle Order Management Users Guide” for detailed information on how to create new sales orders and ‘Oracle Transportation Execution User’s Guide’ for more details on ‘Third Party Warehousing’.

3.2.2 Run Concurrent Program to Generate Shipment Batches

In order to send the shipment data from the EBS host to the Distributed System, the host system should identify the SO lines to be shipped from distributed warehouse. Based on the parameters entered, a new concurrent program ‘Create Shipment Batches for Fulfillment’ will create shipment batches for each group of eligible lines not already assigned to a shipment batch. These lines will be grouped by customer, bill-to location, ship-to location, freight terms and FOB. Each group will represent a shipment request.

3.2.3 Transfer Shipment Request to Distributed System

Before the shipment request is sent to the distributed system, a transaction history record with a unique id should be created for the shipment request and inserted into WSH_TRANSACTIONS_HISTORY table in the host system. The shipment request and shipment details information can be fetched using views WSH_SS2_SHIPMENT_V and WSH_SS2_SHIPITEMS_V. The shipment request can be sent to the distributed system in any of the following ways:

• Using ODI maps - Customers can create and configure ODI maps to extract the data from shipment views and insert into shipping interface tables of the distributed system. Please refer to Distributed Warehouse Management System



Integrations white paper for more details on how to create and configure ODI maps.

• Directly populate the data into shipping interface tables on the distributed system using public APIs

• As an XML message – If distributed instance is configured with Oracle XML Gateway, customer can generate an XML message for shipment request batches and post it to XML Gateway. Oracle XML gateway will insert the data into shipping interface tables in the distributed system and invoke appropriate programs to process it. This shipment request XML message should be generated based on a new XML map (WSH_STNDI_OAG721_IN) which has been created based on OAG 161_show_shipment_005.dtd to process the shipment request received from the host system.

Please refer to “Oracle XML Gateway manual” for detailed information on how to set up XML

gateway to import shipment into Oracle Shipping Execution.

3.2.4 Process Shipment Request in Distributed System

If the host system sends the shipment request as an XML message then Oracle XML gateway must be installed and configured on Oracle Distributed system. The distributed system organizations must be defined as a trading partner within the XML gateway. After the XML message is received from the host system, it is parsed in the XML gateway for format and validity of the information. XML gateway also takes care of any code conversion and mapping required to populate the shipping interface tables within the distributed system based on the seeded schema. XML gateway will load data into interface tables and will trigger shipment request processing Alternately if XML gateway is not used then customers can use ODI or create a concurrent program to fetch the shipment request data from shipment views and directly populate the information in the shipping interface tables of the distributed system using the public APIs. After the records are loaded into the shipping interface tables, they can be processed in any of the following ways –

• Using the ‘Process Shipment Requests' concurrent program

• Using the public APIs All the required reference data like customer, ship-to and Bill-to locations, customer contacts, items, UOMs, ship methods, carriers, freight terms, FOB, organization, sub inventories and locators must be already set up in the distributed system before the shipment request is received and processed. If not, the received shipment requests will error out. However distributed system can create customer, customer addresses and contacts on the fly if the customer data does not exists in the distributed system and is sent along with the shipment request. Any interface error records can be viewed and corrected in the Shipment Message Corrections UI. After the records are corrected, they can be re-submitted for processing. After the shipment request is processed successfully, delivery details are created or modified in the distributed system. Additionally if you use XML gateway to process the shipment request data then a confirmation Business Object Document (BOD) can be sent to the host system. The confirmation BOD will be sent to the host system only if the trading partner is set up to send the confirmation BOD. The shipment request will contain header and detail level information. The host system should provide a unique document number (DocumentID in XML schema) in the shipment request header and a unique document line number



(TXN_SRC_LINE_NUMBER in XML schema) for each shipment request line. The shipment request processing will automatically create a sales order in the distributed system and the sales order number in the distributed system will be same as this document number. The host system sales order and sales order line number will be stored as reference number and reference line number attribute in the delivery details of the distributed system. The distributed system will maintain the reference of the shipment request number and shipment request line number and use it when sending the shipment confirmation to the host system. Please refer to “Oracle XML Gateway manual” for detailed information on how to set up XML gateway to import shipment into Oracle Shipping Execution.

3.2.5 Pick, Pack and Ship Material against Shipment Request in Distributed System

Orders are released, tasks are created, and material is picked, packed, and shipped from the warehouse for the shipment requests. The host system’s sales order and line number information is stored in the delivery details in the distributed system. When the shipment is done from the distributed system, all the shipping documents like packing slip or customer labels generated, will contain the host system sales order number. If required, the distributed system can send shipment information to the customer in the form of EDI 856. This EDI document can be generated in Oracle Distributed System, once the order has been ship confirmed. Please refer to “Oracle Warehouse Management User guide” for detailed information on how to process and ship a sales order using Oracle EBS WMS and refer to “Oracle E-Commerce Shipping Implementation Guide” for detailed information on how to generate and send ASNs (EDI 856) to the customers.

3.2.6 Generate Shipment Advice XML Message in the Distributed System (If using XML Gateway)

Shipment advice can be generated in the distributed system as an XML message when XML gateway is used. XML shipment advice message can be generated using XML transaction Shipment_Advice which is equivalent to EDI transaction 945 outbound. Oracle XML gateway must be installed to generate the XML messages. A new XML map (WSH_STNDO_OAG721_OUT) has been created based on OAG 161_show_shipment_005 dtd to generate the shipment advice from the distributed system. The distributed system organization must be defined as trading partner and transaction must be enabled in XML gateway for generating the shipment advice. A shipment advice will contain information like the document number received in the shipment request, item, quantity, customer, ship to address etc. Shipment advice can be generated once the delivery is in Closed or In-transit status in the distributed system. The distributed system can initiate the XML shipment advice in either of the following ways –

• Using the Send Outbound Message action in the Shipment Transaction Form (Navigation: Shipping Transaction form > Delivery tab > Actions > Send Outbound Message > Select Send Shipment Advice). This can be used if confirmation is to be generated for an individual delivery.

• Using the Automated Shipment Request / Shipment Advice concurrent program for batch processing. Based on the parameters entered in the above concurrent program, the system will look for all the transactions for which



shipment confirmation has not been sent and will create a shipment advice for each of the deliveries shipped.

3.2.7 Import Shipment Advice in the Host System

Periodically the host system should extract the shipment information from the distributed system. This is required so that the host system can update its inventory system with the shipments, Order management system with the sales order shipped, and the accounts receivables for the value of the material shipped. As an implementation step, system integrator can configure ODI maps or using published APIs, create a concurrent program to read the shipment advice XML generated by a distributed system using XML gateway. If XML gateway is not installed, then using the existing shipping views, implementers can extract the required delivery and delivery details data from the distributed system. The program should also update the transaction status to ‘Sent’ in WSH_TRANSACTIONS_HISTORY table in the distributed system. The shipment advice data should be populated in the shipping interface of the host system. The shipment advice data can be populated in the shipping interface of the host system using a new public API WSH_SHIPMENT_ADVICE_PUB.Shipment_Advice.

3.2.8 Process Shipment Advice in the Host System

Customer can schedule to run 'Process Shipment Advices' concurrent program which will validate the imported data. For this the value of profile option ‘WSH: Distributed Source Entity’ should be set to ‘Fulfillment Batch’. If there are any errors with the interface data, then Shipping 'Interface Message Corrections' form can be used to correct and re-submit the error records. Above program will then group the lines for each delivery created in the distributed system and for each delivery it will

- Create a delivery in the host system using the public APIs. - ship confirm the delivery using public APIs

The above process assumes that the organization in the host system is Distributed organization. This will enable to directly create and ship confirm the delivery without having to call the APIs to reserve and pick release the delivery in the host system, which otherwise can be a significant overhead in terms of processing the transactions. You must ensure that on hand quantities are synchronized between the host and distributed system before you playback the shipment advice in the host system. For simplicity, negative balances can be allowed in the organization in the host system and a negative balance will be an indicator or warning that the inventory has not been synchronized between the two systems. If negative balances are not allowed in the organization and sufficient inventory is not available, it will error out the shipment process in the host system and on hand balances must be synchronized before transactions are re-processed. After the sales orders are shipped in the host system, it can generate invoices for the fulfilled orders.

Please refer to “Oracle Order Management Open Interfaces, APIs and Electronic Messaging guide” for detailed information on how to use interface and APIs to update shipment information in the host system.


Reservations - If the host system would like the distributed system to ship specific material (lot) from a specific location then it can be done in either of the following ways -



• They can pass this information in the shipment request XML. When the orders are pick released in the distributed system, inventory will honour this information when move orders/tasks are created.

• Directly populate the reservation information into the reservation interface tables of the distributed system. The reservation information should contain a reference to the shipment request number and other mandatory inventory details like lot numbers, location etc.

If item is serial controlled item, then reservations can only be created through the reservations interfaces in the distributed system.

Sales Order Visibility and Status – The distributed system will allow the users to query the sales order created against the shipment request sent by the host system using the

Sales Order and Order Organizer form. Distributed system can provide the information to the host system using the host system’s shipment request number. The shipment request number of the host is the sales order number in the distributed system. The distributed system can also provide the status of an order based on host system’s sales order number and sales order line number using the Shipping Transaction Form. Host system’ sales order number and sales order line number will be stored as reference number and reference line number in the delivery details of the distributed system and will be available in the shipment transaction form as query parameters.

The Sales order form can also be utilized to manually create a sales order in the distributed system when the integration layer is down and shipment request can not be sent or received. However it is recommended not to create orders manually in the distributed system unless it is very critical since data will need to be reconciled between manually created order in the distributed system and shipment request data generated in the host, when systems are back up and running. This reconciliation might require significant effort and update of data in the distributed and host system. Please refer to Distributed WMS White Paper (Technical Implementation) on details of the data elements which needs to be reconciled and other details

Change Management - Shipment Request Changes or Cancellations A shipment request can be cancelled or changed in the distributed system by populating the shipping interface tables with the changed data and processing it using the public APIs. If the host system has modified or cancelled the shipment request (sales order/delivery) after it has been sent to the distributed system, such changes can also be communicated as an XML message using the XML gateway. When the XML message is received the distributed system will verify if the document number already exists. If there are multiple shipment requests for a given document number then the document number with the latest or maximum revision will be processed and workflow for the previous revisions will be closed. A shipment request can be cancelled provided none of the delivery details are already ship confirmed. If the host system is an EBS system and the organization is a Distributed organization, then in order to reduce an order line quantity, the quantity should first be reduced in the distributed system. Then, the WSH_SHIPMENT_BATCH_PUB.Cancel_Line public api can be used to unassign the reduced quantity from the shipment request. Thereafter, the order line quantity can be reduced in the host system.



If any other attribute in the SO line is to be changed or the SO line is to be cancelled (assuming its not already shipped) then the line should first be cancelled in the distributed system. It should then be unassigned from the shipment request in the host system and once the changes are done then it can be assigned to a new shipment request. Please refer to “Oracle Order Management Open Interfaces, APIs and Electronic Messaging guide” for detailed information on how to process the shipping interface data.

Integration with Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) The distributed system can integrate with OTM so that customers can plan the trips and create dock appointments in OTM and send the information back to Oracle Distributed WMS. You define the dock doors in WMS and with 12.1 you can synchronize the dock door information between WMS and OTM systems. You can also create deliveries in WMS and interface the information to OTM using a concurrent request. OTM can then perform transportation planning and schedule a dock appointment. The information is then sent back to the WMS system to create the trip and dock assignment. For more details please refer to EBS Release 12.1 documentation on Oracle Metalink (www.metalink.oracle.com).

Mapping of Job Role, Responsibility and Flow Steps –

Table below specifies who would execute the steps mentioned in the flow diagram and maps it to their job role and application responsibility:

Job Role Responsibility Implementation Step Order Entry Clerk Order Entry User Create and Book Sales order in host system.


Creates the program to extract the sales order lines from host system and group them based on criteria specified. Insert the data into interface tables of distributed system if XML gateway is not used.

Warehouse Manager Distributed Warehouse Mana Management Superuser

Pick release the sales order created in distributed system.

Warehouse user/shipping clerk

Distributed Warehouse User

Pick, pack and ship the material.


Creates the program to extract the shipment advice information from distributed system and insert into interface tables of host system

Assumptions – Some of the key assumptions for the outbound flow described above are summarized again – 1) All the required reference data must be created in advance in the distributed system

before shipment request is sent. 2) The organization in the host system is a Distributed organization. 3) The lines identified for shipment in the host system must be in ‘Ready to Release’ line

status. 4) The shipment request number sent to the distributed system must be a unique

number. 5) The SO lines for the shipment request in the host system will be identified and

extracted using a seeded concurrent program based on criteria like customer, schedule ship dates etc. The resulting lines will be grouped by Customer, Bill-to location, Ship-to location, Freight terms and FOB. Each group will represent one shipment request and must be identified by a unique number.



6) If the host system wants the distributed system to ship specific material (lot) from a specific location, they can provide the information in the shipment request XML. However

- For serial controlled items, reservation interface needs to be used. - Separate lines need to be created for each lot or locator. If for example

host system wants to ship 5 different lots for the same SO line, then each lot has to be sent separately in the shipment request XML. This means there will be 5 delivery lines (1 for each lot) created in the distributed system each referring to same SO and SO line of the host system.

7) On hand balances must be synchronized between the two systems before the shipment advice data is imported and played back in the host system.



3.3 Internal Material Transfer

Internal orders can be mapped using the inbound and outbound flows described in the section 3.1 and 3.2. The following figure provides an overview of the steps involved in internal material transfer process.

Host (EBS 11.5.10)

Distributed Shipping

Instance (EBS 12.1)

Create internal

requisition and

internal orders

Internal Transfer Process Flow

Process

shipment advice

Process the

receipt

transactions

Ship material to

receiving

instance and

generate DSNO

Pick and stage

material

Distributed Receiving

Instance (EBS12.1)

Process interface

data to create PO

Receive and

putaway the

products

received

Receive and

create ASN

Optional Flo

w

Out of the boxImplementation Step-- -- -- Optional Flow

Transfer shipment request to

standalone shipping instance.

Transform shipment request

into equivalent PO and

populate PO interface on

standalone receiving instance.

Process shipment

request to create

shipment

Close shipment

request

Import shipment

advice

Populate the

receiving open

interface

Populate receiving

interface with ASN

information..

Please refer to Distributed WMS technical white


Generate

shipment

batches

Figure 12: Overview of Internal Material Transfer Process

In the above figure the host is assumed to be EBS 11.5.10 and the distributed system is EBS 12.1. However the host system can be any other version of EBS, other ERP or legacy system. The steps described below are applicable only for an EBS host and may change for a different ERP or legacy system. The internal transfer process can be achieved using a combination of outbound and inbound flow described in earlier sections. This flow assumes that both the shipping and receiving organization are on a separate distributed instance.



We can break down the internal order flow in the following steps: 1) Create and approve internal requisition/internal order in the host system. 2) Run ‘Create Shipment Batches for Fulfillment’ concurrent program to extract the internal

order lines from the host system and create shipment request. 3) Using ODI maps or published APIs insert the shipment request into shipping interface

tables of distributed shipping instance. Transform and Insert the internal order data into purchasing interface tables of the distributed receiving instance to create an equivalent purchase order.

4) Import shipment request and ship confirm the material from distributed shipping instance. 5) Use ODI maps or using published APIs create and schedule a concurrent program to

import shipment confirmation data from distributed shipping system and ship confirm the corresponding internal order lines in the host instance

6) Import and process purchase order in the distributed receiving instance. 7) Receive the material in the distributed receiving instance. 8) Use ODI maps or using published APIs, create and schedule a concurrent program to

import and transform the PO receipt information from distributed receiving instance and receive corresponding intransit shipment lines in the host system

3.3.1 Create and Approve Internal Requisition/Internal Orders in Host System

The internal requisition or internal order will be created in the host instance. If the host system is an Oracle EBS system, internal orders can be created using forms or Order Import open interfaces. Please refer to “Oracle Purchasing Users Guide” for detailed information on how to create internal

sales orders.

3.3.2 Run Concurrent Program to Generate Shipment Batches

The host system should select the internal order lines to be shipped from shipping warehouse and create shipment batches by running the ‘Create Shipment Batches for Fulfillment’ concurrent program. The Include Internal Order flag must be checked to include internal orders for shipment request generation.

Please refer to the Outbound Material Flow section 3.2.2 for more details on how to create shipment request and insert the data into distributed system.

3.3.3 Transfer Shipment Request to Distributed Shipping Instance and Purchase Order Data to Receiving Distributed Instance

The shipment request can be inserted into shipping interface tables of the shipping distributed instance using any of the following ways:

• Using ODI maps. Please refer to Distributed Warehouse Management System white paper (Integrations) for more details on how to create and configure ODI maps.

• Directly populate the data into shipping interface tables within the distributed shipping instance using public APIs.

• If XML gateway is installed then using some XML tool convert the data from shipping views into XML message and send it to XML gateway.

The shipment data from the host system should also be converted to populate the PO interface tables of the distributed instance representing receiving organization to create an equivalent purchase order. The purchase order number in the distributed receiving instance should be same as internal requisition number in the host system to maintain the



reference between two systems. The shipping organization must be defined as a supplier in the distributed receiving instance to facilitate the creation of PO. Please refer to the inbound flow section 3.1.2 to get more details on the steps to send PO information to a distributed system.

3.3.4 Import Shipment Request and Ship Material from Distributed Shipping Instance

Shipment request data can be imported using XML gateway (if installed) or by directly populating the shipping interface tables of the distributed shipping instance. Once the interface data is populated, users can run the ‘Process Shipment Requests’ program or use public APIs to process the data. For more details please refer to Outbound Material Flow section 3.2.4. To facilitate creation of sales order in shipping distributed instance, the receiving organization must be defined as a customer. Orders are released, tasks are created, and material is picked, packed, and shipped from the warehouse to the destination organization. Optionally the shipping instance can also send an ASN to the receiving organization. Please refer to “Oracle Warehouse Management User guide” for detailed information on how to process and ship a sales order using Oracle EBS WMS and refer to “Oracle E-Commerce Shipping Implementation Guide” for detailed information on how to generate and send ASNs (EDI 856) to the customers.

3.3.5 Import and Process Shipment Advice in the Host System

Periodically the host system should extract the shipment information from the shipping distributed system. As an implementation step, system integrator can extract the shipment data from the shipping distributed instance and insert it into shipping interface tables of the host system in any of the following ways –

• Create a concurrent program to read the shipment advice generated (if using XML gateway) by shipping instance else the shipment data can be extracted from the existing shipping views. The data should then be inserted into shipping interface tables of the host system.

• Using ODI maps. Please refer to Distributed Warehouse Management System white paper (Integrations) for more details on how to create and configure ODI maps.

After the data is loaded into the shipping interface tables of the host system, it can be processed by scheduling the standard concurrent program which will create and ship confirm the deliveries. For more details please refer to the Outbound Material Flow section 3.2.7 and 3.2.8

3.3.6 Import and Process PO in Distributed Receiving Instance

After the interface tables have been loaded as explained in section 3.3.3, the “Import Standard Purchase Order program” must be run in the distributed receiving instance to import the data from the interface tables into Oracle Purchasing. The Purchasing Documents Open Interface uses APIs to process the data and create a purchase order. For more details please refer to Inbound Material Flow section 3.1.3. The shipping organization must be defined as a supplier to facilitate the creation of PO in the receiving instance. Please refer to “Oracle Purchasing Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on what fields to populate for importing new purchase orders.



3.3.7 Receipt of Material in the Receiving Warehouse

When material is physically received in the warehouse, it is received against the purchase order (or the ASN). Users can configure the put away rules using WMS rules engine to direct the users to put away the material to appropriate locations based on the business constraints. Please refer to “Oracle Warehouse Management Users Guide” for detailed information on how to perform receiving transactions.

3.3.8 Populate Receiving Interface and Process Receipt Confirmation in Host System

As an implementation step, system integrators can query the Receipt Confirmation view directly to fetch all the new receipts for which confirmation has not been sent to the host system. They will then need to convert the PO receipt of the receiving instance into an equivalent internal requisition receipt and insert the data into receiving interface tables of the host system. This can be done using the dummy supplier setup as explained in step 3.3.3 so that any PO receipts of this supplier can be separated from normal PO receipt and converted into internal requisition receipt. The data can be sent from the receiving instance to the host system using any of the following ways–

• As an implementation step, using published APIs or views create and schedule a concurrent program which extracts the receipt data from the receiving instance and populate the interface tables on the host system or

• Create and configure ODI maps. For more details on how to create and configure an ODI map, please refer to Distributed WMS White Paper (Integrations).

The host system should process the receipt information obtained from the distributed system and update its inventory records so that the internal requisition or order can be closed. For more details on how to receive and process receipt information in the host system, please refer to Inbound Material Flow section 3.1.5 and 3.1.6.


Multiple Organizations in a Single Distributed Instance The above flow assumed that the shipping and receiving organizations were on separate distributed instances. Customers can also configure the distributed instance such that multiple warehouses could be on a single distributed instance. In this scenario, the internal order flow can be achieved using the following steps: 1) The host system creates the internal requisition and internal order. 2) You do not need to create an external order and purchase order as both the shipping

and receiving organization are on the same distributed instance. Therefore the internal orders should not be included in the create shipment batches program i.e. Include Internal Orders flag should be set to No. As an implementation step, the system integrator can extract the internal requisition data and populate the requisition interface tables to create an internal requisition in the distributed instance. The internal requisition and internal requisition line number in the distributed instance should be same as in the host system to maintain the reference.

3) Internal order is created in the distributed instance and the shipping organization will ship the material against the internal order.

4) After the material is shipped, the system integrator can extract the shipment data for internal orders using published APIs. Using the IR number, it will determine the



corresponding ISO number and order type in the host system and insert the records in the interface table of the host system against the host ISO number.

5) The host system should run the standard program to process the shipment. For an internal order this program should not validate the data against the shipment request. Instead it should be validated against the internal requisition and internal order in the host system.

6) After the material reaches the destination, the receiving organization will receive the material against the internal requisition. The internal requisition intransit receipt information can then be extracted using the receipt confirmation view from the distributed system.

7) Using the published APIs, the system integrator can insert the data into receiving interface tables of the host system.

8) Process the receipt transaction in the host system to update the inventory and close the internal requisition.

If the host system decides to update the ISO after the requisition data has been sent to the distributed instance, then the ISO and IR in the distributed system should be first cancelled. The changes can be made in the host system and IR data should be sent again to the distributed system. Assumptions – Some of the key assumptions for the internal order flow described above are summarized again: 1) All the required reference data must be created in advance in the distributed system

before purchase order is sent. 2) It is assumed that operating unit is same in the host and distributed system since

combination of operating unit and internal requisition number will be unique.. 3) The purchase order number in the distributed receiving system should be same as

internal requisition number in the host system to maintain the reference between two systems.

4) The customer should ensure that PO number sequence should not conflict with the sequence for internal requisition of host as internal requisition number of host will become PO number in the receiving instance. Document number entry method can be set as Manual so that PO can be set programmatically to be same as internal requisition number of the host system.



3.4 Return Material Authorization (RMA)

The steps involved in implementing information flow between the host system and the distributed system for material returned from customer and inbound to the warehouse are described below:

RMA Process Flow

Create and Book Return

Material Authorization

(RMA)

Populate Order import

interface on distributed

system

Process the RMA

receipt transactions

Populate the receiving

open interface

Host (EBS 11.5.10)

Process interface

records to create

RMA

Receive and Putaway

the material

Distributed W

MS

(EBS 12.1)

Out of the boxImplementation StepPlease refer to Distributed WMS technical white


Figure 13: RMA Process Flow

In the above figure the host is assumed to be EBS 11.5.10 and the distributed system is EBS 12.1. However the host system can be any other version of EBS, other ERP or legacy system. The steps described below are applicable only for an EBS host and may change for a different ERP or legacy system. We can break down the above flow in the following steps: 1) Create and book RMA in the host system 2) Use ODI maps or using published APIs create and schedule concurrent program to

extract the RMA lines to be received from the host system and insert into order interface of distributed system.

3) Process interface data to create RMA in the distributed system. 4) Receive and putaway the material in the warehouse. 5) Use ODI maps or using published APIs or views, create and schedule a concurrent

program to import receipt information from distributed system 6) Process to receive corresponding RMA lines in the host system.

3.4.1 Create and Book RMA in Host System

The Return Material Authorization (RMA) is created and booked in the host system. If the host system is an Oracle EBS system, RMA can be created using forms or EDI transactions or order import open interfaces.



Please refer to “Oracle Order Management Implementation Guide” for detailed information on how

to create RMAs.

3.4.2 Populate Order Interface on Distributed System

As an implementation step, the system integrator extracts the RMA data and inserts into the interface tables of the distributed system. For simplicity and reference, the RMA number in the distributed system should be same as RMA number in the host system. This can be done in either of following ways –

• Create and schedule a concurrent program which will extract the RMA data from the host system and populate the interface tables on distributed system.

• Using Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). For more details on how to create and configure an ODI map, please refer to Distributed WMS Integrations white paper.

3.4.3 Process Interface Data to Create RMA in Distributed System

The distributed system can import the RMA information using Order Import open interface. Order Import is an Order Management open interface that consists of open interface tables and uses a set of APIs to process the data in the interface tables to ensure that it is valid before importing it into Oracle Order Management. After the data is loaded in the interface tables, one must schedule the “Order Import” concurrent program on a periodic basis to import the data from the interface tables into Oracle Order Management. Order import program validates and defaults any missing data. If the Order Import program finds errors in the interface tables, it can be corrected using the Order Import Corrections user interface. Please refer to “Oracle Order Management Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on how to import orders into Oracle Order management.


When material is physically received in the warehouse, it is received against the RMA in the distributed warehouse. Users can configure the put away rules using WMS rules engine to direct the users to put away the material to appropriate locations. Please refer to “Oracle Warehouse Management Users Guide” for detailed information on how to perform RMA receiving transactions

3.4.5 Extract RMA Receipt Data from Distributed and Import into Host System

The system integrator can query all the RMA receipts from the Receipt Confirmation view (‘RCV_RECEIPT_CONFIRMATION_V’) for which confirmation has not been sent to the host system. They can then convert this information into appropriate format to populate the receiving interface tables of the host system. This can be achieved in either of the following ways –

• As an implementation step, create and schedule a concurrent program which will extract the RMA receipt data from distributed system and populate the receiving interface tables on host system or

• Create and configure ODI maps. For more details on how to create and configure an ODI map, please refer to Distributed WMS Integrations white paper.

‘RECEIPT_CONFIRMATION_EXTRACTED’ flag in the RCV_TRANSACTIONS table of distributed system should be updated using the public APIs for the records for which confirmation



has been sent. For more details on how to utilize Receipt Confirmation view please refer to Inbound Material Flow section 3.1.5.

3.4.6 Process RMA Receipt in the Host System

After the receiving interface tables are populated with RMA receipt data, the receipt information can be processed in the host system. If the host system is an Oracle E-Business Suite, then the information can directly be written into the “Receiving Documents Open Interface” of the host system. System integrator should load the receipt information of distributed system in the receiving interface tables of the host system. Once the receipts have been imported into “Receiving Documents Open Interface”, one can schedule the “Receiving Transaction Processor” to process these transactions and create receipts in the host system. Assumptions – Some of the assumptions for the above flow are re-summarized: 1) All the required reference data must be created in advance in the distributed system

before the RMA is sent. 2) There will be one-to-one mapping of RMAs between host and distributed system i.e.

for every RMA in the host system, a corresponding RMA will be created in the distributed system.

3) The RMA number in the distributed system should be same as RMA number in the host system.



3.5 Manufacturing to Distribution Center Material Flow

In a typical manufacturing environment, goods are manufactured in the plants and are stored and distributed through finished goods (FG) warehouses or distribution centers (DC). The customer demand is fulfilled through these FG warehouses or DC which in turn drives the planning and production in the plants. This can be modelled in various ways by the customers including:

A. The manufacturing plant may operate on a legacy system while planning and

other functions are maintained in a central ERP or host system. Warehouse is a separate organization using the Oracle Distributed WMS solution and after the finished goods are manufactured in the plant, they are transferred to warehouse or DC. The warehouse may also store raw materials and supply it to the manufacturing plant.

B. When the finished goods are manufactured and stored in a dedicated storage

area for finished goods (subinventory within same organization or a separate warehouse). In such a case customer might want to upgrade the storage area to Oracle Distributed WMS so that they can utilize the latest features of the EBS WMS and will need a mechanism to bring the finished goods inventory into Oracle Distributed WMS system.

Legacy

Mfg

Syste

m

Process interface

records to create

work order

Mfg to DC Transfer Process Flow

Complete work order

and send goods to

warehouse

Create Job Order

Complete

work order

Process the

receipt

transactions

Host (EBS 11.5.10)

Create Inter org

transfer to move

goods from plant to

warehouse/DC

Populate WIP Interface

on Mfg system

Transform PO receipt

into intransit receipt

and populate receiving

open interface.

Transform intransit

shipment to equivalent

purchase order and

populate PO interface on

distributed instance

Process PO interface

record to create PO

Receive and

putaway the

product from

manufacturing

Distributed W

MS

(EBS 12.1)

Out of the boxImplementation Step Please refer to Distributed WMS technical white


Figure 14: Overview of Manufacturing to DC Process Flow When Manufacturing

Operates on a Legacy System



The figure above displays how manufacturing to DC material flow can be mapped for scenario A. In the figure the host is assumed to be EBS 11.5.10 and the distributed system is EBS 12.1. However the host system can be any other version of EBS, other ERP or legacy system.

We can break down the flow in the following steps: 1) Create and approve job order in the host system and send job information to legacy

manufacturing system. 2) Receive job completion information from legacy manufacturing system and create an

inter org transfer to move material from plant to DC. 3) Use ODI maps or using published APIs, schedule a concurrent program to convert

intransit shipment into an equivalent PO and insert into receiving interface tables of distributed system.

4) Import and process purchase order in the distributed system. 5) Receive and put away the material in the distributed system. 6) Use ODI maps or using published APIs create and schedule a concurrent program to

import and convert PO receipt information from distributed system into intransit shipment receipt and receive corresponding shipment lines in the host system

3.5.1 Create and Approve Job order in Host System

A manufacturing job order will be created in the host system. If host is an EBS system, job orders can be created through forms or using WIP open interfaces. The job order is sent to manufacturing system Please refer to “Oracle Work in Process Users Guide” for detailed information on how to create job

orders.

3.5.2 Create and Approve Intransit Shipment in Host System

When the job is completed in the legacy manufacturing system, the host needs to complete the job order and create an inter org transfer to move the finished goods from plant to warehouse or DC.

3.5.3 Transform Intransit Shipment into Equivalent PO and Populate PO Interface Tables of Distributed System.

As an implementation step, the system integrator needs to convert the inter org transfer shipment data into an equivalent purchase order against which distributed warehouse can receive the finished goods when it is received from the manufacturing plant. This can be achieved by:

• System integrator can create and schedule a concurrent request to extract shipment data for inter org transfer from material transaction. The data should then be transformed into an equivalent purchase order against which distributed system can receive the material.

• Using ODI Maps - For more details on how to create and configure an ODI map, please refer to Distributed WMS Integrations white paper

The data will be inserted into purchasing interface tables of the distributed system. The PO number should be same as the intransit shipment number to maintain the reference between the two systems.



3.5.4 Import and Process PO in Distributed System

Please refer to Inbound Material Flow Section 3.1.3 to get details on how to import and process PO in a distributed system.


When material is physically received in the warehouse, it is received against the purchase order in the distributed warehouse. Users can configure the put away rules using WMS rules engine to direct the users to put away the material to appropriate locations based on the business constraints. Please refer to “Oracle Warehouse Management Users Guide” for detailed information on how to perform receiving transactions.

3.5.6 Import Receipt Confirmation in Host System

As an implementation step, system integrators can query the Receipt Confirmation view directly to fetch all the new receipts for which confirmation has not been sent to the host system. They will then need to convert the PO receipt of the distributed instance into an equivalent intransit shipment receipt and insert the data into receiving interface tables of the host system. This can be achieved by –


• Using published APIs - System integrator can create and schedule a concurrent request to extract the receipt data from distributed system and insert into receiving interface tables of the host system.

The host system should process the receipt information obtained from the distributed system and update its inventory. Also the program distinguishes these PO receipts from other supplier PO receipts which will be processed as PO receipts in the host system. You can use the supplier to distinguish the receipts which are done for finished goods received from the plant. These receipts will be played back as intransit shipment receipt in the host system. For this you can either create a dummy supplier or setup plant as a supplier. Any PO receipts queried from the view against this dummy supplier will then be played back as intransit shipment receipt in the host system.


1. The distributed warehouse may also store and supply the raw material to the plant. For this the host will create an internal requisition to move the raw material from DC or warehouse to manufacturing plant. Since the distributed system will not support any manufacturing transactions, the plant organization will not be mapped into a distributed instance. An internal order can be sent as a shipment request to the distributed instance using the Create Shipment Batches for Fulfillment program. Once the shipment is done from the warehouse a shipment advice will be sent which can be played back in the host system.

2. The distributed instance might perform an alias issue to issue out the raw

materials which should be imported as an internal order or intransit shipment in the host system. Please refer to Internal Material Transfer Process flow section 3.3 to get more details on how to create and process an internal order to move material in a distributed scenario.



3. For model B described above, if the dedicated storage area is a separate warehouse then it will be an inter-org transfer in the host system. This inter org intransit receipt should be received as an Alias receipt in the distributed instance to bring the inventory into the distributed instance.

4. For model B described above, if the dedicated storage area is a subinventory

within the plant organization, then it will be a subinventory transfer process where finished goods are transferred to the dedicated subinventory after the job is completed. As an implementation step, system integrators can create program to perform Alias or Miscellaneous receipt into the finished goods subinventory in the distributed system for all the subinventory transfers, which happen between shop floor and finished goods area in the host system.

Assumptions – Some of the key assumptions for the manufacturing to DC material flow described above are summarized again – 1) All the required reference data must be created in advance in the distributed system

before shipment request is sent. 2) The PO number in the receiving instance is same as the intransit shipment number of

the host system. 3) The manufacturing plant must be defined as supplier in the distributed system.



3.6 Inventory Management

3.6.1 Inventory Adjustments

In case of a distributed warehouse, the host system needs to track inventory of material at different warehouses so that it can plan and source material. Apart from receipts and shipments, there are some other processes which can update inventory in a warehouse. This includes adjustments due to cycle counts, miscellaneous receipts and miscellaneous issues etc. The warehouse needs to send such inventory adjustments to the host system. The following figure gives an overview of the steps involved in synchronizing inventory between the host system and the distributed warehouse system. The distributed solution provides a view (MTL_ADJUSTMENT_SYNC_UP_V), which provides all the detailed information for the following transactions: cycle count and physical inventory adjustments, miscellaneous issue and receipts, account alias issue and receipts, sub inventory transfers, move order transactions, staging transfer transactions. The view extracts the information for all the adjustment transactions for which confirmation has not been sent. As an implementation step, system integrators will need to extract the adjustment information from this view and transform it to populate the material transaction interface (MTI) table in the host system. This can be done by either of the following ways:


• System integrator can create and schedule a concurrent request to extract the adjustment data from distributed system and insert into interface tables of the host system.

A new flag (TRANSACTION_EXTRACTED) in the MTL_MATERIAL_TRANSACTIONS (MMT) table has been created, which can be updated using public APIs to indicate the status if the adjustment confirmation has been sent to the host system or not. Customers can update the flag with any values which can indicate any of the following statuses:

• NULL – Adjustment confirmation not sent to the host system

• Sent But Pending Confirmation – Adjustment confirmation sent to the host system but awaiting confirmation if host system received it successfully or not.

• Sent Confirmed - Adjustment confirmation successfully received by the host system.

For simplicity, it is recommended that the host system creates an alias receipt or issues against the adjustments done in the distributed system, e.g. creating an alias issue/receipt for cycle count or physical inventory adjustments in warehouse. For greater control and visibility, the host system can also have a one to one mapping of the adjustment transactions e.g. populating the cycle count interface of the host with cycle count adjustments done in warehouse and then processing these interface records. In order to maintain a reference of adjustment transactions in the host system, it is recommended to populate the transaction reference field in Material Transaction Interface (MTI) of the host system with the transaction ID field of the MMT in the distributed system for all the adjustment transactions which have been sent and successfully received in the host system.



Inventory Adjustments

Process the

adjustment

transactions

Populate adjustment

information into material

transaction interfaceHost System

Distributed W

MS

Perform adjustment

transactions e.g. cycle

count adjustment

Out of the boxImplementation StepPlease refer to Distributed WMS Integrations

white paper for more details on how to use ODIs.

Figure 15: Overview of Inventory Adjustments Synchronization

3.6.2 On Hand Balances

The host system needs to track accurate on hand balances in the distributed system. This is required for order fulfilment and planning purposes. The distributed solution will provide a view MTL_ONHAND_SYNC_UP_V that provides the details about the on hand quantity of items such as total on hand quantity, lot and serial details, snapshot date etc. As an implementation step, system integrators can extract the information from this view and create a report to compare with on hand balances in the host system on a periodic basis. On hand balance can be in the form of a flat file or XML file depending on the best method that the host system can make use of. Any mismatch between the host and distributed will indicate that transactions are not reconciled between the two systems and can serve as a trigger to initiate the synchronization process. If the on hand balances between the two systems are not same then users need to make sure that all the receipt and shipment confirmations have been sent to the host along with any adjustments transactions. If the discrepancies still persist then they might need to compare the transactions history between the two systems and take appropriate actions for the missing transactions.

3.7 Synchronization of Reference Data

In order to execute above flows, reference data such as item, customers, and vendors (or suppliers) must be synchronized between the host system and the distributed system. The following figure gives an overview of the steps involved in synchronizing reference data between the host system and the distributed system. It should be noted that the host system is the owner of reference data. Customers can use Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) for all data related integrations i.e. to synchronize the reference data as well as transactional data like purchase and sales



order from the host system to distributed and receipt confirmations and shipment advices from the distributed to host system. ODI can be used as data transfer tool because:

• ODI is designed for migrating and transforming data across database instances

• ODI has the ability to migrate data across different database technologies. This means distributed instance and ERP do not need to be of identical Applications version or RDBMS release.

• ODI has the ability to directly invoke web services if the customer wants to bypass the open interface and perform the transactions in real time.

• ODI has a journalizing capability that discovers which transaction records are new. This must be used to facilitate incremental synchronization.

For more details on ODI mappings and configurations in Oracle Distributed WMS, please refer to Oracle Distributed WMS Integrations white paper.

B2B or Integration LayerUse Oracle ODI or Create program to extract item,

supplier and customer data from the host system and

insert into Oracle Distributed WMS open interfaces

Host System

Interface for the host system

Oracle Distributed

WMS System

Insert records in Oracle

Distributed WMS open interface

Customer Open

InterfaceItem Open Interface

Supplier Open

Interface

APIs

Oracle Distributed WMS Open Interfaces

Figure 16: Overview of Reference Data Transfer from Legacy System to Oracle Distributed WMS



3.7.1 Import Item Information

One can import items from any source into Oracle Distributed WMS using the item open interfaces. It enables you to convert inventory Items from another inventory system, migrate assembly and component items from a legacy manufacturing system, convert purchased items from a custom purchasing system, and import new items from a Product Data Management package. You can also import item category assignments which can be done simultaneously with process of importing items, or as a separate task of importing item category assignments only. When items are imported through the item open interface in distributed system, it can create new item in item master organization, update existing item, or assign existing item to additional organizations. You can specify values for all the item attributes, or you can specify just a few attributes and let the remainder default or remain null. The Item Interface also enables you to import revision details, including past and future revisions and effectivity dates. System Integrators must extract item information from the host system and insert the records into the item and item category interface tables of distributed system. After you load item, revision, and item category assignment records into these interface tables, you can run the Item Interface program to import the data. The item interface assigns defaults to missing data, validates the data, and imports the new items or modifies existing items.

For ease and simplicity, it is recommended to define the items as plain item and maintain inventory at aggregate (subinventory) level in the host system while maintain specific inventory controls such as lot or serial control for the item in the distributed system. In certain scenarios, if the host system wants to maintain the exact details then the item and location controls can be same in the host and distributed system. . Please refer to “Oracle Inventory’s Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for information on how to use “Item Open Interfaces” to update item information in distributed system.

3.7.2 Import Supplier Information

One can import suppliers, supplier sites and their contacts into Oracle Distributed WMS using the Suppliers Open Interface. System Integrators must extract the supplier information from the source system and insert the records into the supplier interface tables. After you load supplier, supplier sites, and supplier contact records into the interface tables, you can run the Suppliers Interface Program to import the data. The Suppliers Interface assigns defaults to missing data, validates the data and then imports the new suppliers or modifies existing suppliers in the distributed system. Please refer to “Oracle Payable’s Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on how to use “Supplier Open Interface” to update Supplier information.

3.7.3 Import Customer Information

One can import customers from any source into Oracle Distributed WMS using the Customer Open Interface. With this interface, you can create new customers or update existing customers. System Integrators must extract the customer data from the source system. The data can then be transferred into customer interface tables. After the import data is loaded into the interface tables, you can run Customer Interface to validate the data, default any missing data, and convert it into base customer tables. Please refer to “Oracle Receivable’s Open Interfaces and APIs manual” for detailed information on how to use “Customer Open Interface” to create and update Customer information in the distributed warehouse system.



3.8 Sales Order and Purchase Order Management

The distributed system requires mechanism to query the shipment requests and purchase orders sent by the host system. For this, users in distributed system will have access to the Order Organizer, Sales Order, Purchase Order Summary and Purchase Order forms. Order Management What is Supported

• Users can query the shipment request sent by the host system and its current status using the shipment request number. The shipment request number is the sales order number in the distributed system. They can also query the shipment requests using other criteria such as customer, order date, ship to etc.

• Users can use the Sales Order form to manually create and book a sales order in the distributed system when the integration layer is down and shipment request cannot be sent or received. This enables the warehouse to create and process orders which are critical.

• Users can pick release the booked sales order, perform pick and ship confirm the delivery.

What is supported:

• No accounting or costing implications of the transactions performed in the distributed system.

• Distributed system does not support advanced pricing.

• Users cannot invoice for the sales order created in a distributed system. These will be a ship only sales order.

• Data reconciliation between manually created SO and actual shipment request must be performed when system is up and running. It is not recommended to create sales order manually in the distributed system as data reconciliation effort could be significant.

Purchasing

What is Supported

• Users can query the purchase orders sent by the host system. The purchase order number in the distributed system should be the same as purchase order number in the host system. Purchase orders can also be queried using other criteria such as supplier, item, ship to location etc.

• Users can use the Purchase Order form to manually create and approve a purchase order in the distributed system when the integration layer is down and purchase orders cannot be sent or received.

• Perform the receipts against the manually created purchase orders in the distributed system.

What is supported:

• No accounting or costing implications of the transactions performed in the distributed system.

• Users cannot initiate the Payables for the receipts performed in distributed system.

• Data reconciliation between manually created purchase order and actual purchase order is not as high as in case of order management. Distributed system must ensure that purchase order number in the distributed system is same as in the host system.



Oracle Distributed WMS June 2009 Author: Rahul Mehta ([email protected])

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distributed wms white paper

Documents

electronic

separate white

dedicated

receiving

approve intransit

shipment request

intransit

receiving