In this article, learn the difference between tracking job shipments and running a shipping process.
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Overview
So you wanna track your shipments...
There two basic concepts to understand about shipping in the Idencia management portal.
Tracking Job Shipments Overview
Say you have an invoice for Best Customer, Inc. similar to the one shown below. The comments section of the invoice includes the following shipping instructions:
Using the Shipping functionality in Jobs, you can schedule and track each of the shipments required for a given Job. Job shipments track the Shipment Date, the Item Types included in the shipment, and the quantity of each Item Type shipped. Job shipments do not track the actual serial numbers shipped. When using the Job Shipments feature, you'll be able to track both the production and shipping progress for each Job (count of each Item Type shipped), but you will not be able to tell which individual serial numbers were shipped.
When using the Job shipments feature, your Job's screen will provide information that looks like this:
Tracking Shipped Inventory Overview
In order to track the actual inventory (serial numbers) shipped, you'll need to create a shipping process. A report can be created that uses information from the shipping process to build a Bill of Lading, Shipping Ticket, or Delivery Ticket. A simple shipping process might look something like this:
Based on the configuration shown above, this process can only be run against items where the current Product Status = 'Finished Goods.' The process will set the Shipping Date and Shipment Number fields, and automatically set the Product Status to 'Shipped.'
The Shipping Ticket Report can be designed so that the user selects the Shipping Date and Shipment Number. The report will gather the list of items with the selected Shipping Date and Shipment Number combination and display them along with any other information you would like to include. A basic Shipping Ticket could look something like this:
If the information in the "Ship To" field is not available in your Job Custom Properties, or if you don't use Jobs, that information can be collected as additional steps in the Shipping Process.
Depending on your business processes, you may also choose to have a multi-phase shipping process as in the example below.
A more complex process like the one pictured above and described below could be implemented to handle multiple trucks entering and exiting a very large stock yard throughout the day.
- A delivery driver pulls his truck into to the loading zone in the middle of the stock yard.
- The status of each item in the stock yard is "Finished Goods"
- A forklift operator scans the items to be loaded, completes the 'Load Shipment' phase of the Shipping process, and loads the scanned items onto the truck. He informs the Shipping Supervisor that the load is complete.
- The status of each item is now "LOADED"
- The Shipping Supervisor prints two copies of a Shipping Ticket that includes both the Serial Number and the Barcode of each item that was just loaded onto the truck.
- The Shipping Supervisor inspects the load and verifies that no items have been damaged during the loading process. He scans the serial numbers printed on the Shipping Ticket and runs the 'Inspect & Approve Shipment' phase of the process. He takes a photo of each side of the load as evidence that the product was in acceptable condition after loading, and captures his signature. He provides both copies of the Shipping Ticket to the delivery driver.
- The delivery driver stops at the exit gate and provides one copy of the Shipping Ticket to the gate attendant.
- The gate attendant scans the serial numbers printed on the Shipping Ticket and runs the 'Ship' phase of the process.
- The status of each item is now 'SHIPPED'
- The delivery driver exits with the remaining copy of the Shipping Ticket.
As you can see, the shipping process you created can be as simple or as complex as your business requires. The simpler the better is always a good motto, but each process can be built to best fit your business needs.
Contact support if you do not have a shipping process and would like to build one.
NOTE: Printing a barcode onto paper can be done for any serial number, but a barcode cannot be read by the average RFID scanner. If your organization uses RFID scanners, a separate optical barcode scanner will need to be purchased in order to scan printed barcodes.