| # Freight order grouping To plan the transportation of goods listed on freight orders or to subcontract freight orders, ERP Enterprise subdivides the freight orders into groups that share the same properties. Such properties are, for example: Addresses Delivery dates and times Item properties Routes Special transport conditions (cold storage, livestock transport, and so on) When freight orders are grouped to create loads and shipments or freight order clusters, the first step is to group freight order headers by shipping office. Then, when a number of freight orders are allocated to a shipping office, the freight order lines of these freight orders are grouped into the planning groups defined for this shipping office. The groups of linked freight order lines and planning groups are used by the load building engine to build shipments and loads, or by the clustering engine to create freight order clusters, respectively. To group freight order headers by shipping office Shipping offices are linked to freight orders according to the criteria of the shipping office matrices defined in the Shipping Office Matrix Definition (fmfoc1130m000) session and the Shipping Office Matrix (fmfoc1140m000) session. If none of the matrices apply, or if you do not use shipping office matrices to allocate shipping offices to freight orders, ERP Enterprise selects a shipping office from the Warehouses by Shipping Office (fmfmd0185m000) session. In this session, shipping offices are linked to warehouses. How this works is described in the following example. Example Sales order SO1 is delivered from warehouse WH1. WH1 is linked to shipping office SHO1. When freight order FO1 is generated from sales order SO1, shipping office SHO1 is linked to freight order FO1. For information on using shipping office matrices and/or shipping offices linked to warehouses, see To set up freight order grouping control. Note If you manually create a freight order, you must enter a shipping office. To group freight order lines by planning group The groups of linked freight orders and shipping office can be quite large and varied, because they may include large quantities of different items. Therefore, the groups must be subdivided further to serve as a useful basis for transportation planning. To achieve this, the order lines of these groups are grouped by planning group. A planning group is used to group freight order lines. A planning group is linked to a shipping office. More than one planning group can be linked to a shipping office. Planning groups are defined in the Planning Groups (fmfoc0150m000) session. In the Planning Group - Shipping Office (fmfoc1100m000) session, planning groups are linked to shipping offices. Note Only authorized users are enabled to use planning groups and shipping offices to build shipments and loads. Authorizations are given for combinations of shipping offices and planning groups in the Users by Shipping Office and Planning Group (fmfoc1105m000) session. A planning group has a number of grouping criteria. These criteria refer to the data entered on freight order headers and freight order lines. Order lines that match the criteria of a planning group are subdivided into that particular planning group. If a planning group has a header criterion (such as an address or a business partner), freight order lines linked to headers that match the criterion are allocated to that planning group. Example Suppose the freight orders FO1 and FO2 are allocated to shipping office A. Shipping office A has the planning groups PL1 and PL2. If the freight order lines of FO1 match the criteria of PL1, they are allocated to PL1. If the freight order lines of FO2 match the criteria of PL2, they are allocated to PL2. The order lines of a freight order may not all go to the same planning group. Suppose FO1 has order lines A, B, and C. C matches the criteria of PL1, so C goes to PL1. A and B match the criteria of PL2, so they go to PL2. For further information on freight order grouping, refer to Example of freight order grouping without shipping office matrix. Planning group criteria are defined in plan matrices. For further information on plan matrices, refer to Plan matrices and matrix definitions. A shipping office can have a number of planning groups. Freight orders are grouped by shipping office. The freight order lines of each group of linked freight orders and shipping offices are grouped by planning group. The order lines in each planning group are used to build shipments and loads. It depends on the planning algorithm used and the quantities listed in the order lines, how many shipments and loads are built from each group of order lines by planning group. Related topics Shipping office matrices Plan matrices and matrix definitions To set up freight order grouping control The load building process Freight Management in multisite environments |