Transport Order Consolidation

The Transport Order Consolidation job type processes a set of Transport Orders selected by the job definition’s Entity Selection Criteria (ESC). The Transport Orders are consolidated based upon a combination of Fixed Consolidation Criteria and Configurable Consolidation Criteria. When requesting a pallet count from an external system, the job type will not create shipments from the consolidated Transport Orders. Otherwise, a shipment will be created for each group of consolidated Transport Orders.

When a shipment is generated from a consolidation of Transport Orders’, each Transport Order is represented by a single Shipment Detail on the Shipment, in Container Level Detail mode. If both Pieces and Pallets are specified on the Transport Order, the Shipment Detail will be created with Pallets quantity. Each Transport Order will be associated with the Shipment Detail created for it, and each Shipment Detail will be associated with the Transport Order it represents. The reference numbers from the Transport Order will be copied to reference numbers on the Shipment Detail. If a Journey Template is specified for the Transport Orders, Shipment Throughpoints and Shipment Legs are created as defined by the template. All other Shipment level fields are determined from the Transport Orders in the consolidation.

This job type can do the following:

  • Identify compatible Transport Orders and create consolidation groups
  • [Optional] Estimate the total pallets for the Transport Orders and apply pallet rounding rules to the estimated value
  • [Optional] Notify an external system about the consolidation groups by creating an XML file in the directory specified in the job definition parameters
  • [Optional] Indicate to the external system that a pallet count computation is required
  • [Optional] Identify consolidation groups for which a pallet count has been requested previously, but for which no pallet count has been received. Resend the request for pallet count for such groups.
  • Update Transport Orders with the following:
    • Order Consolidation Group ID
    • Number of Pallets in case of pallet estimation
    • Estimated Pallet Factor in case of pallet estimation
    • Status
    • ‘Pallet Count Requested’ if pallet count computation by an external system is required
    • ‘Shipment Created’ otherwise
    • Shipment Split Method based upon the job parameters
    • Create shipments and shipment details from the Transport Order consolidations (unless pallet count computation by an external system is required)

The following Job Parameters may be specified when defining a Transport Order Consolidation Job Definition:

  • Parameter 1: Consolidation Criteria (Optional): Specifies the Transport Order fields to be used to determine which Transport Orders can be consolidated. Criteria specified are in addition to the fixed consolidation criteria applied by the system. Criteria should be specified as a comma separated list. If no criteria are specified, only fixed consolidation criteria are applied. Unknown consolidation criteria specified in the parameter will be ignored. Possible criteria include:
    • None: Special case. No consolidation should be performed. Each Transport Order is associated with a single Shipment
    • BatchNumber
    • FreightClass
    • ItemFamily
    • OrderGroupingID1
    • OrderGroupingID2
    • OrderNumber
    • OrderType
    • PurchaseOrderNumber
    • OrderLineProductNumber
    • Priority
    • PickupFrom
    • PickupTo
    • DeliveryFrom
    • DeliveryTo

      • Note: Fixed system consolidation criteria include A/P Service ID, A/R Service ID, Bill To Customer ID, Bill To Customer Version ID, Carrier ID, Commodity ID, Customer ID, Customer Version ID, Division, Freight Terms, Origin Address ID, Origin Shipping Location Type, Origin Shipping Location ID, Journey Template ID, Logistics Group, Project ID, Shipment Split Method, Destination Address ID, Shipment Type, Shipment Version, Destination Shipping Location Type, Destination Shipping Location ID.

  • Parameter 2: Pallet Handling (Optional): Specifies how pallet computation is handled. Possible values include:
    • Estimate: Pallet count for consolidated Transport Orders will be estimated using the Pallet Volume Factors defined in the system. Pallet Rounding Rules will be applied after the estimated pallet count is determined.
    • External: Pallet count for consolidated Transport Orders will be requested from an external system. A Notification Directory must be specified in parameter 3.
    • None: (Default) Dimensions specified on the Transport Orders will be used. If pallet information is not specified, Shipment Details will specify quantities in pieces.
  • Parameter 3: Notification Directory (Optional): Specifies the output directory where Transport Order Consolidation XML files should be generated. An XML file will be generated for each consolidation group. If not specified, no notifications will be created.

    • Note: When integrating with external systems using Intelligent Fulfillment workflows, the Notify Event Notification (NEN) adapter should be configured to post the consolidation notification to an MQ queue.

  • Parameter 4: Shipment Controls (Optional): Each setting should specify the setting name, followed by an equals sign (=), followed by the value. When specifying multiple settings, separate each setting with a semi-colon (;). Unknown controls in the parameter will be ignored. Invalid formatted controls in the parameter will be ignored. Valid settings include “MaxWeight”, “MaxVolume”, “MaxPallets”, “MinPickupOverlap”, “MinDeliveryOverlap”, and “SplittingRule”.
    • MaxWeight: Indicates the maximum weight allowed for a Transport Order consolidation. Consolidation will not add an additional Transport Order to a group if doing so will exceed the MaxWeight value. A single Transport Order may exceed this value.
    • MaxVolume: Indicates the maximum volume allowed for a Transport Order consolidation. Consolidation will not add an additional Transport Order to a group if doing so will exceed the MaxVolume value. A single Transport Order may exceed this value.
    • MaxPallets: Indicates the maximum pallets allowed for a Transport Order Consolidation. Only applicable for non-‘External’ Pallet Handling. Consolidation will not add an additional Transport Order to a group if doing so will exceed the MaxPallets value. A single Transport Order may exceed this value. For ‘Estimated’ Pallet Handling, the applicable Pallet Volume Factor definition will be used when determining the estimated pallet count to compare with the MaxPallets value.
    • MinPickupOverlap: Indicates the minimum overlap, in minutes, which the pickup windows of Transport Orders must have to be consolidated. If this parameter is not specified, the system default value of 60 will be used. For example, for two Transport Orders 1 and 2 which have pickup windows of 7-9 AM and 8-11 AM respectively, the computed overlap is 8-9 AM, which is 60 minutes.
    • MinDeliveryOverlap: Indicates the minimum overlap, in minutes, which the delivery windows of Transport Orders must have to be consolidated. If this parameter is not specified, the system default value of 60 will be used. For example, for two Transport Orders 1 and 2 which have delivery windows of 3-5 PM and 4:30-8 PM respectively, the computed overlap is 4:30-5 PM, which is 30 minutes.
    • SplittingRule: Determines how shipments and shipment details created from a Transport Order consolidation may be split. Valid values include “None”, “Container”, “Pieces”, “Pallets”, “Continuous”. Default is “Container”. If the Transport Orders in the consolidation group have a splitting rule of “None”, the setting from the Transport Orders will override the Splitting Rule defined here.
Entity Selection Criteria Usage

Entity Selection Criteria (ESC) specified for this job type must select Transport Orders. A Transport Order is specified by the field “Transport Order ID”. findEntities API format ESCs should return this field. SQL format ESCs should return TRPT_ODR_ID.

Additional Information

When the Pallet Handling mode is Estimate, the estimate is computed from the defined Pallet Volume Factors. The Pallet VolumeFactor for a Transport Order is determined based on the Transport Order’s Destination Shipping Location, Origin Shipping Location, and Commodity. The most exact record is determined by finding the Pallet Volume Factor definition with the best match of these three characteristics. A matching Destination Shipping Location takes precedence over a matching Origin Shipping Location. A matching Origin Shipping takes precedence over a matching Commodity. A default Pallet Volume Factor (one with no locations or commodity specified) should always be defined.

The computation of an estimated pallet count may result in a non-integer number of pallets. If such counts should be rounded, rounding will be performed based on Pallet Rounding Rules defined in the External Mapping Table for the origin location, if any exist. Otherwise, the Pallet Rounding Rules defined in the Global Settings (Environment > Global Settings > Controls > Workflow (tab) > Load Workflow Controls) will be applied. For more information, see List of Pallet Volume Factors (Employee).

Sample Entity Selection Criteria

The following is a sample Entity Selection Criteria which finds Transport Orders that are in open status for consolidation.

XML Format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<CISDocument>

<EntityType>TransportOrderType</EntityType>

<Filter>

<Name>TransportOrderStatusEnumVal</Name>

<Op>Eq</Op>

<Value>TRPTODRSTATUS_OPEN</Value>

</Filter>

<Select>

<Name>Id</Name>

<Name>SystemTransportOrderID</Name>

</Select>

<OrderBy>

<Order>

<Asc>true</Asc>

<Name>SystemTransportOrderID</Name>

</Order>

</OrderBy>

</CISDocument>

Note: Ensure that “SystemTransportOrderID” is provided as one of the select fields. If it is not provided, the job will fail.

SQL Format:

Select TRPT_ODR_ID from TRPT_ODR_T where TRPT_ODRSTAT_ID = 1 order by TRPT_ODR_ID ASC

 

Note: For more details, see the "Job Server" topic in the Transportation Manager System Administration Guide.

See Also

Job Types
Job Server
Global Settings - List of External Mappings (Employee)