Loading of Consolidated Shipment

General Information

Loading Process

Find or Create Consolidated Shipment

Load Handling Unit

Unload Handling Unit

Finish Loading

Re-open for Loading

Restriction when Loading is Started or Finished 

General Information

In the outbound logistics process, the loading of transport vehicles is an important step to ensure that the right material is delivered to the right place in the right time. The consolidated shipment represents the transport vehicle i.e., one departure of one or several shipments from the specified site or remote warehouse, to all the delivery addresses of the connected shipments. Handling Units from different shipments can be loaded to a consolidated shipment.

The benefits with using the loading process in the outbound logistics process are:

• Improve Quality of Logistics - Enhance accuracy and customer satisfaction by confirming the loading of handling units, ensuring that the right handling unit is loaded and delivered to the right place in the right time.
• Efficient Process - Experience the perfect balance of simplicity and accuracy with this streamlined process, ensuring efficiency for the warehouse worker.
• Handling of Exceptions - Being able to handle exceptions efficiently e.g., more handling units can be loaded as there is more room on the vehicle.
• Efficient Planning - Easy to plan and replan. Transport Planner can replan in efficient way e.g., deliver what is loaded and deliver what was not loaded in the next vehicle.
• Flexible Process - Loading based on plan vs execution. Depending on the operation and the situation, the most suitable and productive approach can be used.
• Reduce Environmental Footprint - Increased utilization of the transports with this flexible solution, minimizing environmental impact.

Depending on situation and your operation two different approaches for loading exists:

1. Loading based on plan – the scope of the consolidated shipment is planned in advance
   1. Loading is a matter of confirming that handling units are loaded according to the plan
   2. Possible to handle exceptions e.g., there are room for more handling units in the transport vehicle
   3. Useful when more preparation is needed e.g., transports must be booked early; a lot of paperwork, administration and approvals are needed
2. Loading based on execution – the actual loading decides the scope of the shipments and the consolidated shipment
   1. Loading initiated by for instance route, forwarder or similar, the consolidated shipment is created when the transport vehicle arrives
   2. Loading proceeds until capacity of the transport vehicle is reached or there is nothing more to load
1. Used if it is more of a constant flow of material and transports can be easily booked

Loading Process

The loading process is managed in the Load Consolidated Shipment page and consists of the following steps:

1. Find or Create a Consolidated Shipment
2. Load Handling Unit
3. Unload Handling Unit - if changes are needed
4. Finish Loading
5. Re-open for Loading - if changes are needed

Each of the steps will be described more in detail below.

During the execution of the loading process, the progress can be followed via the loading indicator on the shipment and the consolidated shipment, possible values are:

• Not Started
  • Shipment - no handling unit in the shipment is loaded
  • Consolidated Shipment - no handling unit from any shipment is loaded
• In Progress
  • Shipment - at least one handling unit in the shipment is loaded
  • Consolidated Shipment - at least one handling unit from any shipment is loaded
• Finished
  • Loading is finished

In addition, the development of weight and volume of the loaded handling units can be followed and compared against the capacity of the consolidated shipment as you load and unload handling units.

Find or Create Consolidated Shipment

The first step in the loading process is to find an existing or create a new consolidated shipment that should be loaded in the Load Consolidated Shipment page. Depending on the loading approach used, different actions are taken:

• Loading based on plan - filter out the planned consolidated shipment
• Loading based on execution - create a new consolidated shipment

In the consolidated shipment desired information can be entered about forwarder, ship via, shipment location, planned ship date/time, route, capacity etc. This will decide the loading context and can be used for filtration of the handling units. For planned consolidated shipment these are most likely entered in advance.

Load Handling Unit

Next step is to load the handling units that are picked, packed, labeled and ready for loading. This is done in the Handling Units to Load tab, where you can filter out the handling units you want to load and then execute the Load Handling Unit command. There are different possibilities to filter out the handling units to load depending on the need:

• Search Contexts can be used for quick filtrations
  • Connected Shipments - When ticked only the handling units of the shipments connected to the consolidated shipment will be shown. This is useful when loading based on plan, and will be ticked by default when connected shipments exists. If it is desired to strictly follow the plan, it is possible to enable a validation in the shipment type. This validation will make sure that you only load handling units from connected shipments.
• Planned Ship Date/Time - provides possibility to filter out handling units from shipments using planned ship date/time. 
  • All Dates - no filtration on planned ship date/time - useful in the planned scenario as everything should be included, or if you have available capacity and want to find more to load
  • Matching or Earlier - will show handling units from shipments with planned ship date/time same or earlier than the consolidated shipment - useful to include handling units not delivered in previous delivery
  • Matching - will show handling units from shipments with planned ship date/time same as the consolidated shipment - useful to include what is planned distinctly
• Matching Forwarder / Matching Ship Via / Matching Route / Matching Shipment Location / Matching Shipment Type / Matching Source Ref 1
  • Used in case any of the these parameters are entered on the consolidated shipment and should be used to filter out handling units from shipments with the same value on the parameter. As an example if loading of a certain route should happen, create consolidated shipment with that route ID, select Matching Route and then start loading of the handling units from shipments having that route ID. If not only filtration is desired, a validation that these parameters are matching can be enabled in the shipment type e.g. it is not allowed to load from another route.
• In addition normal list filtration could be used e.g., filter on receiver, source reference, receiver address, shipment ID.

When the Load Handling Unit command is executed, the handling unit is connected to the consolidated shipment via the source references on the handling unit and can be seen in the Loaded Handling Units tab. Furthermore, this can be seen in the Loaded to Consolidated Shipment ID field in other pages e.g. the Shipment Handling Unit Structure page. If this is the first handling unit that is loaded the loading indicator will be set to In Progress.

Note: it is only in the planned scenario and when loading according to the plan, that the shipment and handling unit is connected to the same consolidated shipment. In addition handling units from the same shipment could be loaded to different consolidated shipment. When loading is done, the Finish Loading command will adjust the scope of the shipments and establish the correct connection to the consolidated shipment based on the loading done.

Unload Handling Unit

In the Loaded Handling Units tab the loaded handling units can be seen and it is possible to unload the handling unit via the Unload Handling Unit command. This is useful to handle exceptions and mistakes e.g., incorrect handling unit was loaded, turns out that the handling unit will not fit in the transport vehicle.

At unloading, the handling unit is disconnected from the consolidated shipment, and the handling unit can no longer be seen in the Loaded Handling Units tab. Furthermore, the Loaded to Consolidated Shipment ID field will be empty. If this is the last handling unit that was loaded the loading indicator will be set back to Not Started.

Finish Loading

When the loading is done it is possible to finish the loading using the Finish Loading command in the Load Consolidated Shipment page. This will change the loading indicator to Finished on the consolidated shipment and its connected shipments. The loaded handling units will decide the scope of the shipments and connect them to the consolidated shipment if not connected already. The algorithm when loading is finished for a consolidated shipment is described below:

1. The loaded handing units decides the scope of the shipments:
   1. If all handling units of a shipment have been loaded into the consolidated shipment, then the scope of the shipment is kept
   2. If any handling unit of a shipment has not been loaded into the consolidated shipment, then reassign all handling units loaded into the consolidated shipment, into a new shipment
2. When the scope of the shipments is adjusted via bullet 1, the connection to the consolidated shipment should be managed:
   1. If all handling units in the shipment has been loaded into the consolidated shipment, then connect the shipment to the consolidated shipment (if not connected from before)
   2. If any handling unit has not been loaded to the consolidated shipment, then disconnect the shipment from the consolidated shipment (if connected from before)

If it is desired to strictly follow the plan, it is possible to enable a validation at finish loading in the shipment type. This validation will make sure that all handling units from the connected shipments are loaded.

When loading is finished the shipment process can continue with the next steps in the shipment flow i.e., complete, deliver, close. As an option, the next step in the shipment flow can also be triggered automatically via a configuration in the shipment type.

Re-open for Loading

When loading is finished for the consolidated shipment, it is still possible to re-open for loading in case it turns out that more loading or unloading of handling units is needed. This can be done using the Re-open for Loading command in the Load Consolidated Shipment page. This will turn the loading indicator back to In Progress. Note: the restructuring of the shipments and connection to consolidated shipment done at finish loading will not be reverted.

Restriction when Loading is Started or Finished

When loading is started or finished some of the other activities in the shipment are restricted. It is not possible to:

• Change the content or the structure of a loaded handling unit e.g., change parent, attach parts, unattach parts
• Return, scrap or move in shipment inventory after loading
• Deliver when loading has started but is not finished
• Cancel shipment when loading is in progress
• Connect or disconnect shipment from consolidated shipment when loading is finished
• Change the scope of the shipment when loading is finished e.g., connect/disconnect lines, modify quantity
• Reassign is not possible when loading is finished