Connect to/Disconnect from Consolidated Shipment

Explanation

This activity is used for deciding which shipments to include in a consolidated shipment. A shipment can either be connected to a consolidated shipment or disconnected from a consolidated shipment. A consolidated shipment is considered as a single departure of several shipments from a specific site, to all the delivery addresses of the connected shipments. E.g., multiple shipments are loaded on the same truck and unloaded on each delivery address by the same truck. A consolidated shipment is beneficial in order to plan, monitor and execute a departure of multiple shipments from your site. For instance activities can be executed for all shipments connected to the consolidated shipment, the progress of all connected shipments can be monitored, load sequence can be managed.

When connecting shipments to a consolidated shipment it is possible to compare the transport capacity with the weight and volume of all the connected shipments and all the shipments you intend to connect. This means that you can evaluate if the transport capacity will be exceeded before the shipments are actually connected to the consolidated shipment. This is done by marking the shipments you intend to connect in the Available Shipments tab.

When connecting shipments via the Consolidated Shipment/Available Shipments tab, either the tab is opened with the search dialogue box or populated automatically with all available shipments. If your site does not have that many available shipments it might be convenient to populate the tab automatically, while if you have a lot of available shipments, it is better for them to open with the search dialogue box. By right-clicking in the consolidated shipment header and clicking Properties, and then clicking the Consolidated Shipment tab, the desired behavior can be decided via the Display Search Dialogue Box for Available Shipments check box.

Prerequisites

To connect a shipment to a consolidated shipment:

• A shipment must have been created.
• The shipment must have the same site as the consolidated shipment.
• The shipment must not be connected to another consolidated shipment.
• The shipment and the consolidated shipment must not have been delivered.
• The shipment must not have the Cancelled or Closed status.
• If you want to evaluate the transport capacity, this must have been defined either by manually entering the weight and volume capacity in the consolidated shipment, by manually entering a transport unit type in the consolidated shipment or by getting the transport unit type defaulted from the ship-via code.

To disconnect a shipment from a consolidated shipment:

• The shipment must be connected to a consolidated shipment.
• The shipment must not have been delivered.
• The shipment must not have the Cancelled or Closed status.

System Effects

When connecting a shipment to a consolidated shipment:

• The shipment is included in the consolidated shipment and can benefit from the features of the consolidated shipment.
• The weight and volume of the shipment is added to the consolidated shipment.
• If any parameter is no longer common for all connected shipments, the parameter will no longer have any value in the consolidated shipment. For example if the connected shipments have the same ship-via and then you connect another shipment with a different ship-via, then the ship-via will no longer have any value in the consolidated shipment.

When shipments are disconnected from a consolidated shipment:

• The shipment is excluded from the consolidated shipment.
• The weight and volume of the shipment is removed from the consolidated shipment.
• If any parameter from now on is common for all connected shipments, the parameter will have that value in the consolidated shipment. For example if the disconnected shipment have a different ship-via than the rest of the connected shipments, then the ship via from now on will have the common value in the consolidated shipment.

Window

Consolidated Shipment
Consolidated Shipments
Shipment
Shipments

Related Window Descriptions

Consolidated Shipment
Consolidated Shipment/Available Shipments
Consolidated Shipment/Connected Shipments
Shipment
Shipments

Procedure

To connect a shipment to a consolidated shipment:

1. Open the Consolidated Shipment window.
2. Search for the consolidated shipment to which you want to connect more shipments.
3. In the Available Shipments group box you can decide whether or not you want to search for all available shipments or only the ones matching the header parameters of the consolidated shipment.
4. Click on the Available Shipments tab.
5. Mark the shipments you want to connect to the consolidated shipment. Note that in the header you can see the weight and volume of the shipments you are about to connect and compare with the capacity. Right-click on the marked shipments and then click Connect to Consolidated Shipment. The shipments will then be removed from the Available Shipments tab and displayed on the Connected Shipment tab.

or

1. Open the Shipment/General tab or the Shipments window.
2. Search for the shipment that you want to connect to a consolidated shipment.
3. In the Consolidated Shipment ID field, enter the consolidated shipment to which you want to connect the shipment.
4. Save.

To disconnect a shipment from a consolidated shipment:

1. Open the Consolidated Shipment window or the Shipments window.
2. If disconnecting shipment via the Consolidated Shipment window, click on the Connected Shipments tab.
3. Mark the shipments you want to disconnect from the consolidated shipment. Right-click on the marked shipments and then click Disconnect from Consolidated Shipment.

or

1. Open the Shipment/General tab or the Shipments window.
2. Search for the shipment that you want to disconnect from a consolidated shipment.
3. In the Consolidated Shipment ID field, remove the entered consolidated shipment.
4. Save.