Question

New Kinetic Epicor Implementation - Shipment Process

  • 17 August 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 210 views
L

Hi Guys,

Was looking for a bit of help/advice please - we are currently going through implementing Kinetic and are around 8 months into the implementation process (we are not far off POC)

One issue we are having or finding is the shipment process in the system.

We have 1000s of manufactured and purchased products and every we make is bespoke to customer design. We also stock so orders that are ready to be shipped aren’t always dispatched straight away.

Currently we keep a google sheet document that is a visual transport board for the entire company. Sales administrators dictate what goes on the board and when its going out. Its a mixture of customer shipments (identified via sales order numbers) customer collections (from us) supplier Collections (collect from them via hired transport) and a few others. Day to day view listed by customer and then the orders going out for that customer.

Transport use this board to forward plan loads. Its also a visual aid for sales to see when the orders have been picked or if there is an issue (manufactured parts are not going to be ready in time etc)

 

From what i can see in Epicor - its much more geared around shipping based on the sales order date only. Furthermore there doesn't seem to be any kind of ability to plan loads or arrange supplier collections.

 

Our ops consultant is trying to find a way to pull all the information together via BAQ but i was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or have any ideas for the best solution?

 

Many thanks in advance

 

Luke

6 replies

M
Userlevel 2

Dear Luke, 

What kind of information does your ops consultant need to get into a BAQ, and what are the issues with the current state system?

Thanks,

..Monty.

L

Hi Monty,

My ops consultant is working on a solution to bring all the different types of shipments into one place - Subcontract deliveries/collections, customer shipments/collections, Supplier collections to mimic the viability we currently have for creating loads.

 

He is also going to build a BAQ for me that will show a list of sales orders that have available stock and the date they are due to be shipped but the picked status of these. Sales would then be able to identify if they have forgotten to raise pick requests for the orders.

 

I just thought i would message on here and see if anyone else has made/designed a more complex way of shipping that how Epicor currently deals with it in shipment entry which to me seems very basic and is more geared towards company who just ship out via pallet or parcel network.

 

We use a lot of hired transport where we have to ship multiple customers on one truck to go throughout the country and so we have to try to delay/move shipments to build a load. I cant seem to see how this is easily done in Epicor - especially out the box without customization.

 

 

G

Hi Luke,

I believe we have a solution that may be able to assist here, I will direct message you my details

Regards

Greg

calvind
Userlevel 1

Luke -

Have you looked into Advance Material Management module’s Fulfillment workbench?  This system may provide you with the information you are looking for.  The orders, at what percentage can they be fulfilled, and where the orders are in the pipeline as well as reserving or allocating inventory can all be done from here.

The data behind the dashboard may also be a good starting point for your consultant’s BAQ.

HTH,

Calvin

Epicor Midwest User Group Chair
L

Hi Calvin - Yes we have the AMM module and we are using the fulfillment workbench for allocating sales order inventory for picking. Its our sales admin team that perform this aspect as we do not always ship out when the stock is available - sometimes we may agree to hold the stock for a period and so sales would trigger the request for it to be shipped using the fulfilment workbench as you describe.

 

What we are struggling with really is the next part of the process. Once it is then picked to go out it seems there isn't really the visibility to show you what orders you have picked or waiting to be picked so transport can try and work out the most cost effective way of shipping it (it could mean bringing the delivery to that customer back or forward to send with something else when we are in the area etc etc)

 

There also isn't the visibility to see other aspects of transport such as collections from suppliers or subcontractors - currently we also take all this into account - we could be in the area and collect from the subcontractor at the same time who is in the same region etc etc.

calvind
Userlevel 1

Luke -

The quantities should be displayed for Reserved/Allocated/Picking/Picked…  This should indicate where the order items are in the pipeline.

The shipto city/state/zip are also in the dashboard.  This should be able to help shipping know where the orders are going for building loads.  The “load” destination would need to be a custom field added to the packing list or put into the staging field.  This could be displayed in the grid with a BAQ view adding the column in Kinetic.  I believe Hannah Willett has samples of this BAQ view added in Kinetic already posted on the EpiUsersHelp board {https://www.epiusers.help/}.

The PO number is also in the grid for the purchase direct items.  With a BAQ view, the promise date could be also added to the grid.  This may be harder to do if you have multiple sales orders linked to one vendor PO.  If you keep them one-to-one you should be able to get the data onto the grid.

As for the subcontractors, this will not be easily created without a fully separate dashboard view.  Subcontract is an operation on a job.  If you are set make to stock, then the job and order are not directly linked then there would be no way getting this accurately.  Knowing when the subcontract is due back in for coordinating the outbound shipment may be challenging.  Is it the last operation/subcontract on the job?  Does the job schedule match the PO release promise date?  Does this job supply another job?  There are many items in play to make this (as a simple dashboard.)

HTH,

Calvin

Epicor Midwest User Group Chair

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