Fulfillment
Internal orders, customer orders or production orders create demand. Through the orders, the internal or external customer defines amongst a lot of other questions which goods should be where in which state, when.
Processing of demand
With these information available, fulfillment means all process to fulfill this exact demand. Filling demand is always connected with these questions:
Where to get the goods from?
This question aims for the commonly know task of disposition. Whenever demand exists, disposition has three choices to get the goods demanded:
- Have - Fill the demand from intra-organization stock. Eventually wait for outstanding production or purchase orders bound to intra-organization stock. Inbound stock is bound to expected deliveries.
- Buy - Purchase the goods with a supplier/vendor through creation of a purchase order with a supplier.
- Make - Produce the required goods through a production order or through product customization.
How to get the goods into the desired state?
This optional question aims towards customization of products according to to the demand of the customers. Typically this demand is filled by:
- In-Process-Services - These are typically simple services, which are performed to the items to be fulfilled directly as part of or right after the picking process, before delivery process starts.
- Explicit supply chain handling - When the desired state cannot be created as part of the picking process, other external parties or production must be involved. This requires explicit supply chain handling and supervision eventually spanning over multiple parties.
How to get the goods to the place of demand?
Once it is clear where and when the goods are available the next issue is to deliver them to the place of demand of the internal or external customer. Generally there are these options:
- Postal - requires a shipment address defined at the order
- Pickup - requires a pickup station defined at the order. Each pickup station must have a shipment address gateway defined for external parties delivering there.
- Internal Logistic System - requires a comail-address (typically a orgunit-code) defined at the order. Each internal logistic system must have a shipment address gateway defined.