Minimum ship-by date

You can specify a minimum ship-by date on an order line during order creation. The order creation process takes into consideration the preferred remaining life span of a time-sensitive item beyond its ship date. The minimum ship-by date is the preferred ship-by date in addition to the requested remaining life of the product.

When dealing with time-sensitive items, customers may have different preferences on the life span of their products after they are shipped. For example, a regular retailer may request an item with a remaining life span of 240 days, whereas a discount retailer may request the same item with a life span of 120 days, for less cost.

During the promising and scheduling processes for a time-sensitive item, Sterling Order Management System ensures that the available quantity is promised only when the minimum ship-by date on the order line falls before or on the same day as the ship-by date of the inventory supply (expiration date).

For example, the following onhand inventory is available:

An order for the following comes in:

This implies that to fulfill this order, the quantity of Item1 promised must have a remaining life span of 20 days at the time of shipment.

Since Supply1 would expire 14 days after shipment, this inventory would not be considered for promising. In contrast, Supply2 would expire 29 days after shipment, and thus meets the specified criteria.