Order fulfillment pipeline

Beginning from its creation, an order flows through a set of transactions and statuses until its completion. This chain of transactions and order statuses is called the Order Fulfillment pipeline.

An Order Fulfillment pipeline provides Sterling™ Order Management System with a means to perform actions, such as sending notifications or logging alerts, dependent on the location of the order in the pipeline. It also provides you with a means to track an order from creation to completion and perform any necessary manual interventions. The figure below illustrates the structure of an Order Fulfillment pipeline.

The Order Fulfillment pipeline from which your business runs is unique to how your system administrator has set up your business environment. However, every order pipeline generally begins with a transaction that creates an order and ends with a transaction that indicates an order has been shipped or, if applicable, returned.

A transaction is an occurrence that needs to be tracked and can call certain actions to be performed. An order status describes what state an order is in and moves it from transaction to transaction.

The following statuses may be used in an Order Fulfillment pipeline, depending how it is configured within your system:

• Accepted - The negotiated terms have been accepted by both parties and the order is ready to be released.
• Awaiting Chained Order Creation - The order is to move into chained order created status.
• Awaiting Shipment Consolidation - The order is comprised of multiple shipments that are consolidated at a node before further shipment or delivery is made.
• Backordered - The order has been created, but there is not enough inventory to schedule the order. The order remains backordered until inventory is available.
• Backordered From Node - The order has been created and released to the node, but the node does not have enough inventory to fulfill the order. At this point, if configured, inventory is considered unavailable for order promising until a physical count is performed at the node.

  If configured, internal inventory within a Sterling Order Management System node can be promised against a future supply of inventory.

• Being Negotiated - The order is being negotiated in the negotiation pipeline.
• Cancelled - The order has been canceled.
• Chained Order Created - A chained order has been created and sent to the applicable node.
• Created - The order has been created.
• Delivered - The service and product lines included on the work order have been delivered.
• Draft Order Created - A draft order has been created in the Create Order console, Order Entry screen. All aspects of this order can be modified until it is confirmed.
• Draft Order Reserved - A draft order has been created and inventory is reserved for the order. If this order is not confirmed and the order is removed or canceled, the inventory reserved for this order can be used for other orders.
• Included In Shipment - The order is included in a shipment.
• Order Invoice Created - An invoice has been created for the order.
• Procurement Purchase Order Created - A procurement purchase order has been created in the Create Order Console, Order Entry screen.
• Procurement Purchase Order Shipped - A procurement purchase order has been shipped.
• Procurement Transfer Order Created - A procurement transfer order has been created in the Create Order Console, Order Entry screen.
• Procurement Transfer Order Shipped - A procurement transfer order has been shipped.
• Ready To Negotiate - If negotiation is performed between the Enterprise and the ship node, the order is sent to a separate negotiation pipeline.
• Received - The order has been received by the buyer.
• Received As Components - If an item in the order consists of kit components, this status indicates that the Buyer has received all components.
• Released - There is enough inventory to schedule the order for fulfillment. The order is released to the Application Console or a warehouse management system.
• Reserved - The order has been created, but it is not ready to schedule for shipment yet.
• Return Created - The buyer is returning one or more items included in the order.
• Return Received - Returned items have been received at the return node.
• Scheduled - The applicable node(s) have the inventory to fulfill the order and it can be scheduled for release.
• Sent to Node - The order has been sent to the node, as an order release.
• Shipped - The order has been shipped.
• Shipment Delayed - All or part of the order shipment has been delayed.
• Shorted - The order contains less quantity than requested. The order is closed.
• Unreceived - The order has not been received by the buyer.
• Unscheduled - The order has been removed from Scheduled status and any inventory that has been reserved for the order at the scheduled node(s) is canceled.

The default pipeline and statuses can be configured according to your business practices.

The following is a graphical representation of the default Sales Order Service Fulfillment pipeline as it appears in the Applications Manager.