Shipment prioritization is used to control the delivery of sales orders or order items and accordingly give priority to different customers. Shipment priority defines the succession of automatically generated deliveries. Specify the customer’s delivery priority in the shipping data of the customer master data for each sales area.Prioritizing is the method of determining which actions will have the most critical impact, which is the most important and most feasible.
So how do we use Shipment Prioritization?
- The shipment administrator defines the priorities in the Shipment Qualities step of Shipper Configuration. Like when a shipper sets shipment priorities as High, Medium, or Low. A different shipper defines shipment priorities as 1, 2, and 3.
- Some shippers consider the performance of the partner to distinguish who to prioritize.
- Shipper users are the ones to set shipment priority when they perform a shipment or order. Both shippers and carriers can see the priority assigned on many pages in the Fulfilling module.
- Users have an option to classify records by the Priority column. Like you can sort it from high to low or low to high priority on the shipment order table.
You can prioritize by the customer or order level. Processing an order may ask you to define your order priority rules. There is no absolute rule, but there are basic rules that you can consider.
- Customer Level Priority Assignment.
Orders from customers with the highest priorities are processed first. Suppose you have three customers, and their priority rankings are 1, 2, and 5. Each of them ordered the same item on the same day. You can only ship an order a day. You would first send it to the customer ranking 1, then 2, and with the 5 priority level.
- Order Sequence.
Choosing to prioritize using this rule means you will ship orders as they are received. First-order receive the highest priority, and new orders go next on the list. This rule might seem the most straightforward and most appropriate method of prioritizing requests. It may not be the most suitable choice for your business if you have one or two significant customers who might be troubled at the delay.
- Promise Date
In order processing, you promise a ship date, or the customer requests a specific time for shipment. Orders with an immediate date get prioritizes over those with later times. This rule needs you to update your priority list as new orders arrive continuously.
- Processing Time
Orders with either the quickest or the most extended processing times can receive priority. An example is when orders for an item may be shipped first before the ones with large quantities and different kinds. Orders that are in stock may get the highest priority. If you produce your products, you may prioritize orders that require the most actions or those requiring the fewest steps, depending on your production capability.
- Product Availability
Consider orders that you produce on-demand or that demand customization. Considering that device availability is not an issue, if a product demands two days to manufacture, it can be shipped sooner than an order for a product that requires seven days to produce. If an item can be made on a single device, you must consider the device’s availability to produce the item. If it can be produced on different machines, you may prioritize orders for that product according to the slack time available on a particular machine. You may also prioritize groups of orders according to the complexity of changing a machine over to making a product reduce the time and cost of making the switch.