March 13, 2013

Setup Checklists for WMS

·         Organization Parameter
Enable WMS attribute
Serial Control
Lot Control
LPN Control
Crossdocking Information
Time Zone
Default Cycle Count Header
Default Picking Rule
Default Put away rule
Cartonization Options
Default pick task type
Default replenishment task type
Default Move Order Transaction Type
Default Move Order issue Task Type
·         Subinventory attributes
·         Locator attributes
·         Setup System Profiles in System Administrator
WMS: Label files Prefix
WMS: Label Print Mode
MWA: Enable Personalization
MWA: Cache Personalized Metadata
Change the data for the MSCA Responsibilities created.
·         Setup Resources in Warehouse Manager
·         Setup Departments in Warehouse Manager
·         Setup Assign Label Types to Business Flows in Warehouse Manager
Business Flows:
Miscellaneous/ Alias Receipt
Receipt
Pick Load
Pack / Unpack / Split LPN
·         Setup Assign Printers to Documents in Warehouse Manager
·         Setup Standard Task Types in Warehouse and assign the resources
Eg: Cycle Count, PICK
·         Setup WMS Rules in Warehouse Manager
Put away and Pick Rules are defined here.
·         Setup WMS Rule Strategies
·         Setup in WMS Rule Workbench
·         Setup Cycle Counts
·         Submit the License Plate Generation request
·         Setup MWA Personalization Framework in Warehouse Manager

For Detailed Navigation for the setups click here
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Oracle Warehouse Management System

Oracle Warehouse Management System (WMS) is an advanced inventory module with lot of efficient, unique and enhanced features that improves productivity of distribution centers, manufacturing and inventory handing processes. It supports manual data entry, data entry through barcode scanning and through RFID too.
It enables organizations to maximize their utilization of labor, space and equipment investments by coordinating and optimizing resource usage and material flows across a global supply chain on a single platform.
Key Business Processes supported by Oracle WMS are:
  • Inbound Logistics (Receiving from Supplier, Returns, Corrections)
  • Outbound Logistics (Picking, Packing, Shipping)
  • Reverse Logistics (Customer Returns)
  • Stocking and Internal Inventory Movements
  • WIP JOB Assembly completion, Component issues
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Broad Based Support for Warehouse Processes

Oracle WMS provides a robust warehouse solutions platform to efficiently manage the flow of goods and warehouse resources across a wide variety of business processes including order fulfilment, manufacturing, field service, inbound logistics-from receipt, inspection to storage, counting and replenishment.

Optimize Warehouse Resources

Oracle WMS enables users to optimize resources such as storage space, labor and equipment using rules based execution. Putaway rules based on configurable parameters like velocity, volume and material classifications. Rules can be used to minimize fragmentation, enforce storage policies, reduce obsolescence or implement other storage restrictions. Similarly pick tasks for outbound orders can be generated considering one or more goals such as reduction in material handling (tasks for full or split cases), reduce travel time (nearest location), minimize obsolescence (FIFO) or other customer specific preferences (grade, color, size, etc).

Advanced Wave and Task Planning

Using wave planning, Oracle WMS can fulfil a large number of orders quickly by streamlining the full execution process. Oracle WMS provides a flexible and powerful planning tool with a dashboard to create, plan and track wave progress, drilldown to task or line level and the ability to configure exceptions to facilitate proactive resolution of issues. Advanced Wave Planning also includes task planning features that can be used to group and dispatch tasks based on an execution criteria.

Planned and Opportunistic Crossdocking

Oracle WMS can identify crossdocking opportunities in the warehouse by matching expected receipts with outbound shipments and manufacturing component requirements using flexible crossdock rules. These rules allow the users to have greater of control over supply and demand eligibility for crossdocking and minimize the product wait time in outbound staging areas before getting crossdocked.

Demand Driven Replenishment to Forward Pick Locations

Oracle WMS offers Push and Pull based replenishments to forward pick area for warehouses to efficiently pick high volume of orders lines. The Pull replenishment feature automatically creates a replenishment task when a potential shortage is detected in the forward pick area. The dynamic replenishment execution capability ensures that pick areas are replenished with minimal oversight and pick tasks are dispatched only when material is available to pick. Push based replenishment allows a warehouse to effectively manage a surge in demand e.g., promotions by replenishing a forward pick area based on future demand visibility of an item.

Improve Loading Efficiency and Dock Door Utilization

Oracle WMS facilitates integrated transportation planning and execution by leveraging the dock door appointments created in Oracle Transportation Management (OTM). Oracle WMS ensures that orders are released based on the dock appointments and material is staged to the correct dock door. Oracle WMS improves trailer loading by recommending loading of containers in the reverse stop sequence of a multi-stop shipping itinerary.

Support for Advanced and Non-traditional Warehousing Processes

Competitive pressures and globalization is forcing traditional warehouses to take on value added services previously reserved for manufacturing and service centers. It is forcing manufacturing centers to take on warehousing and order fulfillment activities. Oracle WMS offers advanced material and resource handling capabilities for these additional business flows.

Repair Services, Returns, Disposition, Teardown and Refurbishment

Oracle WMS also offers the materials management feature set required in reverse logistics operations. Users can define required return product flow to guide subsequent inspection and rework processing (repair, teardown, etc.). This enables users to seamlessly manage reverse logistics operations in the same distribution centers that handle vendor receipts and customer order fulfilment.

Manufacturing, Assembly and Distribution

Oracle WMS provides a seamlessly integrated system for all manufacturing execution processes including repair and maintenance business processes. Oracle WMS supports component picks for discrete jobs and schedules, ingredient picks for process manufacturing batches, parts picks for maintenance work orders and repair orders generated in Enterprise Asset Management or Depot Repair.

Adapt to Changing Needs

To adapt rapidly changing business requirements driven by customers, regulatory bodies, new product introductions, fluctuating demand and global outsourcing, Oracle WMS provides a configurable, rules-based infrastructure that easily adapts to changing business needs and compliance mandates without customization.

Distributed Deployment of Oracle Warehouse Management

Customers can deploy WMS in a decentralized environment that is physically decoupled from rest of the E-Business Suite (EBS), making it possible to leverage the latest features in WMS but with older EBS installation or potentially non-EBS host systems. Distributed WMS also ensures greater availability of WMS instance, it is an “always on” solution that is unaffected by the network connection or the general availability of the host system.

Pick Method Suited for Warehouse Business Needs

Oracle WMS provides flexibility to warehouses to choose a pick methodology that is aligned with the ordering profile of the item. It supports pick and pass, zone picking and cluster picking to reduce warehouse travel. It enables one-step pick and pack directly into shipping cartons thus eliminating downstream packing operations.

Personalized Mobile User Interfaces and Workflow Processing

Oracle WMS facilitates efficient transaction processing by enabling users to configure mobile transaction pages for their specific needs. This allows the user to view or enter only the required information that is needed to complete the transaction for a specific business context.

Rules-Driven Processes

Oracle WMS has, at its core a flexible and powerful business rules engine, which permits extensive tailoring of key WMS processes such as directed picking and putaway, labeling, material routing selection and task dispatching without the need to customize code as shown in Figure 2. This extensible rules based architecture enables key processes to evolve and adapt dynamically.

RFID Enabled

Oracle WMS provides out of the box support for RFID and EPC technology for addressing RFID labeling compliance. EPC’s can be extracted from an inbound ASN and provided on outbound ASN’s to customers. Oracle WMS also provides a flexible framework to automate any warehouse transaction via RFID or any other sensor based on an event detection infrastructure.

Device Agnostic Material Handling Equipment Integration

Warehouse Control System (WCS) feature in Oracle WMS provides out of the box integration with material handling equipment such as conveyors, carousels, ASRSs, pick to light and even voice directed picking systems. Customers can deploy diverse equipments using an open API device integration to request tasks, and receive responses from diverse equipment types. Managerial workbenches enable real-time monitoring of the equipment and provide real-time visibility to the entire automation environment.

Oracle WMS enables organizations to transform their materials management operations to agile fulfilment centers through optimal use of inventory supply and warehouse resources. It leverages a flexible framework that provides supply and demand matching, advanced task management, automation hardware support and support for the breadth of materials management processes frequently required in warehouses, manufacturing facilities and service depots
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March 1, 2013

Oracle Conversion

Conversion is to convert something for some destined requirement.
Exactly this is what literally means in Oracle too.
This is converting the business data into specified oracle formats which you need to create in oracle system irrespective of the current source of the data, which can be held by the oracle base tables properly.
For example, you were using a legacy system suppose a plain MS Excel or MS Access or any other system where you maintain your business data. But now you are planning to implement oracle EBS for your business and processes and you need your existing data (legacy data) to be moved into oracle. In this scenario, you cannot simply copy and paste your existing data into oracle system table (base tables). So for this you need to convert the data into oracle format and insert/create those data in oracle system through different process which oracle allows.
This process of converting the legacy data into oracle format and inserting those into oracle system is known as conversion.
Fortunate enough in oracle, as it provides flexibility in the form of interface programs to import the legacy data like customers, Invoices, Sales Orders, Price Lists, Items , etc.
Conversion can be done using two processes
·         Using Interface Programs
You use interface for mass loads, migrations, conversions; you can populate interface tables with many records and then start interface any time, so it's asynchronous; if any record fails, it will stay in the interface tables till either fixed or purged.
·         Using Oracle API
API is used for synchronous tasks, like integrations or web site calls; you normally would only be processing one record at the time and get results right away; also, you would have to handle situations where Error status is returned.

Steps of Conversion

1.       Data Mapping
This is the initial steps where you have to identify the data set and data elements which need to be moved to the Oracle tables as part of conversions. Data mapping tables are prepared as part of this activity. This shows what are the data elements that needed by the target system to meet the business requirements.

2.       Preparing flat file
After mapping of the data elements, it’s time to prepare a flat file taking the data from the old system in ASCII format. The flat file can be of comma separated or pipe delimited or a tab separated file.

3.       Upload the data file into the server
After preparation of the flat file, need to upload the file into the target system i.e. the oracle system. SQL Loader or UTL_FILE utilities can be used to upload the data directly into the custom user defined staging tables. Then the custom programs which are written will run and validate the records from the staging table and will populate in the oracle provided standard interface tables.

4.       Interface Program
Once the interface tables are populated, the respective interface programs will be submitted. This program will validate the data and will derive the values and other information and finally will post those to the standard base tables. For different conversion types, different interface programs are there.

Example to understand the conversion process

Lets do the conversion of Item.
Scenario: In your old system, you have number of Items defined. Now you want those to be created in Oracle system.
Pre-requisite:
·         Organization need to be created in oracle in which you will create these items
·         Code combinations needs to be setup
·         Templates need to be defined
·         Item Status Codes need to be defined
·         Item Types need to be defined
Steps:
·         First prepare the list of items you need to move from the old system to the Oracle system.
·         Make a list of all items and its attributes which are required for the oracle system.
·         Then prepare a flat file.
·         Upload the records from the file into the custom staging tables.
·         Then validate the data and post the qualified data into the interface tables through the custom programs written.
·         Then submit the Item import interface program, this will take the data from interface table and after validation and extraction of all other values, it will populate in the base table.
Validations:
Note: There are few mandatory columns need to be filled in the interface table for every conversion type. That needs to be taken care of for error free conversion.
·         Validate Organization
·         Check for valid item type
·         Check for the valid item_id and segments
·         Validate the segment1/item,_id for master org for unique creation
·         Check for valid item status
·         Valid template/attributes
Interface Tables:
MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_INTERFACE
MTL_ITEM_REVISIONS_INTERFACE (If importing revisions)
MTL_ITEM_CATEGORIES_INTERFACE (If importing categories)
MTL_INTERFACE_ERRORS (View errors after import)

Base Table:
MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B
MTL_ITEM_REVISIONS_B
MTL_CATEGORIES_B
MTL_CATEGORY_SETS_B
MTL_ITEM_STATUS
MTL_ITEM_TEMPLATES
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