Fulfillment in Oracle Order Management

An Oracle White Paper December 2000

Fulfillment in Oracle Order Management

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

The definition of the word fulfill is to bring into actuality; to carry out; to measure up or satisfy; to bring to an end or complete. To fulfill an order line in Oracle Order Management (OM) means to satisfy the requirements for completion. OM provides the functionality required to recognize fulfillment of an order line, and to cause some order lines to wait until other related order lines have been fulfilled before they continue processing.
INTRODUCTION

OM allows you to group lines into a fulfillment set and to establish a gate activity in your workflow process. Lines in a fulfillment set will wait until all lines in the set have been fulfilled to proceed through the gate. This gate is known as the fulfillment activity. The fulfillment feature is primarily designed to allow the grouping of related lines and to keep any lines in the group from being invoiced until all lines have been fulfilled. You may find additional uses for the fulfillment functionality in your business. This feature did not exist in previous releases of Oracle Order Entry.
Terminology

The following terms will be used to describe fulfillment:

Fulfillment activity - The synchronization point or gate in the workflow process at which lines wait for other lines to be fulfilled. Fulfillment method activity - The activity in the workflow process which indicates that the line has been fulfilled. Fulfillment set - a group of lines which must all be fulfilled before any of the lines proceed beyond the fulfillment activity in the workflow

How it Works

The fulfillment activity is a seeded workflow activity named FULFILL_LINE. This activity is the synchronization point between the lines of a fulfillment set. There are two activities which are considered fulfillment method activities in the seeded OM workflows. For a standard shippable line the fulfillment method activity is the shipping activity. For a return line the fulfillment method activity is

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the receiving activity. You may define any activity as the fulfillment method activity in a workflow process. The fulfillment activity must be between the fulfillment method activity and the invoice interface activity in the respective workflows. When a line workflow reaches the fulfillment activity, the activity checks to see if the fulfillment method activity (for example, shipping or receiving) completed successfully. If so, it updates the fulfilled quantity on the line with the shipped or received quantity, and sets the fulfilled flag to Yes. It then checks to see if the line is part of a fulfillment set. If not, then it completes the fulfillment activity and continues with the next activity in the workflow process. If the line is part of a fulfillment set, it checks to see if the other lines in the fulfillment set are fulfilled. If any lines are not fulfilled, it waits at the fulfillment activity. If all the lines are fulfilled it completes the fulfillment activity for all the lines in the fulfillment set.
Setup

No setup is required to use the fulfillment functionality with the seeded workflows. If you create your own workflows, include the fulfillment activity before invoicing in each process. This will provide two benefits: it will update the fulfilled quantity for the lines, and it will allow you to use fulfillment sets. For each workflow process that you define, you will need to check the attributes of the FULFILL_LINE activity. The FULFILLMENT_ACTIVITY attribute must be your fulfillment method activity, which in the seeded flows is either the shipping activity or the receiving activity. The COMPLETION_RESULT should be the result with which the fulfillment method activity completes if it is successful. This allows you to designate any activity as a fulfillment method activity. If you have a workflow process with two separate branches, such as a single workflow process with separate branches for ordered items and returned items, then you should have one fulfillment activity for each branch which relates to the fulfillment method activity for that branch.
WATCH OUT FOR

Here are some limitations that you will need to understand: You can have multiple fulfillment sets in a single order. If a line is a member of two fulfillment sets then all lines from both fulfillment sets must be fulfilled for any of the lines to complete the fulfillment activity. If a line workflow process with a notification is in a fulfillment set, and the notification is rejected, then the other lines will not progress in their flows. You will have to delete or cancel the rejected line.
EXAMPLES

Example1 - Assume that you enter an order for an item which is shippable and a service contract for that item. You would not want to bill for the service contract

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until the item was shipped. Put the two lines into a fulfillment set by clicking the right mouse button and selecting Sets. When the order is booked, the shippable line must complete the scheduling and shipping activities. These activities are not applicable for the service contract, so they will complete immediately. The service contract will wait at the fulfill line activity until the shippable line arrives there, and then both lines will continue to invoicing at the same time. Example 2 - Assume that you are a telecommunications company and some of your order lines are for local cable service. The line is fulfilled when the technician goes to the subscribers home and makes the connection. You call this activity provisioning, and you have a custom system for managing this service. You could define a new workflow activity called provisioning and define it as the fulfillment method activity for the workflow process associated with cable installation lines. The line for installation might be in a fulfillment set with the line for the first monthly fee and the line for a shippable item, the cable box. When the technician reports that the connection is complete, the custom system could update the status of the provisioning workflow activity. When the line progresses to the fulfillment activity, the quantity fulfilled is updated with the quantity provisioned. The other lines in the fulfillment should already be waiting at the fulfillment activity. The completion of the fulfillment activity for the installation would complete the lines in the fulfillment set, and the installation, first monthly fee and cable box would all proceed to invoice interface.
CONCLUSION

Order Managements new fulfillment functionality provides a simple way to synchronize the workflow between order lines. It allows you to prevent invoicing of lines in a fulfillment set until all lines are ready for invoicing. Seeded workflow processes and activities can be used out of the box to provide baseline functionality for sales order, drop ship and return lines. The functionality is also designed to allow you the flexibility to define other activities as fulfillment methods so that you can model your unique business processes.

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Fulfillment in Oracle Order Management December 2000 Author: Ginger Conroy Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA 94065 U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: +1.650.506.7000 Fax: +1.650.506.7200 Web: www.oracle.com This document is provided for informational purposes only and the information herein is subject to change without notice. Please report any errors herein to Oracle Corporation. Oracle Corporation does not provide any warranties covering and specifically disclaims any liability in connection with this document. Oracle is a registered trademark, and Oracle Order Management is a trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of Oracle corporation. All other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright Oracle Corporation 2000 All Rights Reserved