g) Shipping
The shipping module in STEEL MANAGER III metal distribution software is designed to ensure that all deliveries and pick-up purchase orders are managed, tracked and executed in the most efficient and timely manner possible.
File Maintenance
A main requirement of the steel distribution software system is that all customers and vendors are coded with a route number based on the shipping address. This will allow the manifest to group all deliveries for any one route together to ensure the most direct journey for the selected carrier.
The manifest caters for a number of carriers or shipping methods (ship via's). Company owned trucks will be added to the ship via table and will have a user defined maximum weight and maximum length which will limit the type and amount of cargo for any one journey.
Loading
With the Steel Manager III (SM3) metal distribution software, all work orders are automatically added to the shipment manifest once a sales order is approved and if the ship via selected has an "add to manifest" indicator set. When the work order is confirmed and a BOL is produced, the BOL number will appear on the manifest and the work order number will disappear unless there is a backorder. In this case, it will remain with the backordered quantity displayed. Pick-up Purchase Orders will also be displayed on the manifest.
Documents will be added automatically to the manifest under a particular ship via which was specified on the order. They will also be added under a particular route which is stored on the customer ship to, or vendor ship from profile.
The manifest will display the document (work order, BOL #, or PO #), date required, actual ship date, account name (customer or vendor), ship via (truck) code, route code, zip code, weight, UOM, and shipping indicator.
Maintenance
It is possible to manually add or delete items from the manifest in Steel Manager III (SM3) metal distribution software. There is also the ability to move documents from one truck to another with the assign button. Items can be moved from a generic (our truck) code to a specific truck. The possibility of doing this automatically is one of the subjects for future discussion.
A powerful feature of the manifest is the ability to highlight multiple items on the manifest and to total them by clicking on the "total" button. This will display the weight and number of stops for those selected items. This is very helpful for the shipper when decisions are to be made to reshuffle a particular load. The total weight assigned to a selected truck will always be displayed and it will be highlighted in red if this weight exceeds the maximum allowable weight.
Once all routes have been finalized it will be possible to print a manifest report. This report will show document number, required date, account (customer or vendor), shipping address, and weight. The report will sort and total by truck showing total weight and total number of stops. It will also give total weight and total number of stops on all trucks.
