What the Fulfillment Management Processes Do

In this section of the opentaps User Manual we will discuss using the fulfillment processes in detail. Here, we use the term fulfillment in the broad sense of the word including the processes that directly enable us to fulfill a sales order with inventory that we have procured specifically for resale. This involves two process flows:

• Processing the Ready Sales Order through to a Completed Shipment. This is the output side of fulfillment. The short name for this part is Shipping.
• Processing the inventory Requirements through to Inventory Ready to Ship. This is the input side of fulfillment with goods that we have procured for resale. The short names for this part include Procurement and Inventory. We will also cover the purchase of supplies for internal consumption.

In addition to these two topics, we will discuss one closely related set of functions that are centered on the Warehouse Operations, defining the facilities and the locations inside them, and the team members who staff these organizations.

When your business includes processing the items you purchase, such as by making or manufacturing something with them, before you can stock the inventory for fulfillment of sales orders, there is an additional process that we will cover in the manual section "Using Production Management Processing Power". In that section we will cover the additional parts of Requirements, Procurement, and Inventory that are driven by the production activity (rather than by the resale activity). Of course, we will also detail the manufacturing processes in this section.

In some organizations the two parts of Procurement and Inventory processes, the first driven by resales business, versus the second driven by Production business are accomplished in one organizational unit while in other companies the organizations may be separately idenItalic texttified. Thus, the User of opentaps may choose to treat our two manual sections as separate topics, or as one unified topic.

The following Figure-4 displays the processes we will discuss:

• From Main Navigation Icon - Purchasing

*  Procurement Process Includes:
**  Requirements (MRP)
**  Planning Tab
**  Suppliers Tab
**  Purchasing (Orders Tab)
**  Reports Tab

• From Main Navigation Icon - Warehouse

*  Inventory Process Includes:
**  Inventory Tab
**  Reservations Functionality
**  Back Orders Functionality

*  Shipping Process Includes:
**  Shipping Tab
**  [Schedule a Shipment] Button
**  Picking/Packing Buttons

*  Warehouses Organization Includes:
*  Warehouse Configuration Buttons
*  [Locations] Button
*  [Team Members] Button

Figure 4 revision is required...