What the Fulfillment Management Processes Do

In this section of the opentaps User Manual we will discuss using the fulfillment processes in detail, including orders for products and orders for services. Here, we use the term product fulfillment in the broad sense, including the processes that directly enable us to fulfill a sales order with product inventory that we have procured specifically for resale. This involves two process flows as diagrammed in Figure-4A:

• Processing the approved Sales Order through to a Completed Shipment. This is the output side of fulfillment. The short names for these parts are Fulfillment and Inventory. (Blue boxes in the figure.)
• 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 these parts include Purchasing and MRP. (Yellow boxes in the figure.)

As shown in the figure, Materials Resource Planning is the center piece in considering all the factors that determine the best inventory levels for the business, and producing requirements to drive purchasing and production. Then with the proper inventory on hand the tasks of fulfillment can be accomplished with excellent results.

A prerequisite for using these processes is that the business has defined its products and services, the related parts and materials, and found suppliers as needed. The items you will be purchasing for resale, or production, or supplies are set up in the opentaps Catalog application as explained in the User Manual section Using the Catalog Application. (Green boxes in the figure.)

We will also cover the purchase of supplies for internal consumption using a simpler process.

In addition to these topics, we will describe configuring Warehouse Operations, defining the facilities and the locations inside them, and the team members who staff these organizations.

What about producing products? When your business includes production (processing the items you purchase by making or manufacturing something with them) before you stock the finished 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 Requirements, Procurement, and Inventory processes that are driven by the production activity (rather than by the resale activity). Of course, we will detail the manufacturing processes in that section, also.

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

The following Figure -4A and Figure-4B display the processes we will discuss in this manual section:

• 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

As with all the component processes and applications of opentaps these are part of the system structure for managing team coordination, execution of best practices, secure access to real-time information, and the unified data model.