Oracle Transportation Management tracks the current estimated arrival date of in-transit shipments when transportation plans are updated or when carriers provide updated information about shipments in-transit. Tracking unexpected changes, for example, orders being delivered later or earlier than expected from suppliers or changes to internal shipments between organizations, is important because these changes can affect the rest of the supply chain.
Oracle Transportation Management monitors business events such as order changes and then sends XML messages to update applications with the changes. An Oracle customer who has deployed both Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) can configure a web service and BPEL process (provided by Oracle APS) to provide updates to planning when the arrival date of an order changes. (Updated dates collected from Oracle Transportation Management can be used for planning in advanced supply chain planning, distribution requirement planning, and collaborative planning in Oracle Collaborative Planning.) The system then notifies planners when changes to arrival or order dates occur. These updated dates are evaluated during planning, and exceptions are generated if dates are later or earlier than expected.
Important: The integration process applies only to purchase orders (planned and in-transit) and internal transfer orders (planned and in-transit internal sales order and internal sales order) because planning does not manage arrival of outbound shipments after they have shipped.
The following products and modules are required for fully integrating Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling. These product and modules are required for getting the latest estimated arrival dates for internal requisitions (IR), internal sales orders (ISO), and purchase orders (PO), and for other technical requirements.
Oracle Transportation Management 5.5 CU4
Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling 12.1.CU1 Release
Oracle Purchasing, Oracle Shipping Delivery Based, Oracle Order Entry (12.0.4 or 12.1)
SOA 10.1.3.3
This section describes what actions occur when Oracle Transportation Management detects a change in an estimated arrival time:
If you use Oracle Transportation Management, you can update your production plans with the current status of estimated arrival times of purchase and transfer orders in transit. These changes occur either because of a change in the transportation plan or because of carries updates.
When Oracle Transportation Management detects a change in an estimated arrival time, it:
Notes the estimated arrival time in your production plans for purchase requisitions, internal requisitions, and internal sales orders
Compares its estimated arrival time to the corresponding plan dock date or scheduled arrival date
Issues exception messages if the dates differ--Order will be delivered later than scheduled or Order will be delivered earlier than scheduled
Sends a notification to the planner with a link to drill down to Oracle Transportation Management for details
Updates the arrival date in Oracle Collaborative Planning
Arranges for the Oracle Collaborative Planning exception process to evaluate the updates and issue exceptions as necessary
When the next production plan runs, it:
Updates the dock date with the estimated arrival time
Firms the order
Issues exception messages as necessary when the new arrival time has an effect on demand satisfaction—late replenishment, early replenishment, order at risk
You can view transportation updates in form View Transportation Updates
The following section describes the system configuration and setup changes required when you implement Oracle Transportation Management with Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling.
The following steps outline the process flow of the integration with starting from when a carrier updates or creates a new transportation schedule in Oracle Transportation Management.
Note: The following terms are used:
OTM: Oracle Transportation Management
ASCP: Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning
APS: Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling
DRP: Distribution Requirements Planning, a component of ASCP
BPEL: Business Process Execution Language
Step 1: Oracle Transportation Management (OTM)
A new transportation schedule or an update from a carrier in Oracle Transportation Management updates the arrival dates for one or more orders.
Oracle Transportation Management sends an XML message with updates for BPEL processing.
Step 2: Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)
The XML message is processed and a BPEL flow is initiated to update the purchase orders and internal requisition and internal sales order in the APS workbench with the new date. A new record is stored in the MSC_TRANSPORTATION_UPDATES table for each updated record.
Sends a notification about the updates including a link to OTM from APS to view updates. To view notifications, the profile option MSC: Generate Notifications for Transportation Updates must be set to Yes.
Confirms if the order also exists in Oracle Collaborative Planning: if yes, updates Updated Arrival Date (new column). If not, the following step is completed.
Reviews the profile option MSC: Production Plan for Transportation Updates. If a plan exists, the next step is completed: if not, the BPEL flow ends and the user process starts.
Stores dates in new column msc_supplies and msc_demands as Updated Arrival Date in the planning data store for the plan specified in the profile option.
Generates new exceptions when Oracle Transportation Management date is not equal to the date from ERP for the order:
Where OTM date is greater than dock date: order will be delivered later than scheduled.
Where OTM date is less than dock date: order will be delivered earlier than scheduled.
Step 3: User
Planner runs either an online or batch replanning process. ENGINE process: The online planner and batch replanning recognizes the updated records and includes them in the replanning, OR
Planner runs a plan using dates collected from Oracle Transportation Management. ENGINE process: The transportation date is used where it exists, otherwise the current date is used.
Step 4: Engine Processing
The plan generates new exceptions when the Oracle Transportation Management date is not equal to the date collected from ERP for the order. These existing exceptions are generated whenever a purchase order or internal requisition will arrive later than required.
The plan generates and identifies new related exceptions as Late Replenishment exceptions, Early Replenishment exceptions, and Order at Risk exceptions.
The following section describes the system configuration and setup changes required in Oracle Transportation Management.
This table shows the exceptions in this exception group and states whether the planning engine issues the exception for each plan type.
| Exception Message | Available In Unconstrained Plans | Available In Constrained Plans with Enforce Demand Dates | Available In Constrained Plans with Enforce Capacity Constraints | Available In Optimized Plans | Available In Inventory Optimization |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Order will be delivered later than scheduled | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2: Order will be delivered earlier than scheduled | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
The planning engine issues this exception when Updated Arrival Date is later than:
For purchase requisitions and internal requisitions, Dock Date
For internal sales orders, Scheduled Arrival Date
The information displayed for this exception message is:
Organization
Item
Order Number
Current Date
Updated Arrival Date
Quantity
Planner
Product Family
Item Category
Supplier (for purchase order and internal requisition only)
Supplier Site (for purchase order and internal requisition only)
Source Organization (for internal sales order only)
Run either an online replan or a batch replan. The planning engine issues related exceptions when the new arrival time has an effect on demand satisfaction—late replenishment, early replenishment, order at risk
The planning engine issues this exception when Updated Arrival Date is earlier than:
For purchase requisitions and internal requisitions, Dock Date
For internal sales orders, Scheduled Arrival Date
The information displayed for this exception message is:
Organization
Item
Order Number
Current Date
Updated Arrival Date
Quantity
Planner
Product Family
Item Category
Supplier (for purchase order and internal requisition only)
Supplier Site (for purchase order and internal requisition only)
Source Organization (for internal sales order only)
Run either an online replan or a batch replan. The planning engine issues related exceptions when the new arrival time has an effect on demand satisfaction—late replenishment, early replenishment, order at risk
First, you must define the database connection for the BPEL process.
Note: There are similar setups for Oracle Shipping Execution and Oracle Order Management.
Complete the following steps to deploy the MscReceiveUpdateFromOtm BPEL process for a BPEL domain.
Verify that the domain(s) are created appropriately in the BPEL server.
Create a temporary directory on either the same server as BPEL or on a server accessible to the BPEL server.
Under the temporary directory, create the following directory structure: oracle/apps/msc/bpel/util.
Copy the following .jar files from the $MSC_TOP/patch/115/jar/bpel directory to the temporary directory: msc_bpel_receiveUpdatefromOTM.jar.
Copy the following .xml and Java class files from $JAVA_TOP/oracle/apps/msc/bpel/util directory to the temporary directory: mscUpdateOTMBpel.class, MscJarOTMBuild.xml.
Move mscUpdateOTMBpel.class under the /oracle/apps/msc/bpel/util directory structure.
Ensure the CLASSPATH and PATH are set correctly so that the ant-related .jar files are present in the path. The obant utility is typically present in /bpel/bin. Set the classpath inside obant (either obant.bat or obant.sh) so that the class oracle.apps.msc.bpel.util.mscUpdateOTMBpel.class is visible to the obant utility.
To run obant successfully, review the following parameters and identify relevant values for each E-Business Suite, BPEL domain, and Oracle Transportation Management instance that you are configuring:
BPEL HOME DIR
The home/root directory of the BPEL server. This is a mandatory parameter.
DB CONNECTION NAME
JNDI Name for the EBS database connection name specified in the oc4j-ra.xml. This is an optional parameter and if not specified, the database connection name will be retained as eis/DB/OracleConnection. Ensure that whatever connection name you specify here is defined in oc4j-ra.xml.
BPEL DOMAIN
Name of the BPEL domain to which the processes will be deployed. This is an optional parameter. If you desire multi-domain support, you should have a unique name for each integration. If not specified, all of the processes will be deployed to the default domain and will overwrite the PO BPEL process.
Run the following command: obant -buildfile MscJarOTMBuild.xml -DbpelHome=<BPEL_HOME_DIR> -DnewDbConnName=<DB_CONNECTION_NAME> -Ddeploy=<BPEL_DOMAIN>
Note: Note that when the OBAnt command is run, it creates a directory named OtmModifiedBpelJarHYPERLINK "http://twiki.ca.oracle.com/bin/edit/Architect/OtmModifiedBpelJar?topicparent=Architect.ArchMscOtmSetup" ? under the current directory; the new directory stores the modified BPEL jar files.
Verify that the processes were successfully deployed to the corresponding BPEL domain by viewing the processes from the BPEL console of the respective domain.
Restart the SOA server.
The following section describes how to set up an external system and web service in Oracle Transportation Management.
To set up external system and web service in Oracle Transportation Management
In Oracle Transportation Management, click the Business Process Automation icon, select Communication Management, then select External Systems.
Click New.
Enter an External System ID: for example BPEL_FLOW.
On the Web Service field, click n to create a new web service.
On the Web Service page, click n to create a new WSDL (web services description language) document.
Click Document Detail to display the Document page.
Enter a new ID (MSCRECEIVEUPDATES).
From the Storage field, select Text.
Click Upload to upload your WSDL file for the BPEL server.
Click Finished.
The following steps describe how to set up an automatic agent in Oracle Transportation Management.
Create a new agent named as OR_UPDATE_SEND_TO_APS.
In Oracle Transportation Management, click the Business Process Automation icon, select Agents and Milestones, then select Automation Agent.
Click the New button to display the Agent Manager page.
On the Agent Manager page, complete the following entries:
Agent ID: OR_UPDATE_SEND_TO_APS
Agent Type: Order Release
On the Event field, click the f icon to display the Agent Events Finder page.
In the Agent Event ID field, enter ORDER - DATES MODIFIED then click Search.
After the search results appear, click Finish to display the agent event details in the Agent Manager page.
In the Restrictions field, select a restriction value such as INTEGRATION or INTERNAL or USER (click the Information icon on the Restrictions field to display the available parameters).
Click the Save button located to the right of the Restrictions field.
Click the View/Enter Actions button to go the next tab.
Click Add Action to display the Agent Action Selection page. Select the following values:
Action list: Send Integration.
Notify Method: SERVICE
External System: Click the f (Find) icon, and search for the service id you created in the prior steps.
Click Save. The parent window displays the newly added action.
Click Finish.
During implementation, you set a value for each user profile option to specify how Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning controls access to and processes data for its integration with Oracle Transportation Management.
You must set a value for profile options followed by the word "required," no default is supplied. Ordinary users can see profile options followed by the word "exposed," only system administrators can see the rest. Further details follow the list, click an item to find them.
MSC: EBS source instance for OTM
Oracle Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) can be run as a separate instance from Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) source instances. Typically, APS can be integrated with multiple EBS source instances. In Oracle Transportation Management, you can set up multiple domains and each domain is mapped to a single EBS source instance.
However, when EBS, APS, and OTM are integrated, only a single EBS source instance (domain) for the APS-OTM integration is supported. Therefore, you need to enter an instance code for the profile option MSC: EBS source instance for OT (for example, TST) to update the data in APS for the source instance that maps to the OTM domain that triggers the BPEL process.
The default value is Null.
MSC: Generate Exceptions in CP
Instructs the BPEL process whether the late or earlier exceptions should be generated in Oracle Collaborative Planning.
Values
Yes
No
The default value is No.
MSC: Generate Notifications for Transportation Updates
Specifies whether the process that passes estimated arrival time updates from Oracle Transportation Management should create workflow notifications.
Values
Yes: Create workflow notifications. When set to Yes, the BPEL process uses the values for user and responsibility defined in the profile options MSC: OTM User and MSC: OTM Responsibility to run the workflow notification.
No: Do not create workflow notifications.
The default value is Yes.
Identifies the URL (for example, http://otm.oracle.com/) of the Oracle Transportation Management instance that is providing the updates. Use this URL for drilling down in Oracle Transportation Management to find details about the order that has been rescheduled.
Note: Enter a value for this profile option to ensure that the APS workbench and the link in the notification operate correctly.
The default value is Null (no default value).
Define a default user and responsibility to enable the BPEL process to call the Oracle E-Business Suite workflow notification (in Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning integration). For example, a default user and responsibility could be sjones (user) and Advanced Supply Chain Planner (responsibility).
The default value is Null (no default value).
Define a default user and responsibility to enable the BPEL process (business process execution language) to call the Oracle E-Business Suite workflow notification in Oracle Transportation Management and Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning integration. For example, a default user and responsibility could be sjones (user) and Advanced Supply Chain Planner (responsibility).
The default value is Null (no default value).
MSC: Production Plan for Transportation Updates
Specifies the production plans that receive estimated arrival time updates from Oracle Transportation Management.
Values
Null: Do not pass updates to any plan.
All Production Plans: Pass updates to all plans with Production flag selected.
<specific plan name>: Pass updates only to the plan that is specified.
The default value is Null.