Inventory Management Integration with 3PL and Warehouse Management Systems Process Flow

Oracle Fusion Cloud Inventory Management integration with third-party logistics (3PL) and warehouse management systems (WMS) provides you the ability to outsource part or all of your supply chain management functions.

Using this integration, you can:

Improve customer service by minimizing total delivery time and costs using a 3PL provider.
Improve visibility to expected shipment and receipt detail to better plan import and customs clearance by way of web service or REST payloads.
Accept returns from your customers with authorization from the manufacturer by way of receipt advices.
Maintain tighter controls between Inventory Management and the execution system for greater transparency for 3PL or WMS activities.
Monitor inventory accuracy.

Inventory Management integration with 3PL and WMS systems process flow, diagram of

The web service Send Receipt Advice, available by way of Oracle Receiving, or the REST resource Receipt Advice Lines (GET method), enable Inventory Management to communicate expected shipment lines sent to and received by a 3PL system or WMS. Then, the 3PL system or WMS, by way of the Receive Receipt Confirmation web service in Receiving, or the REST resources Receiving Receipt Requests (POST method) or Requests for Receiving Transactions (POST method), communicate confirmation and receipt details of the expected shipment lines.

The web service Material Shipment Line, available by way of the GenerateShipmentRequest operation in Oracle Shipping, or the REST resources Shipment Line Change Requests (method: Generate a shipment request) or Shipment Lines, enable inventory management users to send shipment requests to a 3PL system or WMS. The 3PL system or WMS can accept and confirm the shipment requests by way of the CreateandConfirm operation on the Material Shipment web service in Shipping or the REST resource Shipment Transaction Requests (POST method, with CreateAndConfirmShipment action code).

Also, within Shipping, you can use the tasks in the Inventory Management work area in the Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management offering so that you can send a shipment request directly from the Inventory Management work area. Additionally, when shipment confirmation errors occur from the 3PL system or WMS, you can select a task in the Inventory Management work area to view the error in a spreadsheet, correct the error, and reprocess the shipment. This action brings the confirmation details into the shipping tables.

The web service Inventory Transaction Manager or the REST resource Inventory Staged Transactions (POST method) enable you to receive material transaction updates made by the 3PL system or WMS to keep on-hand balances synchronized with Inventory Management.

For more information, see the REST API for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide.

Supported Roles for Inventory Management Integration with 3PL and WMS Systems

The features for Inventory Management integration with 3PL and WMS systems are predefined, and you can access them through the following existing job roles:

Warehouse manager

Receiving and inspection manager

Shipping manager

The users roles associated with this feature are:

Warehouse operator

Receiving agent

Shipping agent

Change Management for Sales Orders in 3PL and WMS Systems

You can now make changes to sales order lines in Order Management. This means you can check order status, communicate order changes and shipping holds, and cancel orders in the 3PL or WMS system when the shipping organization is changed. Therefore,

Any changes you make to the sales order are communicated to the WMS seamlessly without any additional interaction.
The changes to the order are rejected if the order has progressed in the WMS and the current state does not allow any changes.
The type of changes to the order can include quantity, scheduled ship dates, shipping method, customer, and other key attributes.
Shipping holds that can be placed on sales orders are communicated to the WMS.