Bulk Plan

This page is accessed via:

Order Management > Order Release > Order Release > Actions > Operational Planning > Create Buy Shipment > Bulk Plan - Buy
Order Management > Order Release > Order Release > Actions > Operational Planning > Create Sell Shipment > Bulk Plan - Sell
Order Management > Order Release > Order Release with Stops > Actions > Operational Planning > Create Buy Shipment > Bulk Plan - Buy
Order Management > Order Release > Order Release with Stops > Actions > Operational Planning > Create Sell Shipment > Bulk Plan - Sell
Order Management > Order Movement > Order Movement > Actions > Operational Planning > Create Shipment > Bulk Plan
Operational Planning > Planning Results > Shipment Planning
Logistics Network Modeling > Modeling Project > Actions > Scenario Bulk Plan
Logistics Network Modeling > Modeling Scenario > Actions > Scenario Bulk Plan

You can also access Bulk Plan from the Bulk Continuous Move, Bulk Plan Order Movements, and Bulk Plan Order Releases processes via Operational Planning > Process Management.

You can bulk plan multiple orders into shipments to achieve optimal transportation solutions and consolidation opportunities. You can also initiate a bulk plan for orders entered through integration.

When you perform a bulk plan, a unique ID is created for the plan and informational attributes are provided about the bulk plan results such as

Note: If a bulk plan is scheduled as a recurring job with a user-entered Bulk Plan ID, a timestamp is appended to the Bulk Plan ID each time it runs. This timestamp is the standard: YYYYMMDDHHmmss. This ensures the bulk plan ID is unique each time it runs. It also allows you to query for all runs of a particular requested bulk plan ID. By sorting on the Bulk Plan XID, descending, you can quickly see all runs, from latest to oldest.

Start and end time of the bulk planning process
Number of orders selected for bulk planning
Number of orders that were planned on shipments
Number of orders that were unassigned and re-planned for better shipping opportunities
Number of shipments created
Number of orders that failed to plan

You can also set up Oracle Transportation Management to automatically review all shipments at the end of the bulk plan process to look for continuous move opportunities. This eliminates the need to manually create continuous moves. To have this process occur, you need to set the following parameters:

CM AUTO CREATE
CM MODE
CM MAX SEARCH DISTANCE
CM MAX SEARCH DURATION
CM MODE
CM REDRIVE

You can also specify what happens at the end of the bulk plan process when carrier/equipment capacity reaches its limit. To do this, set the following parameters:

CARRIER RESOURCE REASSIGNMENT TYPE
MAX NUM REPLAN
RERATE ALL SHIPMENTS AFTER BULK PLAN

Results Tab

You can use the Bulk Plan Manager to review the results of any bulk plan, regardless of how you initiated it.

Note: You can access Work Assignment Planning from Bulk Plan, when the Fleet Aware Bulk Plan parameter is set to true. This parameter will allow the creation of any work assignments in a bulk plan. For more information, see Fleet and Bulk Planning.

The fields that display depend on whether you ran bulk plan against an order release or an order movement.

Bulk Plan	Description
Bulk Plan ID	The ID is automatically generated using the default format in the Business Number Generator. You can use the Bulk Plan ID to search for orders and shipments that are part of the plan using the Order Base Manager, the Order Release Manager, the Shipment Manager, and Shipment Group Manager.
Domain Name	Shows the domain you are working in.
Query Name	The name of the Saved Query that was used to select the orders for the Bulk Plan if you performed a Bulk Plan using the Process Manager or through integration only.
Parameter Set ID	The set of parameters that was used to process this bulk plan. Click View Overrides to view parameters set differently from the defaults.
Perspective	Shows whether they are buy or sell shipments.
Scenario Group	Enter a Scenario Group for the bulk plan. You may query on bulk plans by scenario group to limit the results returned by the query.
What-If Scenario	If this is selected, the bulk plan will not commit shipments.
Start Time	The time when the bulk processing began.
End Time	The time when the bulk plan processing completed. If the End Time is blank, then processing is still in progress. Click the Refresh button at the bottom of the page until an End Time appears to review the results.
Orders Selected	Displays the number of order releases considered in the bulk plan.
Orders Inserted	Displays the number of order releases inserted into a modeling scenario bulk plan via the Data Scenario Changes screen. Note: This field is only used for Logistics Network Modeling scenario bulk plans. Note: For inserted order releases, the value in the Orders Selected field is a link to the order release finder results. The results are based on the saved query on the modeling scenario minus any order releases deleted via data scenario changes. If there are no inserted order releases, the link is on the Orders Planned value.
Orders Unassigned	Displays the number of order releases that were already planned on shipments but not in execution (order releases with PLANNING status type and PLANNING_PLANNED FINAL status value) and therefore unassigned and reconsidered for planning during the bulk plan process to evaluate consolidation opportunities for these orders.
Shipments Built	The number of shipments created as a result of the bulk plan. Note: If you ran the Scenario Bulk Plan action the Shipments Built link opens the Modeling Shipment finder results and view screens.
Total Number of Stops	The number of stops across all shipments in the bulk plan.
Orders Planned	Displays the number of order releases planned on shipments
Orders Failed to Plan	Displays the number of order releases that did not plan on shipments as a result of the bulk plan. commented this out based on the following issues Note: You can use the Communication Manager to configure email notifications when a bulk plan completes processing or when a bulk plan fails.
Orders Sent Thru Pools	Displays the number of orders that will be sent through distribution pools. This is also populated if the network has a pool.
Orders Sent Thru XDocks	Displays the number of orders that will be sent through cross-docks. This is also populated if the network has a cross-dock.
Order Movements (Selected/Unassigned/Planned/ Failed)	If you ran bulk plan against order movements in addition to order releases, these order movement fields appear. They show similar statistics as the order release fields mentioned above.
Order Movements (Created/ Planned/Failed)	These order movement fields display if you ran bulk plan against order releases. These numbers do not include the network routable order movements as these are not actually used in planning shipments (though they are created when orders are planned onto shipments.
Totals (Weighted Cost/Actual Cost/Weight/ Volume/Distance)	Shows various total values (weighted cost, actual cost, weight, volume) for all shipments that were created in the bulk plan. The system sums the highest rolling volume and weight of each shipment; it does not the total volume and weight of the shipment. To see the total volume and weight of shipments, see the shipment totals instead of the bulk plan totals. Use the Mode and Show Partitions section to view values for individual shipments that were created. For example, in the shipment below, the bulk plan results would provide a total of 30 Cubic Feet for the Volume of this shipment since that is the highest total volume in the truck at any one time. The shipment total for this same shipment would be 50 Cubic Feet, which is the total for the pickups made for this shipment. 1. Pickup @ DC 20 Cubic Feet 2. Deliver @ Store 10 Cubic Feet 3. Delivery @ Store 10 Cubic Feet 4. Deadhead 5. Pickup @ Vendor 30 Cubic Feet 6. Delivery at DC 30 Cubic Feet
Modeling Project ID / Modeling Scenario ID	These fields are populated if the bulk plan was run via the logistics network modeling action of Scenario Bulk Plan. They show values for scenario bulk plans invoked from a modeling project or modeling scenario. Note: The metrics and values in the screen do not correspond to the OTM bulk plan but are the result of the scenario planner initiated bulk plan (as expected).

Metrics Tab

The first section summarizes metrics derived from the total bulk plan.

Bulk Plan Level Metrics	Description
Total Weighted Cost	Total cost of the bulk plan including the actual cost as well as costs associated with the shipment but not normally invoiced.
Weighted Cost Per 100 LB	Weighted cost per hundredweight.
Weighted Cost Per Volume CUFT	Weighted cost per cubic foot.
Weighted Cost Per Distance MI	Weighted cost per mile.
Avg # Stops	Average number of stops for the bulk plan
Weighted Cost Per Order	Weighted cost per order on an itinerary leg.
Weighted Cost Per Shipment	Weighted cost per shipment.
Avg Shipment Distance	Average distance for each shipment in the bulk plan
Avg Shipment Duration	Average time duration planned for shipment.
% Weight Utilization	Percentage of available weight capacity utilized.
% Volume Utilization	Percentage of available volume utilized.

The second section displays summary statistics for shipments based on transportation mode. This section only appears if the resulting shipments have a transport mode assigned. Each mode appears on a separate row with summary values as described below.

Mode Metrics	Description
Transport Mode ID	Identifies the transport mode.
Avg # Stops	Average number of stops per mode.
Actual Cost Per 100 LB	Actual cost per hundredweight.
Actual Cost Per Volume	Actual cost per cubic foot.
Actual Cost Per Distance MI	Actual cost per mile.
Actual Cost Per Shipment	Actual cost for shipments per mode.
Avg Shipment Distance	Average shipment distance per mode.
Avg Shipment Duration	Average time duration planned for shipment per mode.
% Weight Utilization	Percentage of available weight capacity utilized.
% Volume Utilization	Percentage of available volume utilized.

The Service Provider Metrics section displays summary statistics for shipments based on service provider. This section only appears if the resulting shipments have a service provider assigned. Each service provider appears on a separate row with summary values as described below.

Service Provider Metrics	Description
Service Provider ID	Identifies the service provider
Avg # Stops	Average number of stops per service provider.
Actual Cost Per 100 LB	Actual cost per hundredweight.
Actual Cost Per Volume CUFT	Actual cost per cubic foot.
Actual Cost Per Distance MI	Actual cost per mile.
Actual Cost Per Shipment	Actual cost for shipments per provider.
Avg Shipment Distance	Average shipment distance per provider.
Avg Shipment Duration	Average time duration planned for shipment per provider.
% Weight Utilization	Percentage of available weight capacity utilized.
% Volume Utilization	Percentage of available volume utilized.

Performance Tab

Bulk Plan Level Metrics	Description
Status	Shows the status. The last one could show as "running".
Since	Time when the process began.
Total Time	Amount of time consumed by the completed process.
Start Time	Time when the process began.
End Time	Time when the process ended.

Milestone Metrics	Description
Planning Milestone ID	Lists the process or milestone. These are pre-defined. Additional ones cannot be created.
Status	Shows the status. The last one could show as in process.
Time	Displays how long that process took to run.
Percentage	Compared to total run time.
Progress	Displays the progress of the milestone is still in process. For example, it may show 40 out of 75 order bundles processed.
Algorithm	Shows the algorithm used, if one was used.
Error Count	Shows exceptions.
Warning Count	This column shows number of warnings about certain parameter settings or excessive logging. If there is a number in this column, the number is a hyperlink. Click the hyperlink to see the message; for example, "Excessive Logging" or "Potentially Excessive Runtime". The message is also a hyperlink. Click it for further details. Note: There are bulk plan properties that enable you to adjust warning settings. See glog.bulkplan properties. Also see Bulk Plan Caches.
Information Count	This column shows the statistics like total time taken, maximum time spent, average time, and the number of hits for the components rating engine, external distance engine, and external service engine for all their subcomponents for a bulk plan. Note: Information displayed in this column is controlled via the properties glog.bulkplan.ratingStatistics.enabled, glog.bulkplan.rateDistanceStatistics.enabled, and glog.bulkplan.rateServiceStatistics.enabled. See glog.bulkplan properties. By default, these properties are false.

Show Partitions

The show partitions button only appears if this bulk plan was run using partitions from the Process Manager.

Once the Bulk Plan process is executing in this manner, and Partition IDs are assigned to orders in a bulk plan, the partitions grid is enabled (click display partitions) as a collapsible grid to provide an updated view into the partitions of the Bulk Plan as they are running. For each partition you can view the submit, start, and end times as well as order and shipment statistics. In addition, you can view the log for an individual Bulk Plan.

Bulk Plan

Results Tab

Metrics Tab

Performance Tab

Show Partitions

Related Topics