Network Routing Flow

Network routing can be used in planning order releases and order movements onto shipments. This topic mainly considers order release 'Bulk Plan', though the flow is also used within the order release 'Build Shipment - Direct' action.

Order Release Bulk Plan has two Distinct Paths:

• The pre-6.3 bulk plan path, which does not consider routing networks, and routes orders through multi-leg or pool-crossdock itineraries using a cost-based method that accounts for the costs for individual orders.
• The Network Routing bulk plan path, which can route orders along routing networks as well as through multi-leg itineraries, and uses a network-flow method that accounts for order flows as well as costs through the network.

Bulk Plan for Order Releases: Network Routing Path:

The bulk plan path is determined by the ORDER ROUTING METHOD parameter, as will be described below. The outline of this Network Routing bulk plan path can be illustrated as follows, with data elements in blue and algorithmic components in green. Essentially, it does the following:

• itineraries are matched to the order releases;
• order releases are routed through the itineraries (and any networks contained therein);
• order movements are created for the selected routes;
• the order movements are planned onto shipments.

The main difference between the two paths is in the creation and use of order movements in order release planning. There is also a difference with Order Release Routing. The Order Release Routing stage is where the new routing logic determines how to route the orders through the transportation network (as represented by the itineraries and any routing networks).

Order release planning involves the creation of order movements, and order releases planned onto shipments will always have corresponding order movements.

• In OTM 6.2, internally, these order movements are created after the shipments have been created. Both shipments and order movements are persisted at the same time.
• As of OTM 6.3, in the new Network Routing path, the order routing component creates order movements internally based upon the routing decisions, and then plans these order movements onto shipments. Again, both shipments and order movements are persisted at the same time.

The result for both is order releases planned onto shipments with order movements. The difference is evident in the log files, diagnostics, and performance milestones.

XML Files:

There are three XML files that are produced during order release routing:

• NrOrderOR.xml: This contains the order data
• NrNetworkOR.xml: This contains the network data, including the legs and the rated options for each leg (for example, by rate offering and equipment
• NrSolutionOR.xml: This contains the data representing the solution produced by the MIP Solver for all orders.

The filename has the domain, user and a sequence number appended to the end, so the NrNetwork XML file will have a name such as NrNetworkOR.MTEX.ADMIN1.xml.

These files can be used for diagnosing why the network routing engine arrived at a solution. They are written to the OTM logging directory. There are network routing logic parameters which control whether these files are produced or not:

• WRITE ROUTING SOLVER INPUT XML: controls whether the NrOrderOR.xml and NrNetworkOR.xml files are created.
• WRITE ROUTING SOLVER OUTPUT XML: controls whether the NrSolutionOR.xml file is created

The MIP Solver uses the Planning Guide planning task. This planning task has run-time controls for the MIP Solver an specifies whether the lp file is written to the OTM logging directory.

Order Movements:

Order movements are an important part of order release planning within network routing. They are an important part of the shipment creation process.

See Network Routing and Order Movements for details.