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Introduction
The Order to Cash flow addresses the complete business process from capturing the
order to fulfillment and payment of the goods and/or services. Management of the
Order to Cash cycle is of ultimate importance to any company as it determines the
cost of the supply chain as well as the buying experience of the customer. Most
Supply Chains today have too much capital tied, and customer are not happy with
their buying and delivery experience.
Environmental Change
The Supply Chain has been changing quite rapidly the last decade. Shipments are
getting smaller, and more frequent to support Just-in-Time concepts. Products are
tailor made, meeting markets of one rather than mass markets. We also see companies
coming and going, and customer being less tolerant for missed deliveries.
Requirements of complete order visibility is also developing. The most sophisticated
customers are also starting to integrating their systems to the seller system (Order
Management) to get control of their Supply Chain. Electronic Orders are getting more
common to in order to slice the cost of the process. All these changes puts the seller
and his information management system under a tremendous requirements for change.
The need for integration has never been greater! A good example of this is the
requirement to provide instantaneous delivery lead time when accepting an order.
This will never be possible without an integrated system.
An order today can be captured in many different ways. We could have a telesales
centre accepting orders over the phone. We could have electronic orders such as EDI
or XML or we could have traditional mail orders. All captured orders are validated
and managed globally. There are no duplicates caused by multiple order sources. If
necessary the order can be configured and validation rules can be applied in a user
tailored format to make sure that the orders configured correctly and hence valid.
Upon a valid and configured order, we can price the order. Pricing can either be
“standard” pricing according to pricelist and discount lists. Or if the market conditions
are very competitive, advanced pricing technologies can be deployed. These could for
example handle promotions, buy one get one free, upgrades, coupons etc. These
technologies have the power of providing a unique price for every customer. Upon a
priced order we then check the availability of the items/services on the order. This
could either be a simple check in the finished goods inventory, or an advanced ATP
calculation considering all global capabilities and capacities available in the
corporation. We are then ready to book the order, credit check the customer for any
credit holds etc. and schedule the order for production. The fulfillment of the order
(shipping) can be an automated process or a manual process. It can be done at regular
intervals or on an ad hoc basis. The shipment planning supports grouping of many
different orders into one shipment to realize economics of scale. The planning of the
shipment is also the foundation for the picking process in the warehouse. I.e. we pick
what is going to be shipped. The release of the pick order to the warehouse personnel
can be done very sophisticated so that we release by warehouse, by customer and at
any interval that suits the business. The picking and shipping process is fully mobile
enabled to further enhance the efficiencies in the warehouse. The next step is the
carrier pick up where the actual departure time is recorded. This time can now also be
communicated to the buyer in an ASN to foster the collaboration. The system is also
open for updates on the progress of the delivery from the transportation provider. The
final steps are the invoicing of the customer and the analysis of the performance.
Invoicing can also include freight charges incurred.
Order to Cash Business Flow
Capture
Capture Configure
Configure On-line
On-line “Firm”
“Firm” Plan
Plan
Availability
Availability
Order
Order Order
Order pricing
pricing Order
Order Shipment
Shipment
• Pick Slip • Bill of Lading • Confirms shipment • Carrier Notification • Manage returns
• Mobile Devices • Packing Slip • Mobile Device • ASN to buyer
• Pick/Pack rules • Custom doc.
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