Basic Order Fulfillment Processing Guide

Part 5: Shipment and Receipt

This B2B process enables a supplier to provide advance shipment information to a buyer describing the items and quantities in the shipment.  The buyer may be required to confirm the shipment once it has been received.

Business Process Management

A purchase order (PO) may be divided into one or more individual shipments.  Each shipment notice may be associated with one or more PO numbers.

In some cases, a third-party logistics (3PL) provider may deliver products to the buyer.  The 3PL may also send the shipment notice to the buyer.  The 3PL processes are not described here.

A physical shipment may include products from one or more POs and/or shipment notices. The actual receipt of products (goods) may be enabled by barcode or RFID technologies to automate data capture.

The B2B process for shipping and receipt is completed once the buyer sends a confirmation message to the supplier.

Total Quality Management

The B2B shipment and receipt process improves these business measures:

• Reduces the amount of time spent by receiving to access and process manual shipping notices to prepare for incoming shipments.

• Automated data capture using barcodes and RFID reduces the cycle time and increases the accuracy of shipment and inventory data.

• Acknowledgments of goods received by the buyer provides a closure for each shipment.

Information Technology

The shipment information should be reconciled with the originating purchase order and the physical shipment. The shipment receipt information should be reconciled with the supplier’s invoice.

This is the part of order fulfillment that must link together the B2B information and the physical product-handling processes.

B2B Standards

This table identifies standards supporting the B2B process for Shipment and Receipt.