Managed Material Flow in a Facility:Move orders are requests for the movement of material within a single organization. They allow planners and facility managers to request the movement of material within a warehouse or facility for purposes like replenishment, material storage relocations, and quality handling. You can generate move orders either manually or automatically depending on the source type you use.
Note: Move orders are restricted to transactions within an organization. If you are transferring material between organizations you must use the internal requisition process. See: Overview of Internal Requisitions.
Managed Material Flow in a Facility:Move orders allow you to distinguish between inventory management processes and the actual material transaction process. This provides for the following:
| Quick response | You can request a transaction and forward the request to a picker for transaction execution. The request is tracked in Oracle Inventory, which allows you to avoid manual systems, thus eliminating inaccurate transfer of information. Also, Oracle Inventory replenishment functionality can automatically generate move orders without the intervention of an item planner. This results in faster inventory replenishment, with minimal human intervention. |
| Warehouse visibility | Move orders use inventory picking rules to determine where to source material for a subinventory or account transfer. This ensures that the same mechanisms created to rotate material properly for deliveries can be used to rotate material within the facility. |
| Tracking | Move orders can be transacted through APIs. This allows you to transact material using mobile devices, giving you better material visibility and accuracy. Move orders can also be created to cross dock material to staging locations. |
Move Order Source Types:Oracle provides three types of move orders: 1) Move order requisitions, 2) Replenishment move orders, and 3) Pick wave move orders. The move order type refers to the entity that created the move order. For all move orders, the final result is one of the two supported transactions: subinventory transfer or account issue.
A move order requisition is a manually generated request for a move order. It is available for subinventory transfers and account transfers. Once a requisition has been approved, it becomes a move order. These requests can optionally go through a workflow-based approval process before they become move orders ready to be sourced and transacted. See: Generating Move Order Requisitions.
You can automatically create pre-approved move orders using the following planning and replenishment functions. These processes generate move orders if the material is sourced from another inventory location within the organization.
| Min-Max Planning: | When a minimum quantity for a specific item is reached in inventory, you can use a move order to replenish the supply. |
| Replenishment Counting | If a system that uses replenishment counting triggers an item for replenishment, you can use move orders to replenish the supply. |
| Kanban Replenishment | When a kanban card signals the need to release an item into a subinventory, you can generate a move order to handle the release. |
For min-max planning and replenishment counting, you can set the subinventory source type at the following levels:
Master/Organization Items
Subinventory
Item Subinventory
For kanban pull sequence or cards, you set the subinventory source type at the Pull Sequence level. See: Generating Replenishment Move Orders.
Pick wave move orders are pre-approved requests for subinventory transfers to bring material from a source location in the warehouse to a staging subinventory. These move orders are generated automatically by the Oracle Shipping Execution pick release process. See: Overview of Material Pick Waves.
Move Order Components:A move order comprises the following:
| Move order header | Oracle Inventory uses the move order header to store the move order source type. This refers to the entity that created the move order. The header also stores the default source and destination (if known), the order number, and the requested date. |
| Move order lines | Move order lines are the requests on a move order. They store the item, requested quantity, completed quantity (if the move order has been partially fulfilled), and source and destination (if known). The move order lines also include any project and task references if the organization is Oracle Project Manufacturing enabled. You can also request specific serial and lot numbers on the move order line. |
| Move order line allocations | The line allocations are the transactions that occur to fulfill a particular move order line. You can set up your system to have Oracle Inventory's picking engine automatically fill in the allocations, or you can manually fill in the line details and edit them before you transact. If the material is locator, lot, or serial controlled, the system fills in this information at the line detail level. |
Move Order Process Flow:The move order process follows the following steps:
Create a move order for required material. You can manually create a move order requisition or set up your system to automatically generate replenishment or pick wave move orders.
Approve the move order lines. If the move order requisitions require approval, the item planner must approve the move order lines.
Allocate the move order. Once the move order is approved, you can allocate it, or cancel it. Allocating is the process that uses Oracle Inventory picking rules to determine where to source the material to fulfill a request line. The allocating process fills in the move order line details with the actual transactions to be performed and allocates the material to the move order.
You can also cancel partially allocated move order requisitions and replenishment move orders. Oracle Inventory provides a profile option INV: Kill Move Order which allows the system to cancel partially allocated and transacted move orders. See: Inventory Profile Options.
Print a pick slip. Before you transact the move order, you can print a pick slip or push the move order line allocations to mobile devices for transaction through the move order APIs.
Transact move order lines. You can either transact all the move order lines at once or transact one allocation line at a time as the items are moved. If you transact less than the requested quantity, the move order stays open until the total quantity is transacted or until the order is closed or cancelled. You can cancel partially allocated and transacted Move Order Requisitions and Replenishment Move Order lines.
Allocating Move Orders:Move orders use Inventory picking rules to suggest source location, lot numbers, and revisions for the material to be picked. You can choose to view and update the suggested source allocations before printing a pick slip or committing the transaction. See: Defining Picking Rules.
Note: Allocating creates a pending transaction the will be executed when you transact the line. It therefore decrements the available quantity.
Workflow for Move Order Approval Process:If you require planner approval for move order requisitions, you can use the move order approval process, which forwards move order lines to the designated item planner for approval. Oracle Inventory manages the approval process through Oracle Workflow.
To govern the move order approval process, you set two inventory organization parameters: Move Order Timeout Period and Move Order Timeout Action. The Move Order Timeout Period attribute determines the number of days the order can wait for approval. After one time out period, if the recipient has not approved or rejected the order, a reminder notice is sent. After a second time out period, the order is automatically approved or rejected, depending on the Move Order Timeout Action attribute you set. Upon approval, additional notifications can be sent to specified individuals.
The item planner is an item attribute. If no planner is specified on the item, the requisition line will be automatically approved.
Once the order line is approved, notices are sent to a notification list that is attached to the source and destination subinventories to let the subinventory planners know that material will be moved to or from their areas.
Note: Replenishment and pick wave move orders are pre-approved
Print Move Order Pick Slips:You can print move order pick slips before or after the move order transaction is committed. The Move Order Pick Slip report generates pick slips for move order requisitions and replenishment move orders. See: Move Order Pick Slip Report.
To generate a pick slip for pick wave move orders, you submit the Oracle Shipping Execution Pick Slip report.
