CHAPTER5Shipments
Now that orders have been taken, how do they get to their destinations and, once there, how are they paid for? Other questions to answer are these:
- What is being shipped?
- When will it ship?
- To and from where is it shipped?
- What is the current status of the shipment?
- What inventory receipts and issuances occurred during what times at what locations?
- What is the volume and nature of incoming and outgoing shipments?
- Was the entire order shipped or only part of it?
- What shipping documents have been completed and maintained?
- What carrier was used in the shipment and what routes did the shipment take?
This chapter will deal with the shipment of items that are scheduled to be or have been delivered. As will be shown, the information to support these functions does not, at first glance, seem very complex; however, the data interrelationships in a real-world environment can be complicated.
Models discussed in this chapter are the following:
- Shipments
- Shipping detail
- Shipment-to-order relationship
- Shipment receipt for incoming shipments
- Item issuance for outgoing shipments
- Shipping documents
- Shipment method
Shipments
The basic data model for shipments is shown in Figure 5.1. There is the SHIPMENT entity, which can have many types. The relationships from SHIPMENT to PARTY are to record the shipped-from PARTY and the shipped-to PARTY. The relationship from SHIPMENT to POSTAL ADDRESS is to track where the shipment began and where the shipment was delivered. The model ...
