Order Management Interview questions Part -1
1) It is possible to release an order line independently of other order lines
and order header.
Yes you can using the shipping transaction form.(From pick release you can release
complete order and not independently the lines).
Immediately after the order is booked, we can come to the shipping
transaction form, pull up that order, and for a specific line, we can
“Launch Pick Release”. We can also subsequently create a delivery for this
order line and then ship the order as well. Hence we can ship an order line
independently of the other order lines.
Pick release can also be used to release lines independently, by providing
conditional scheduled ship dates ,request dates,in which case, it will release
those specific lines.
2) Once The order is booked ,are the delivery details/lines created ??
Yes. immediately after the order is booked, the delivery lines are created (not deliveries)
(which can be seen from the wsh_delivery_details which reference the sales
order). However once the deliveries are created (either automatically after
the pick release or manually based on the system options), these deliveries
lines are asssigned to the delivery created. Only after
the deliveries are created we can ship (or ship confirm) them.
3) What is Defer Interface?
There is a flag in global parameters setting which is Defer Interface.
Typically once the order is ship confirmed, then the
trip stop report is printed and the order is ready for interfacing to AR.
However if the defer interface flag is set, then even after the ship confirmation,
the trip stop process does not pick this up and is subsequently not invoiced.
Defer Interface flag can also be set at the ship confirm window level.
4)How do we apply credit holds to Orders :
One way of applying a credit hold for an order (based on the customer credit)
is to use the credit management. Another way is to specify within the OM,
the credit limit at the customer or site level as follows,
Customer => Profile : Amounts
We can specify both order credit limit (which is specific to an order)or credit
limit(which is entire credit limit).
5).What are Deliveries and Delivery Lines, and which one is created first?
Lets take an example. Let us say there is a sales order which consists of
two lines. Once the order is booked, two delivery lines are created automatically.
If there are two order lines, there will be two delivery lines,so for each
order line, there is a delivery line. Then as a next step, we assign these
delivery lines to a delivery. And if the autocreate is checked, then automatically
a delivery is created after pick relase and the two delivery lines are assigned
to the newly created delivery.
6) What are Container Items :
Container Items are also inventory items,which are flagged as “Container”
in the Physical Attributes tab. Usually they are not Customer orderable,
customer ordered ,invoicable etc. ;
Items => Physical Attributes => Container Area.
We can also set the item as a Vehicle as the case may be.
7) What is packing the Items :
Usually we Pack the Items, that is when we need to define the Container Item
Relationship,which is defined here,
Setup => Shipping => Container Load Details.
Here you specify the relationship between the regular items (like say Printer)
and the container items (like Box, Carton)and the maximum quantity that can
be filled in that container etc.
Once that is done, we should be able to do the packing.
8) What is partial cancelling of the order line.
If you change the order quantity say from an original value of 50 to ,say, 45,
then the orderline is said to be partially cancelled.
write more about this
9) What is splitting the order lines and how does pick release help in the case
of split lines ?
Let us say we have an order which requires multiple shipments over time, then
you would split the order line, rather than creating multiple order lines.
So in each split line, we specify the quantity and the request data,warehouse
from where it should be shipped. Based on this, the scheduled ship dates are
also populated accordingly for each split line.
Once this is done, during the pick release process, we can specify up to which
schedule date /request date we want the lines to be released and then accordingly
the lines will be released.
10. What are line sets,ship sets, arrival set, fulfillment sets?
Line set is a generic term,which you specify at the order header level,
which can be a ship set, arrival set or fulfillment set.
If you specify a ship set,say 1, for a group of lines, then during pick
release we can release the lines based on that ship set number.
Also a line can belong to a ship set or arrival set,but not both.
13). What are backflush transactions ?
Backflush transactions are those WIP (workin process) transactions which pull
the inventory for the manufacturing operation. It is an issue (outgoing from
inventory) operation and not a receipt operation.
14) What are the examples of ShipOnly and InvoiceOnly orders.
Ship only orders are those where we just ship the item to the customer and do
not invoice them. Example of shiponly orders are demo items, and sample
items,which the customer uses and probably returns them after.
Invoice Only Orders are those where we just invoice the customer,but we do not
ship any item.Example of Invoiceonly order could be a subscription item
where we just invoice the customer for that month,but we donot ship
any item.
15) What are trips and stops and how they are related to deliveries.
A trip consists of atleast two stops, one the pick-up point and one a drop-off
point. When we ship confirm a delivery,a program called “Interface Trip Stop”
is automatically run which creates a trip stop and the delivery is assigned
to that trip.
16)What are the different kinds of Orders
Regular sales order, RMA, Drop ship, Internal Sales order.
17) What are the possible reasons the inventory quantity can be driven negative
for reservable items.
Usually when we pick release, a quantity is reserved and if there is not enough
quantity then the reservation does not happen, and the pick release will fail.
However after a successful reservation , when we come to the delivery lines,
we can change the shipped quantity on the delivery lines as well. If that shipped
qauntity is more than the requested quantity and if that quantity is more than
the available quantity, (and if negative quantities are allowed) then the
inventory quantity can be made negative. if negative quantities are allowed for
that inventory organization, then those records might be stuck in the inventory
interface.
18) Can we change an order after we book it ???
Yes, as long you dont violate any processing constraints.
19) What is the difference between Pick Release and Pick confirmation.
Pick release is the process that you do in Order Management which will create a
move order and it goes thru approval, allocation and transaction.
Pick Confirmation is an inventory operation which is basically transacting a
move order which results in a subinventory transfer of the material from the source
subinventory to staging subinventory.
Hence Pick Release will internally call pick confirmation process.
20) What is retroactive billing ??
21) what is shipping document set??
A shipping document set is a set of shipping documents,which you specify at the time
of ship confirm,so that Oracle shipping wil print all those documents. And they are
Bill of Lading => A receipt given by the carrier to the customer,acknowledging
the goods being shipped and specifying terms of delivery.
Waybill =>it is identical to Bill of Lading, but it is not a document of title.
Commercial Invoice=> prints all confirmed shipped item in a delivery along with value.
Mailing Label => address label showing where we are shipping.
Pack Slip => slip which shows the contents of the package.
Vehicle Load Sheet Summary =>specifies the loading sequence of items in a delivery.
Please note that the document set need not consist of all of the documents.
22) Is it possible to book an order with out any line items ? What would be the
business scenario for this kind of order ??
Yes.
23) What is packing slip ?
Let us say we have an order consisting of 10 items. A pack slip mentions all the
items. Basically it is just a confirmation from our side ,what we are shipping.
A bill of lading is a document from the carrier what we are shipping.
24) What is pick slip?
A pick slip is a document printed by the move order process in Inventory,which
tells what has been picked.
25) Does the order header close immediately after all the order lines are closed??
26)What is the backordered status in the delivery lines mean ?
The term “backorder” or “backordered” is a status,which means that during
pick release, that item is not having enough stock and hence the status of
the order line or shipping line changes to backorder. Please remember that
backordered is just a status, it does not initiate any kind of drop ship
process,to purchase that item from a supplier etc. To resolve this issue ,you
will have to manually do a receipt for that item and have enough quantity onhand.
27) What are the different modules which Order Management will interact with ?
Order Management interaacts with different modules based on different kinds
of items, pricing, type of shipping etc
Inventory (for pick release, shipconfirm)
Pricing,Advanced Pricing (for formula, attributes, qualifiers, modifiers)
Shipping Execution (shipping transactions ex delivery,trips,stops)
Manufacturing (for BOM Items, assemblies etc before/after booking process)
Purchasing (for drop ship, internal sales order, RMA receipts)
28) If aline is stuck at Shipped status, and is not closed, then what is the
difference between running Workflow Background Process in Inventory versus
Order management,coz running from Inventory is pushing to AR ?
29) Does Order Header close immediately once all the order lines statuses are closed?
No. The standard functionality of the Order header closed an order header at
the month end even if all the lines are closed in the middle of the month. So
even if we run the Workflow Background Process for Order Header, the status
will not change to Closed for the Order Header. However this does not stop
interfacing the lines to AR.
30) Can you explain the difference between the Subinventory Transfer,Move Order,
Inter-org Transfer And Internal Sales Order?
31) Explain the process of backorder during the ship confirm process.
We know that during the pick release process ,if there is not enough quantity
the delivery line status will automatically change to backordered. Now even
during the ship confirm, we can do a back order. During pick release the quantity
has moved from source to staging subinventory.
Sometimes we may not ship the entire quantity that is pick released. The business
reason for this could be that we need that material for some urgent or important
customers and hence we might partially ship the quantity. And this is done in
the following steps as follows.
— In the delivery line, the requested qty(say 100) and shipped qty is null. Let
us say we want to ship only 60 and not the remaining 40. So in the shipped qty
you enter 60, so the backordered quatity will be 40
— In the ship confirm window, in the unspecified quantities list box change it
to “Backorder”. Then the 60 will be shipped and the remaning 40 will need to be
pick released.
— Now come to the sales order and look at the lines, the original line will be
split into two lines one with 60 ,having status of shipped and one with 40 having
a status of “Awaiting shipping”.
— Do an explict subinventory transfer back from staging to source subinventory as
this will not happen automatically.
Hence understand the status “backordered” ,the quantity needs to be pick released
again.
32). what is the difference between bookings and revenue ?
typically revenue is referred to as current sales while booking is referred to
as the projected future revenue.
33) what is the difference between billing and invoicing ?
Billing is a generic term used for AR invoices, credit memos,debit memos etc,
while invoicing information specifically refers to AR invoices.
34) what is item conversion and customer conversion ?
Lets say we have Oracle ERP A and ERP B and we are trying to convert items
from A to B. Then, when you bring an item X from A to B system, then that
id/code will be preserved.
The other option is to create corresponding new items in system B for each
item in system A and then try to reference the items from system A.
35) What is customer conversion and how does it affect order management ?
Basically when we are integrating two systems, then we need to bring in the
customers of one system to another,so we can transact in the new system
i.e we can create orders.
Hence if we are bringing open orders from system A to B, then we need to
do the item/customer conversion, because the open orders in the new system
will be referring to the old item numbers or customer numbers. For new
orders, that means the orders themselves are created in the new system.
36) what is business alignment ?
Business alignment is basically business aligning with IT. For ex, IT might
implement a new version of oracle ERP with new features ,then the business
should agree to the change and be able to adapt to the changes.
37). What is a Managed Service Point :
Means some company XYZ takes care of a particular functionality (like billing
invoice,check printing) in some other company ,say like Cisco. And for this
service, cisco pays them a flat usually monthly payment. Usually the managed
services provider works remotely from the company i.e managed services offerer.
38). What are the checklist of items that happen while booking the order ?
Scheduling,
Credit check,
Checking Hold if they exists,
Repricing,
Process Price adjustments (apply modifiers),
Payments (Authorization of credit cards)
Sales credit verified,
Constraints are validated,
System parameters are validated,
tax calculation,
Configuration Validation,
Workflow progress based on the type of order,
Shipping data are populated,
IB(Install Base), CZ(Configurator) are populated.
39). How do you fulfill the software Orders versus tangible item orders ?
For tangible items orders, fulfilment is shipping the order; and the IB instances are
created once the item is shipped. For software orders; the two ways of fulfillment are
Ship the cd box or fulfill it online (by downloading etc);
If it is fulfilled online, the IB instance is immediately created with out the serial number;
And once the product is shipped, that is when the IB instance can be updated
with the right serial#.(you cant put a serial# on the box).
40). How do you ship the orders which you frequently ship the items together ?
For ex, let us say you very frequently ship the order consisiting of one cd, one hardware
token and one user manual. Then it makes sense to group them into a BOM(bill of material)
Kit. That is a BOM of the type of Kit. A kit is a group of components,but a kit itself is not
shippable although the component items are shippable. Also ensure that the on hand exists
for all the component items so the pick release/ship confirm will not fail.
41). what is defer interface (at ship confirm) in order management ?
Basically at the time of ship confirmation, if the Defer interface is checked/enabled
then the Interface Trip Stop program is not run. If the Defer interface is not
checked/enabled then the Interface Trip Stop program is run. The interface trip stop
program basically updates the inventory,reduces the on hand quantity and also updates
the order lines status to closed from shipped.
42). At what point of time the onhand quantity gets decremented ?
So once the ship confirm completes and if the defer interface is not set, that is when the
inventory interface happens and the onhand quantity is decremented to reflect the
correct status in inventory.
43). Once the order is shipped, how can we see the delivery lines ?
Once the order is shipped, we can pull up that order in the shipping transactions find form,
by selecting null from the line status field.
We can also run the report like “Shipped Delivery Lines report” and provide the order number to
see the delivery# details etc.
Shipping => Interfaces => Run => Shipped Delivery Lines report
44) Profile option for seeing the output file ?
The profile option to see the output file and the log file is starting with “Viewer%”
45). you can have an item which is not inventory item, but it could be a customer orderable item?
Yes. for ex, service item, which are not inventory items (because they are not stockable/shippable) however a customer can order the service item.
46). What are the different scenarios of ordering service from OM ?
Consider these situations :
You can order service from OM for an item
which the customer has on the same order
This is a simple case.
the customer already owns the item,
Then you should know that order number,line#,shipment#,date of service start. Done on the service tab.
or the item should be there in Oracle installed base.
Then you should know the item instance# or item serial number,called reference number in the form. And if the item does
not exist in the Installedbase,then you should create it manually.
47). where do you define a fulfillment flow. ??
Each order type will have a workflow for header/line attached to it and the order lines
will flow those steps.
48). Does defer interface defer OM/AR interface ?
No the defer Interface is basically defers the shipping module writing the status
back to the OM/inventory interface. However only after this writeback(interface trip stop
program completion), the line status at the order level changes from shipped to closed and
at the shipping line status changes from closed to Interfaced.
And only after the Orderline status is closed, it can be interfaced to AR(if it is an invoicable
item).
49). How do you fulfill a service item order ???
Lets us say there is a consulting service order. Usually these kinds of orders
are fulfilled after the serviced is delivered. the regular orders as fulfilled
once the item is shipped.while these orders are fulfilled once the service is
performed and the timesheet is filled,approved the appropriate authority and sent over.
50). Why is that in OM, once a sales order is created for a customer, a credit hold is
automatically applied?
It may or may not be. It is decided by the workflow process.
51). I understand that BOM’s should be defined if the warranty has to be automatically
created upon purchase of a product. What if the customer does not implement BOM?
When you purchase OM, the basic functionality of BOM is provided by default.
52). Does the workflow background process need to be run with deferred processes yes?
Yes to clear the waiting processes,if any.
53). Can the delivery lines in Shipping module be sourced from Other modules than OM?
The sources for the delivery lines are Order Management,Project Contracts and Shipping.
54). What is credit managment module and what is its functionality ?
Credit Management is a separate module which basically checks whether the customer
credit is in good holding and if not,it will put the customer order on hold.
Credit management can be hooked up to the OM/AR/Collections as different touch points.
(just like ipayments module).
55). Is a move order created for a non-reservable items ?
No, when you created a non-reservable item and pick release a sales order for that item,
then there will not be a move order and hence there will not be a reservation or
the item movement from the current subinventory to the staging inventory.So the item
stays in the place where it is currently. This is said to be looser inventory control.
55 a).What is the difference between pick releasing a Reservable Item versus
Non-reservable Item?
Usually the inventory items are by default reservable and when an order with
a reservable item is pick released , then during the allocation and transaction
process, the material reservation is made and move order is transacted.
However when a order with a non-reservable item is pick released, then during
during the pick release process,then there is no allocation required.
56) What are the conditions under which the inventory quantity can be driven
negative(for non-reservable items)?
Usually when the items are non-reservable, then the pick release process will
not check for the item quantity and there is no reservation involved. Hence
when you shipconfirm ,there is a chance that sufficient quantity might not be
there to ship.
So if there is insufficient quantity in an inventory organization ,&
if negative quantities are allowed in that organization , &
if the item and subinventory both are reservable (if an item is reservable
but a subinventory is not, the item quantity in that subinventory is not
reservable),
Then if the above conditions are satisifed, the inventory quantity can be
driven negative.
57). What are the consequences of allowing /disallowing negative balances in inventory?
If you do not allow negative balances in your inventory it will block any shipment
(delivery) where a line is shipping more than the quantity available in inventory.
The error is generally human. You accidentally enter a larger Ship Quantity than you picked.
The whole delivery will be stuck in the Inventory Open Interface.
To solve the problem either go through the entire delivery and find out which line
was overshipped. Then move the required quantity to the staging area and resubmit
all the lines in the Inventory Open Interface. Now run the Interface Trip Stop – SRS
in Order Management. This should do the trick.
Otherwise, allow negative balances in your inventory. And resubmit etc. When the
delivery has been processed there will be a negative balance in the staging area.
Research onthis. if the shipped quantity is more than the requested quantity for the reservable vs non reservable items
do a copmlete flow on this. ??
58). How to create a Manual Delivery in OM ?
Navigate to Shipping Transaction Form
Ensure that radio button is on deliveries in the top right corner (ie in “Search For” region)
Click On find button (You can enter a few criteria to make the search faster)
Once the results screen opens, click on the general create button green “+” icon at
the top left menu.
It will create a new record. Enter all required details and save.
Now you can come to the shipping trx form ,find delivery lines for a sales order and
assign the manually created delivery above to these delivery lines.
This can be understood in the way that when we create a customer, the first thing
that comes up is the customer search screen,so that we can find existing customers,so
that there are no duplicate customer entries.
59). what is the difference betweeen manual delivery vs automatic delivery ?
Actually the difference is when you are creating Automatically, the system will
create one delivery for the lines involved but if you want to do it your way i.e.
either club deliveries or may be have a delivery for each line seperately then it’s of use.
To my knowledge if you don’t have a seperate Trip Planning or Delivery Planning department
it should be left to create aumoatically as you won’t be getting benefited much by that.
59). How do you fulfil an RMA order?
Standard tangible orders(with tangible items) are fulfilled by physically shipping those
items. However return orders(like return only, rma only, rma with credit etc) are fulfilled
after we receive that item into the inventory. So the steps would be
– First book the rma order and note that order #.
– then go to purchasing/receipts and in the customer tab, receive that item
into inventory. check to see if the onhand has increased,ensure that the
receving transaction processor is running.
60). What are the steps involved in shipping of an ATO Item ?
For ATO model you cannot ship the item immediately after booking. Please
find the following steps.
Click the actions button and select progress order. This will run a concurrent
program called autocreate final assembly. If you see the output of the
request you will get the job no.
Query the job in discrete job window and check whether it is released.
If not release it.
Transact the job in move transaction form.
Complete the job
Now query your sale order and check the line status. It will be Awaiting
Shipping.
Now you can ship the order.
61). What is lead time ?
The generic lead time definition suggests it is the amount of time between the
placing of an order and the receipt of the goods ordered.
Usually we can see it as the time difference. So we can have different kinds of
lead times like Transit lead time & Delivery Lead Time etc.
62). What is the difference between Operating Unit Id and Inventory Org id?
As mentioned before, usually whenever we are dealing with org id’s in the
Purchasing,OM, we are referring to the operating unit id, while in the
inventory we are referring to the inventory org id.Now when we enter lines
in OM, we choose an inventory item id. Now this inventory item is corresponding
to the inventory organization id that is specified in the Warehouse id.
Actually the warehouse id corresponds to the Inventory Organization Id.
Incidentally the warehouse id is present both at the header level as well
as the line level. Also we can even mention what is the subinventory from
which this item should come at the order line level.
So what this effectively means is that we can place sales orders having
two lines corresponding to the two different inventory organization ids as the
warehouse id is present also at the line level.
63). What are defaulting rules in Order Management ?
Generally while we are creating an order online/offline, certain information
defaults based on the defaulting rules. these defaulting rules can be defined from the
setup => rules => defaulting.
One important point to note here is that when we create a default rule for each
attribute, we mention what is called the default sourcing rules. Here we specify
the sequence in which this attribute will be sourcing. An an ex, consider
a bill to attribute, we specify the sequence as
shipto. billto
customer.billto
blanketheader.billto
agreement.billto.
which means if the shipto entity does not have the billto info,then it goes
to the customer and gets the billto, and if it does not find there to
it goes to blanketheader and gets it etc.
64). Explain the terms, Manufacturer, distributor,reseller, retailer?
A Manufacturer manufactures or produces the goods etc.
A Distributor buys the goods from the Manufacturer, stocks them and sells them
to the resellers or retailers(although he may not stock them sometimes).
Reseller(also called Value Added Resellers,VAR’s) will get the goods from a distributor
and sells it to the consumers. Remember they add value,rather than just selling like
that. For ex; they buy a computer and they can add a one year ext warranty for that
for a price and then sell it.
Retailer is also a reseller,however they usually dont add value,they just sell like that.
64a). What is the difference in buy-stock-sell vs sell-source-ship model?
The traditional model of buy-stock-sell is distributors will buy goods, stock and sell
them; in this model the lead time for the order fulfilment is very less.
The new model is sell-source-ship ,where we take the order and source those orders
from an external supplier (at that point of time) and then ship, here the lead time
is more,however it results in cost savings. This is typically the drop ship model.
65). How does the receiving system recognize the difference between receipt of a regular PO
versus drop ship PO???? i.e what is that specific flag that recognizes the difference ?
I believe when an order line is marked as with source type “External”, then it make
an entry into a drop ship sources store(i.e oe_drop ship sources which stores the
order header and line id info).
And when the receiving system looks for a PO, it looks in this table if it is a drop
ship PO, and if it is then it does a logical receipt of the goods.
66). What is the logical receipt of goods in the system?
The logical receipt means the onhand quantity does not go up in the inventory. Basically
the system increments and decrement in one transaction and onhand remains same. This happens
in the case of drop ship PO receipt of goods.
67).How do you do a drop ship order across operating units i.e you create an drop ship
order in US to ship a product from an australia supplier to your australia customer?
Basically cross OU/ledger functionality is available only in R12 and not in 11i.
The only difference is a couple of steps
First, set the receiving or in the sales order line as cross OU,receiving org.
second, receive the PO in the desitination OU/ledger and follow the same stepsfrom thereon.
Third, intercompany transactions for this transfer.
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Thanks.