Workflow in Oracle Shipping Execution (R12 New feature)

Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) R12 introduced a significant shift in the Shipping Execution (WSH) module by utilizing the Oracle Workflow engine. This transition from static code to a workflow-driven process allows for greater visibility and automation across the outbound fulfillment cycle

Why Enable Shipping Workflows?

Integrating workflows into your shipping process provides several enterprise-level advantages:

• Process Automation: Automate standard shipping business processes and route activities based on specific business rules.

• Enhanced Visibility: Use the Workflow Monitor to visualize the shipping process in real-time, providing an audit trail of all activities.

• Proactive Notifications: Automatically notify users of critical events, such as backordered deliveries or high-value shipments.

• Seamless Integration: Easily integrate 3rd-party APIs or custom activities, such as automated document printing, at specific points in the flow.

The Three Core Shipping Workflows

In R12, Oracle provides three primary seeded workflows:

1. Delivery Workflow: Triggered as soon as an order line requiring picking is assigned to a delivery. It manages activities from "Pick Initiated" through the "Ship-To-Delivery" subprocess.

2. Trip Workflow: Manages the high-level trip process, including "Set In Transit" and "Close" activities.

3. Ship-To-Delivery Workflow: Specifically models the Ship Confirm process. This is a subprocess of the Delivery workflow but can be managed and extended independentl

   Note :Order Line workflows and Shipping workflows operate independently; you cannot drill down from one into the other

These workflow shows the High-level overview of the delivery and Trip process and can be accessible from

•  Shipping Transaction Form
•  Quick ship user Interface. 

Other Advantage that we always expect from the Oracle Corp. is this workflow is optional, if you business need them enable them other wise keep them disable. With out Workflow your application behaves just like the previous releases.

Limitations - Some of the limitation of shipping workflow as of now are – As of now this workflow is subject to limited extensions

• You can’t add an activity in this workflow that required response from user.
• Extension of a workflow Defer activity not supported in this workflow.
• These workflows are available for Individual delivery .

Purging - Oracle has provide program to purge the Obsolete workflows, also Shipping has it’s own program to purge workflow that are obsolete or delivery is already closed.

  

Delivery Workflow :Delivery Workflow has following Activities 

1. Start
2. Pick Initiated
3. Ship-To-Delivery (Sub process for Ship Conform).
4. End.

 Please Note that Shipping workflow as of now available for outbound activities .

Delivery Workflow Triggering Events

This workflow will triggered as soon as an order line required picking is assign to a delivery.

Trip Workflow

  

It has following activities

1. Open
2. Set in Transit 
3. Close

Please Note that Order line and Shipping workflow are 2 different things and not related to each other and it is not possible to drill down one flow from another.

Shipping Workflow – It got triggered when a Delivery got created and First delivery assigned to it. 

Ship To Delivery Workflow -

This workflow models the Ship Confirm Process, one of advantages of Ship Confirm workflow Process is, it supports extensions

As stated earlier advantages of the Oracle is everything is pick and choose , you can enable /disable this workflow as per your requirement , If you don’t want this workflow , just disable It.

That means if you are interested in the Delivery and Trip workflow and you don’t want Ship Confirm (Ship To Delivery) flow you can just disable the Ship Confirm flow and keep other flow.

Business Events

Shipping workflow has introduced lots of the business events, which when raised/received take the required actions (like calling of other workflows etc). These too again are optional and can be enable / disabled. If we look closely all these workflow , we can notice that we have lots of business events in all the flows.

Please note that once we select any type of the workflow

1. Delivery

2. Trip
3. Ship –To-Delivery

Some of events become core and system will not allow us to disable them. It is the business events that made the shipping flow flexible and we pick and choose what ever we like.

Shipping workflow Setup

Shipping flow can be setup by means of Selecting the workflow from the  

• Global Parameters
• Shipping parameters

  Global Parameters

 
 
Shipping Parameters

Shipping Parameters will do the setup only for the Organization level, where as Global Parameter will do the setup at the Application level. Auto Sync between Global and Shipping parameters has been provided.

Customer can customized any shipping workflow. Please do not customize/extend the Seeded workflow, rather take a copy of seed workflow as extend as per your requirement. Shipping has provided Lookup setup to assign your custom workflow. We have flexibility to assign custom workflow to all or few of the organizations.

  

Profile options

Override Ship To Deliver Workflow – Oracle is Provide this profile option and if mark Yes this will Process the Ship Confirm workflow , In case it got stuck because of some Technical reason.

Best Practices for Customization

While these workflows are highly flexible, there are specific constraints to keep in mind:

• Do Not Modify Seeded Workflows: Always create a copy of the seeded workflow and use the provided Lookup setup to assign your custom version to specific organizations.

• Avoid User-Response Activities: Shipping workflows currently do not support activities that require a direct response from a user.

• Maintenance: Utilize the standard Oracle purging programs, alongside Shipping-specific programs, to clear obsolete workflows and maintain system performance.

• Troubleshooting: If a Ship Confirm process becomes stuck due to technical issues, use the profile option "Override Ship To Deliver Workflow" to force processing

Need help with EBS Forms/Reports/Workflow/Interface? Contact Bizinsight Cosulting Inc at 

Eamil us : inquiry@bizinsightinc.com

https://www.bizinsightinc.com/

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