Introduction

SCM

SCM stands for Supply Chain Management and deals with the management of
materials, information, and financial flows in a network consisting of suppliers,
manufacturers, distributors, and customers.

Supply chains include a company’s entire manufacturing and distribution process. They
involve every step of the production from planning to manufacturing to handling
defective goods. The overall goal of these chains is to keep the process running
smoothly at all times and to keep all of the components (i. e. vendors, warehouses,
etc.) connected.

Transportation
Transportation is often a company's most over-looked and under-scrutinized cost area.
Generally transportation is the biggest segment of overall logistics costs for
company/shippers.

Today's shippers are facing more cost and service pressures than ever before because
of rising fuel costs, tight carrier capacity, new hours of service rules and a customer
base that continues to consolidate and demand more challenging "perfect order"
fulfillment service levels. So it is the critical time to focus on performance in your
transportation operations.

Key Drivers in Transportation

a. Time
i. Time sensitive
ii. How long to move the Freight.

b. Space

i. Distance to travel (Geography)

c. Product

i. Characteristics
 Density (Weight & Volume)
 Equipment required.
ii. Value

d. Cost

TMS

TMS stands for Transportation Management System. Due to the transportation issue
and its importance the TMS plays a greater role in SCM. TMS manages all type of
operations: like from shippers to consignee, Service provider, 3PL, moving companies,
transportation rental agencies, etc.

This also manages every aspect of vehicle maintenance, fuel costing, routing and
mapping, warehousing, communications, EDI implementations, traveler and cargo
handling, carrier selection and management, accounting etc.
 3PL

3PL stands for Third Party Logistic Provider. 3PLs are independent logistics companies
but can be linked to particular companies as a support. Third party logistics are those
entities that specialize in activities (such as pick and pack, warehousing, and
distribution etc.) which smoothen the running of the supply chain management and
provide a wide selection of services, value-adding services and even global logistics.

OTM
a. Stands for Oracle Transportation Management.
b. Initially it was GC3 (Global Command & Control Center) developed by G-log
(Global logistics), later (in November 2005) Oracle acquired the G-log and
renamed GC3 as OTM.
c. Oracle Transportation Management tool delivers robust transportation planning
and execution capabilities to shippers and third party logistics providers. It
integrates and streamlines transportation planning, execution, freight payment,
and business process automation on a single application across all modes of
transportation, from full truckload to complex multi- leg air, ocean, and rail
shipments.
d. Oracle Transportation Management tool lowers transportation costs, improves
customer service and asset utilization, and provides flexible, global fulfillment
options.

e. Oracle Transportation Management (OTM), a global transportation and logistics

operations system, allows companies to minimize cost, optimize service levels,
support sustainability initiatives, and create flexible business process automation
within their transportation and logistics networks. Specifically designed to support
the needs of both shippers and Logistics Service Providers (LSPs), OTM’s unique
single-platform design creates an information bridge across functional silos,
geographic regions, languages, currencies, and business units. Carefully combining
ease of use with sophisticated and broad logistics functionality, OTM supports
customers with basic transportation needs as well as those with highly complex
logistics requirements.

Modes of Transportation
Different modes of transportation used in OTM are

a. Air
b. Truck
 Truck Load
 Less Than Truck Load
c. Ocean
d. Rail
e. Intermodal Or Multi-Modal
 Air
This is one of the modes for movement of cargo by aircraft such as airplanes and
helicopters. Air transportation has become the primary means of common-carrier
traveling. Greatest efficiency and value are obtained when long distances are traveled,
high-value payloads are moved, immediate needs must be met, or surface terrain
prevents easy movement or significantly raises transport costs. Although the time and
cost efficiencies obtained decrease as distance traveled is reduced, air transport is
often worthwhile even for relatively short distances. Air transportation also provides a
communication link, which is sometimes vital, between the different groups of people
being served.

Equipments used for the same are:

i. Planes

 Cargo
 Passenger

ii. Inside Plane

 Cookie Sheet
 Utilized Loading device (ULD)

Cookie Sheets are the type of covers which are used to consolidate the freight by neatly
sewing and sent through air cargo.

Cookie
Sheet

ULD is an enclosed metal container of various sizes used by airlines for loading cargo. Aircraft
carry containers known as cans or igloos. The official name is ULD (unit loading device). This
enables cargo from one origin going to a particular destination to be loaded into a can for that
specific destination. Charter or all cargo flights carry ULD.

ULD of different size

Truck
Truck Load (TL)

Truckload is the movement of large amounts of homogeneous cargo, generally the amount
necessary to fill an entire trailer or intermodal container. A truckload carrier is a trucking
company that generally contracts an entire trailer-load to a single customer. This typically
refers to shipments more than 40 linear feet that requires the full use of a trailer.

Less-than-Truck Load (LTL)

This is a shipment that does not fill an entire truckload. Specialized carriers provide service
exclusively for this type of shipment. These providers’ services are priced by weight, density,
value and ease of handling in combination with distance. Pricing is calculated based on cents
per hundredweight rating. They also consider volumetric pricing, or dimensional weight
pricing, if a commodity's density is the issue.

Ocean
Large cargo ships and barges are commonly used to carry goods across water. It is usually
used to transport large items like cars, big containers and etc. Ocean transportation
is a cheaper way in transporting goods compared to air transportation.
It can be further divided as:-
 Liner Service(Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to
as liners)
 Ocean going carrier
 Sails on regularly published schedules

Different kinds of ocean vessels are:-

 Container – unitized
 RoRo – Roll On, Roll Off

Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are vessels designed to

carry wheeled cargo such as automobiles, trucks, semi-trailer
trucks, trailers or railroad cars that are driven on and off the ship
on their own wheels.
  LoLo – Lift On, Lift Off

Lo-lo (lift on-lift off) vessels which use a crane to load and
unload cargo
 Container Types
 Hard top, Soft Top, Insulated, Flat
 Bulk - Loose cargo or machinery
 Stowage – cargo tied down for safety and efficiency
 Combination
 Tanker – chemical or petroleum

Rail
Another commonly used ground transport around the world is trains. It can consist of a single
or multiple connected rail vehicles which are able to be interconnected and move together along
a railway system.

 Trains can transport goods between stations where distance can vary from under 1
kilometer to much more.
 It is also used as freight trains to carry goods in bulk over long distances.

Transporting good via freight train is highly economical and energy efficient when transporting
long distances.
 Intermodal or Multi-Modal
Multi modal or intermodal means more than one mode of transportation (road, rail, sea, air,
etc.) to move goods or people between an origin and destination are being used. An airport
with automobile parking and rail or bus connections is a good example of a multimodal facility.

 Transportation by more than one mode

 Usually Multi-Leg Shipments
 Truck – rail - truck
 Rail – vessel – truck

System Architecture of OTM

Oracle Transportation Management is built for interactive environments that leverage the
Internet as an information backbone to capture reference data such as updates to carriers,
carrier rates, shipping schedules, locations, ports, and other logistics sources. The underlying
architecture is a unique multi enterprise data model with n-tier web and application servers,
partitioned database server, native XML language, extensible style sheets, advanced data
security, and optimal caching.

Oracle Transportation Management is highly distributed and collaborative. It is written in Java

and uses Enterprise Java Beans, XML, HTML, and XSL technologies. The design is based on a
thin HTML client application architecture so that applications are easily deployable and
accessible by multiple enterprises. It supports comprehensive integration via XML APIs to all of
the application logic.

The tiers in OTM architecture are:

 Web Client
 Web Server
 Application Server
 Database Server
 Report Server
Web client
\
 The web client is generally the User Interface to interact with any web application. The
different flavors are: Internet explorer, Fire fox etc.

Web Server
 The Web server controls the OTM user interface and communicates with the
Application server to initiate the appropriate application logic.
 The OTM user interface is delivered to the user in HTML format and viewed using a
browser such as the Internet Explorer
 Represents Presentation Layer. Provides client side validations and holds all
presentation objects like JSp, XSL, XML, Scripts apart from Servlets
 Different web servers are: Apache Tomcat, IIS, and Netscape/Sun One/Sun.

Application Server
 The Application Server controls the application logic and communicates that logic
between the Web server and the database.
 EJBs are deployed in application server
 Represents business logic. Contains all EJB’s that form the business logic. It provides
transaction Management, Security, JNDI etc.
 Different app servers are: JBoss, Web logic (BEA), Oracle, Web Sphere (IBM), Tomcat
(Apache), JRun (Adobe) etc...

Database Server
 The Database server is the central repository for all the data entered in OTM.
 The Database server communicates with the Application server to deliver the
appropriate data to the user based on the OTM application logic.
 Database layer and persists the Data.
 Example like: Oracle 9i/10g

Report Server
 The report server is the central component of a Reporting Services installation. It
consists of a pair of core processors plus a collection of special-purpose extensions
that handle authentication, data processing, rendering, and delivery operations.
Processors are the hub of the report server. The processors support the integrity of
the reporting system and cannot be modified or extended. Extensions are also
processors, but they perform very specific functions. Reporting Services includes one
or more default extensions for every type of extension that is supported.
 The report server is mainly meant for To execute the Reports in OTM
 For example: Oracle 10g.
OTM -Database Schemas
OTM Data Base Schemas contains the following sections

• Schema
• User Types in OTM
• OTM Schema Users
• Sql*backdoor
• Domain
• VPD
• Naming conventions for Custom DB Objects
• Data Model * Data Dictionary

Schema
• A schema is a collection of database objects.
• A schema is owned by a database user and has the same name as that user.
• Schema objects are logical structures created by users to contain, or reference, their
data. Schema objects include structures like tables, views, indexes etc.

User Types in OTM

There may be multiple application users in the OTM application, however, OTM logs in as a
single database user – glogdba.

Application Users

 Logging onto the OTM application

 Authenticated by the app. Server
 Not known to the Database Server

Database Users

 User logging to the Database

 Not same as application user
 Also known as schema user

OTM Schema Users

Glogowner

 This user owns OTM tables, Views, Functions, Procedures and Packages
 Can create or alter data structure with in the database
 Can manipulate data

Report Owner

 This user owns the tables, views , functions, packages required for reporting
 Can read data
 Glogdba

 This user has access to the functions and packages owned by glogowner,
reportowner.
 Doesn’t own any tables, views, functions or packages
 Must call VPD.SET_USER stored procedure to set user context to view data

Archive

 This user owns the _DMP tables used for archiving the data

Domain
 A domain is a virtual protected data area within the OTM database
 Domains share tables in the database but each domain 'owns' the rows within the
table
 Domains are usually created based on the business requirements
 By default, a domain user has read access to PUBLIC data and read/write access only
to data within his domain
 Every OTM user has a default role, and every role has a VPD profile which indicates
the domain for that user
 Sub-Domains offer a convenient way to model a top-down hierarchy typical of
divisions within a larger business
 Users in the parent (say HQ) domain have implied access to the sub-domains, but the
reverse is not true
 No explicit grants are required in order for the parent domain to access the child
domain

VPD
• It stands for Virtual Private Database.
• VPD plays a role in every database call.
• Oracle automatically applies filter to each select statement, and rules to insert/update
statements.
• Oracle “calls-out” to PL/SQL procedure to get the “VPD filter”
• VPD filter is any legal where-clause fragment
• When you log into DBA domain, VPD is turned off so you can access all data
 Domain Rule = By Default, a domain user can only access data in his domain’s PUBLIC
DATA and Data in sub-domains.

What is different about DBA.ADMIN?

• When user logs in to OTM as DBA.ADMIN there is no VPD filter, so user will be able
to see all rows

Performance Impact of VPD

• Do an “explain plan” on a sql statement to determine the performance impact of VPD
• Notice the “extra work” that Oracle has to do to enforce your data security rules
• The moral is “extra security costs extra”
Naming conventions for Custom DB Objects
 Names of the custom tables starts with ‘HP_’
 Ex: HP_UKIS_RETURNS_REPORT, HP_PO
 Temporary tables will contain ‘_TMP’ the end
 Ex: PCR_221108_TMP
 Table related data Archival contain name ‘_DMP’ at the end
 Ex: SHIP_UNIT_DMP, SKU_DMP, OB_TEXT_DMP
 All of the packages which as are populating the data into Custom tables will have
name starting with ‘PKG_HP_’
Ex: pkg_HP_depot_booking, pkg_HP_report, pkg_HP_amendment_repor etc

Data Model Concepts

Attribute

 A single data item related to a database object. The database schema associates one
or more attributes with each database entity.

 The customer's name, address, city, balance, etc. are attributes that help identify the
customer. An invoice's attributes might be price, number, date, paid/unpaid, etc.

Primary Key
 The primary key of a relational table uniquely identifies each record in the table. It can
either be a normal attribute that is guaranteed to be unique (such as Social Security
Number in a table with no more than one record per person) or it can be generated by
the DBMS (such as a globally unique identifier, or GUID, in Microsoft SQL Server).
Primary keys may consist of a single attribute or multiple attributes in combination.

Examples:
 Imagine we have a STUDENTS table that contains a record for each student at a
university. The student's unique student ID number would be a good choice for a
primary key in the STUDENTS table. The student's first and last name would not be a
good choice, as there is always the chance that more than one student might have the
same name.

Foreign Key
 A foreign key (sometimes called a referencing key) is a key used to link two tables
together. Typically you take the primary key field from one table and insert it into the
other table where it becomes a foreign key (it remains a primary key in the original
table).
 More complicated but fuller explanation:
Employee Table

EmployeeID (PK) FirstName LastName Department Manager

001 Stan Smithers IT Support Stan Smithers
002 Joe Bloggs Sales Joe Bloggs
003 Mark Richards Sales Joe Bloggs
004 Jenny Lane Marketing Jenny Lane
005 Sally Holmes Sales Joe Bloggs
006 John Lee IT Support Stan Smithers

 A primary key is the field(s) (a primary key can be made up of more than one field)
that uniquely identifies each record, i.e. the primary key is unique for each record and
the value is never duplicated in the same table, so in the above table the EmployeeID
field would be used. A constraint is a rule that defines what data is valid for a given
field. So a primary key constraint is a rule that says that the primary key fields cannot
be null and cannot contain duplicate data.
 The problem with the above table is that you have repeating information in the
manager field, this causes all sorts of problems, e.g. Fred Bloggs leaves and Jenny
Smith becomes sales manager, you now have to replace all entries that say Fred
Bloggs with Jenny Smith.
 If however you split the last two fields out to make a department table you would only
need one entry for each department, when a manager changes you only need to make
the change in one place, if you setup a primary key of DeptID in the department table
you would have the following.

Department Table

DeptID (PK) Department Manager

01 IT Support Stan Smithers
02 Sales Joe Bloggs
03 Marketing Jenny Lane

Employee Table

EmployeeID (PK) FirstName LastName

001 Stan Smithers
002 Joe Bloggs
003 Mark Richards
004 Jenny Lane
005 Sally Holmes
006 John Lee

 You now need to link the two table together so you know which department each
employee is in, so what you do is take the primary key from the department table and
 insert it into the employee table (where it becomes a foreign key as a foreign key is
the primary key from one table inserted into another table to link them).


Employee Table

EmployeeID (PK) FirstName LastName DeptID (FK)

001 Stan Smithers 01
002 Joe Bloggs 02
003 Mark Richards 02
004 Jenny Lane 03
005 Sally Holmes 02
006 John Lee 01

What is Shipment?
Cargo transported under the terms of a single bill of lading or air waybill, irrespective of the
quantity or number of containers, packages, or pieces. It is also called as consignment.

Direct shipment

The manufacturer ships directly from the manufacturing plant to the retailer without
using a distribution centre or a warehouse. The approach appears reasonable as it
apparently would reduce costs associated with warehousing or intermediate
distribution centers. The time related to order processing will also be reduced when
goods are shipped directly to retail stores.

Suppliers Retail Stores

Shipments
A
E

B F

C G

Multi Stop Shipment

 Where different shipments are scheduled to be delivered to different locations and the
delivery centers/locations are at close proximity to each other, the service provider
makes them together as a truck load and starts the shipment and he goes on
delivering in the different location. Here orders can be consolidated on one piece of
equipment. Even better synergies can be achieved through optimization of Reverse
logistics operations i.e. planning for customer returns on existing line haul
movements.

Suppliers
Shipments
Retail Stores
A E

Shipments

E
E Shipments

Multi modal Shipment (Multi leg shipment)

A multimodal transport operator is one who arranges for the dispatch of goods from
the seller’s warehouse to the buyer’s warehouse and this journey may involve two
modes of transport: by truck from the warehouse of the seller to the shipping port
then by ship to the destination port and by truck to the buyer’s warehouse. There is,
here, more than one mode of transport and therefore the term multimodal transport is
used to describe it. A multimodal transport operator is responsible for the entire
carriage and takes on contractual responsibility for the whole journey from the seller’s
warehouse to the buyer’s warehouse.

Consolidation/Deconsolidation
Cargo shipping method in which a freight forwarder at the port of origin combines
several individual consignments to make up a full container load. This arrangement
 allows the goods to be shipped as containerized-cargo that offers greater security at
lower shipping rates. At the port of destination, the consolidated shipment is separated
(deconsolidated or degrouped) back into the original individual consignments for
delivery to their respective consignees, also called grouped shipment.

Separating a 'consolidated' (usually containerized) shipment into its original

constituent shipments, for delivery to their respective consignees, is called as
deconsolidation or also sometimes known as degroupage.

For example let say I have to send some 300kg of Rice from city A, 200kg of spices
from city B and 150kg of dal from city C. These all are LTL. We can consolidate them
in a center place called consolidation hub. All can be transported in a truck which will
become a TL, to a deconsolidation hub and then again we can distribute them to the
location D, E & F through LTL.

D
A
Rice in LTL Rice in LTL
Cons TL Deco Spices
Spices olida nsolid
in LTL E
tion ation
B
HUB HUB
Dal in LTL
Dal in LTL
C F

Milk Run

Basically a milk run consists of a pickup and/or delivery route where several stops are
made. Usually it refers to a regularly run route, but it may also refer to a one-time run
where several stops are made. Some consider a milk run to mean a route where
shipments are delivered and inbound materials picked up in the same run.

Suppliers Retail Stores

Shipments
A
E

B F

C G
Cross Docking
The concept of cross docking is built on utilizing the economies of scale in
transportation without raising the level of inventory at any intermediate stage. When a
plant or supplier receives orders from a single retailer but the size does not allow
direct shipment to that retailer, cross docking perhaps is the best alternative as the
response time to order is not significantly affected; and similarly there is no adverse
effect on the level of inventory. In fact, for the particular commodity, the warehouse is
nothing more than a transfer point.

In technical terms cross docking covers any distribution method that avoids putting
product into storage before sending it on to retail stores or other outlets. Instead, the
goods move from the receiving dock to the shipping dock, or are held in a temporary
staging area before moving to the outbound dock (Harrington 1993). Cross docking
makes two of the four warehousing functions, storage and order picking, redundant.

A cross dock is a transshipment facility at which trucks arrive with goods that must be
sorted, consolidated with other products, and loaded onto outbound trucks bound for a
retailer.
Requirements to build a shipment
1. What

 Item
 Packaged Item
 Packaging Unit
 Transport Handling Unit
 Ship Unit
 Commodity

2. Where

 Location

3. How

 Itinerary
 Equipment

4. Timeline

 Rate Service

5. Cost

 Rate Offering
 Rate Record

6. Who

 Service Provider

7. Notification

 By Contact
 EDI
 Email
 Fax
 FTP
 HTTPPOST
 Service
 Manual
 Message Center
 Queue
 IVR
 SMS
 BPEL

What
Item
 Items are things that you manufacture and sell such as chemicals, finished goods, raw
materials, and parts. You can create an inventory of items that you typically ship from
one destination to another. Once items are defined, they can be used on orders based
on bulk data or any order base or order release. An item is the lowest level of detail
that you can describe on an order. It identifies the specific goods or materials that you
are shipping.

You can create an item by adding each item individually, or you can import your entire
item master from an external system via integration. Once the item is imported, you
can make modifications to the data or add new items as necessary. You can also
create a packaged item and specify details on how the item is packaged and handled
so it can be stored and transported properly.

Packaging Unit

Packaging unit is a shippable unit of packaged items.

Transport Handling Unit

Transport handling unit is a platform that helps handle the goods while in transport.

Commodity

Defining a Commodity is a way of grouping items together that has something in

common, which is generally used for assigning equipment. For example, you could
have a commodity called Frozen Vegetables, and in that commodity have Peas, Corn,
Broccoli, and Cauliflower. Since OTM uses commodity definitions during equipment
selection, one of the things that it should have in common is the equipment type that
the items can be transported in. Using the Frozen Vegetables example, not only are all
the items frozen goods and vegetables, but they also must always be transported in
frozen containers or trucks.

Besides linking commodities with equipment types, you can also select transportation
modes for commodities, as well as specific temperature controls. In addition to this,
you can specify whether a commodity can ship with another commodity. For example,
if you have a commodity called Explosives, you can say that it cannot ship together
with the commodity called Fuses.

Where
Location

Locations are required when you:

 Plan for a shipment

 Establish rates for a shipment
 Define itineraries
 Create orders

Each location must be associated with a corporation and defined geographically. Store
information about the type of transportation role the location fills, any accessorial or
special services required, ways of communicating with that location, performing a
credit check on an order against the location, and how transportation to and from that
location can be routed.
 Locations represent physical places to which an order can be delivered or from which
an order can be picked up. They include airports, ports, rail ramps/yards, container
pool locations, distributors, assembly points, plants, vendors, and more. A customer or
a buyer can also be a location.

How
Itinerary

Defines the path between two locations and specifies the constraints for building the
shipment.

Equipment

It is an instrumentality needed for an undertaking or to perform a service.

Time Line
Rate Service

A rate is considered a contract between the user and a service provider or a user and
their clients. The Rate Manager stores information about effective and expiration
dates, freight limitations, accessorials, and the rates themselves. Rates can be defined
or limited by weight, volume, distance and commodity. In addition, a rate can model
most industry practices such as deficit ratings, base and excess discounts, minimums
and surcharges. The rate service determines how to calculate the time in transit based
on the rate service type and taking into account other factors that may come into play
(such as rest periods).

Rate service determines the time required to transport goods from one point to
another. Rate service depends on the service type you choose.

Cost
Rate Offering

A rate offering is a general contract with a service provider. It may include multiple
charges that provide for a variety of possible requirements. A single service provider
may have several different rate offerings.

Rate Record

Rate Records can only be created based on a rate offering. While the rate offering
provides general contract details from a service provider, a rate record provides
specific costing or rating data from one place to another. The record inherits much of
its data from the offering but the options selected in the offering can be overridden at
the record level.

Who
Service Provider
 The Service Provider Manager provides all the necessary tools to define and manage
the carriers that provide transportation services, and the geographies that they
service.

Service providers, or companies that move freight from the source to the destination,
are used throughout OTM. They can be created separately and then associated with a
location to provide maximum flexibility in planning, or they can be created while the
user is working from another manager by clicking the button next to the Service
Provider ID field.

Service providers are associated with rate offerings and, once a rate has been
selected, with shipments. They are also attached to corporations.

Use the Service Provider Manager to record and store information about service
providers that have not been predefined. Service providers are required when you:

 Create locations
 Establish rates for a shipment
 Define itineraries
 Create orders

Each service provider can only be associated with one location and one corporation.

Notification
Consignee, shipper, service provider and 3PL all are notified about the shipments by
the following ways:

 By Contact
 EDI
 Email
 Fax
 FTP
 HTTPPOST
 Service
 Manual
 Message Center
 Queue
 IVR
 SMS
 BPEL
Configurations for a Direct Shipment
Creation of Location

Create a location and corporation for the MSat Distribution Center.

1. Click Transportation Planning and Execution > Location Management > Location
Manager.

2. Click new.

OTM displays the Identification tab.

3. Enter a Location ID of Location_001.

4. Enter a Location Name of Location 001.

5. Create a new corporation by clicking n next to Corporation ID.

GC3 displays the Corporation Manager page.

6. Enter a Corporation ID of Corporation_001.

7. Enter a Corporation Name of Corporation 001.

8. Click finished.

OTM returns to the Location – Identification tab.

9. Enter an Address Line of 123 MAIN STREET.

10. Enter a City of MUMBAI.

11. Enter a Province Code of MUM.

12. Enter a Postal Code of 400069.

13. Enter a Country Code of IND.

14. Click next.

OTM displays the Roles tab.

15. Click new location role profile.

16. Select the Location Role SHIPFROM/SHIPTO.

17. Enter a Fixed Stop Time of 1 H (hours).

18. Click save at the bottom of the page.

19. Click finished.

OTM displays the confirmation page.

Create a new location and corporation for the Bangalore General Store

Field Enter This Data … Field Enter This Data …

Field Enter this data….
Location ID Location_002
Corporation ID Corporation_002
Address 456 MAIN STREET
Location Role SHIPFROM/SHIPTO
Fixed Stop Time 30 M (minutes)

Creation of Commodity

1. After login to the OTM go to Order Management > Material Management

>Commodity.

2. Click on new.

GC3 displays the Commodity tab.

3. Enter a Commodity ID of Food_Item001

4. Enter a Commodity Name of FOOD Items.

5. Click finished.

OTM displays the confirmation page.

Relative screen shorts:

Press new button

Enter the commodity ID and click on finished button which is encircled in the above screen
sort that will give a confirmation screen.

Creation of ITEM

Create a new item of Herohonda bike like CD100-SS.

1. Go to Order Management > Material Management > Item.

2. Click new.

GC3 displays the Header tab.

3. Enter an Item ID of like Item_001

4. Enter an Item Name like CD-100 SS.

5. Click on l next to Commodity ID to find your previously created Commodity ID.

6. Mark the checkbox next to HeroHonda_bike_001

7. Click finish.

OTM displays the confirmation page.

Related Screen Shorts:

Click on New button and enter the Item ID and select the commodity ID that you have
created.

After clicking the finished button OTM will display a confirmation message the item ID is get
created.
Creation of Equipment group

Click Asset Management > Equipment Group Management >Equipment Group.

2. Click new.

GC3 displays the Equipment Group page.

3. Enter an Equipment Group ID of equipment_grp_001

4. Enter an Equipment Group Name of equipment group.

5. Enter an Effective Volume of 3576 CU FT.

6. Enter an Effective Weight of 48000 LB.

7. Enter a length of 47.5 FT.

8. Enter a width of 8.25 FT.

9. Enter a height of 9.25 FT.

10. Click finished.

OTM will display the confirmation page.

Related Screen shorts:

Click on new button then enter the equipment Group ID and equipment Name, volume,
weight, length etc and then click on finished button it will show a confirmation screen.
Confirmation screen

Click Asset Management > Equipment Group Management >Equipment Group Profile.

2. Click new.

GC3 displays the Equipment Group Profile page.

3. Enter an Equipment Group Profile ID of Equipment Groupprofile_001

4. Enter an Equipment Group Profile Name of Equipment group profile.

5. Mark the Compatible checkbox.

6. Click l next to Equipment Group ID to find the appropriate Equipment Group ID.

7. Mark the checkbox next to equipment_grp_001

8. Click finish.

GC3 returns to the Equipment Group Profile page.

9. Click save.

10. Click finished.

GC3 displays the confirmation page

Related Screen Shorts:

Click on equipment Group profile and after that click on new button to enter the equipment
group profile id and click on finished.

Confirmation page

Attachment of equipment group profile to the location

Click Transportation Planning and Execution > Location Management > Location
Manager.

2. On the search page, enter XXX_location_001 in the Location ID field and click search.

GC3 displays the results page.

3. Mark the checkbox next to your Los Angeles General Store and click edit.

GC3 displays the Identification tab.

4. Click the Routing tab.

5. Enter the Equipment Group Profile of equipment groupprofile_001.

6. Click finished.

GC3 displays the confirmation page

Related screen shorts

After entering the equipment group profile ID click finish and OTM will give the confirmation
screen.

Creation of itinerary

What is an Itinerary?
An itinerary determines the specific route for a shipment. They are used as a filter by
narrowing down the options for OTM to consider when building shipments. OTM uses
geography, weight/volume, equipment data, mode profile, and other criteria to determine if an
itinerary can be used.

Itineraries can be set up to indicate a very broad or very specific route.

Some include:

• Source country to destination country

• Source location to destination location

• Source USZIP3 to destination USZIP3

• Or, they can be any combination (source country to destination state/province).

If multiple itineraries can be used for a shipment, the least cost itinerary is chosen.

Itinerary Attributes

Itineraries can specify attributes a shipment must follow such as:

• Service provider

• Mode profile

• Rate

• Equipment

Itinerary Types

There are various iterations of itineraries. The three covered in this course are the single leg
itinerary, the multi-stop itinerary, and the multi-leg itinerary:

• Single leg itinerary – represents a direct move between a source location and a destination
location. The lane described by the itinerary can be general or specific.
• Multi-stop itinerary – represents shipments that can be planned together because they share
orders. They may contain one or more pickup or delivery locations. Multi-stop shipments take
advantage of lower costs by creating efficient routes that save money.

• Multi-leg itinerary – represents multiple shipments that are related to one another. For
example, a company has cargo moving from Frankfurt, Germany into Chicago, Illinois. The
itinerary has three

Legs:

Truckload from Frankfurt to the Port of Bremerhaven

Vessel from the Port of Bremerhaven to the Port of New York

Rail from the Port of New York to Chicago

The three areas of importance when creating an itinerary are Parameters, Lane Definition, and
Leg Detail.

Itinerary Parameters

The first area of importance is parameters, which define basic attributes including:

• Itinerary ID

• Buy or sell perspective

• Source and destination geographic hierarchy

• Constraints, such as weight and volume limitations

The three options for Itinerary Type are:

Active – the itinerary is available for planning

Inactive – the itinerary is unavailable for planning

Manual – the itinerary is available only for certain planning actions

A lane defines the general start and end information of a route.

Itinerary Lane Definitions

The second area of importance is lane definitions that define the geographic definition for
shipment activity.

• As with the Rate Record, the source/destination geo hierarchy defined on the Parameters tab
dictates what appears on the Lane Definitions tab.

- For example, if STATE/PROVINCE is entered as the Source Geo Hierarchy and Destination
Geo Hierarchy on the Parameters tab, the lanes will appear as Source Geography Province
Code and Destination Geographic Province Code on the Lane Definitions tab.
Itinerary Legs

The third area of importance is the itinerary leg that describes detailed data pertaining to a
specific part of the route. There can be multiple legs contained in one lane.

To add itinerary details for a leg, click new leg or use an existing leg. An itinerary must contain
at least one leg.

New Itinerary Leg

Certain detailed information can be specified on a leg including:

• Sequence Number – indicates the order in which the leg occurs in the physical shipment
activity.

• Rate Offering/Rate Record – indicates a specific rate that an itinerary must select. Either can
be indicated.

• Equipment Assignment Type – controls how OTM makes equipment assignments for that leg.

- For example, should OTM optimize equipment or reuse equipment from a previous leg?
• Service Provider Profile – indicates if a leg must use a specific service provider from a list of
service providers.

Used when routing and rating international

shipments. These fields indicate if a shipment If you have multiple legs on your
must pass through a particular port. itinerary, mark the one leg that is
most
important for OTM to focus on.
Mode Profile: Mode Profile ID indicates a group of transportation modes that an itinerary
accommodates.
Either an Equipment Group Profile ID or a Multi-Modal Equipment Set must be
indicated on an itinerary. Multi-Modal Equipment Set equates to an Equipment Group Profile
Set.

Equipment on Itinerary

Using an Equipment Group Profile or Equipment Group Profile Set specifies equipment to be
used on the Itinerary Leg. At least one of these fields must be populated.

• Equipment Group Profile is a grouping of equipment groups.

• Equipment Group Profile Set is a grouping of equipment group profiles and allows OTM to
evaluate multiple equipment options within an itinerary for both the multi-leg and multi-stop
moves.

If both are indicated on the itinerary leg, OTM selects the best fit equipment group from within
each profile and rates it. OTM then selects the least-cost feasible option across all the
equipment groups.

How to create a Direct Itinerary?

Create a new itinerary for the TL move from the Location_001 to the Location_002. The lane
for this itinerary is State/Province to State/Province.

1. Click Transportation Planning and Execution > Itinerary Management > Itinerary
Manager.

2. Click new.

OTM displays the Parameters tab.

3. Enter an Itinerary ID of LOC1_LOC2_DIRECT

4. Enter an Itinerary Name of LOC1 LOC2 DIRECT.

5. Select the Perspective Buy.

6. From the Itinerary Type dropdown list, select Active.

7. Select the Source Geo Hierarchy STATE/PROVINCE.

8. Select the Destination Geo Hierarchy STATE/PROVINCE

9. Click next.

OTM displays the Lane Definitions tab.

10. Enter the Source Geography Province Code of AB.

11. Enter the Destination Geography Province Code of CD.

12. Click next.

OTM displays the List Legs tab.

13. Click new leg.

14. Enter Sequence Number of 1.

15. Mark the Primary checkbox.

16. Select the Equipment Assignment Type Optimize Equipment.

17. Select the Mode Profile ID TL.

18. Click l next to Equipment Group Profile ID to find the appropriate Equipment Group Profile.

19. Mark the checkbox next to 48_FT_TRAILERS.

20. Click finish.

OTM returns to the Itinerary – New Leg page. OTM populates the Equipment Group Profile ID
field with the selected Equipment Group Profile.

21. Click save at the bottom of the page.

OTM returns to the List Legs tab.

22. Click finished.

OTM displays the confirmation page

Rate Service:

The Rate Manager allows you to manage rates for inbound and outbound goods for all
transportation modes, including truckload and less-than-truckload, vessels, rail and air. A rate
is considered a contract between the user and a service provider or a user and their clients.
The Rate Manager stores information about effective and expiration dates, freight limitations,
accessorial, and the rates themselves. Rates can be defined or limited by weight, volume,
distance and commodity. In addition, a rate can model most industry practices such as deficit
ratings, base and excess discounts, minimums and surcharges. The rate service determines
how to calculate the time in transit based on the rate service type and taking into account
other factors that may come into play (such as rest periods).

Rate service determines the time required to transport goods from one point to another. Rate
service depends on the service type you choose.

Creating a rate service using the Rate Manager consists of two steps:

Rate Service Header defines basic information such as the Service ID, rate service
type, and other basic information for the rate service. The type of service you select
determines the attribute fields you see in Rate Service Details.
Rate Service Details depend upon the Rate Service Type you choose. OTM presents
options and fields to establish the exact parameters of this rate service based on type.
How to Create Rate Service?

Path: Contract and Rate Management> Contract Management > Rate Service.

Press New button.

1. Rate Service ID uniquely identifies this rate service. After a rate service is created,
you can assign it to any rate offering.
2. Rate Service Name describes this rate service and is for informational and searching
purposes only.
3. Domain specifies the domain in which the rate is used.
4. Rate Service Type: The type determines the attribute options presented on the Rate
Service Details tab. The Rate Service Type that you select depends on the method of
transportation you plan to use and how you want to determine distance and service
time.
Rate Offerings

The Rate Manager allows you to manage rates for inbound and outbound goods for all
transportation modes, including truckload and less-than-truckload, vessels, rail and air. A rate
is considered a contract between the user and a service provider or a user and their clients.
The Rate Manager stores information about effective and expiration dates, freight limitations,
accessorials, and the rates themselves. Rates can be defined or limited by weight, volume,
distance and commodity. In addition, a rate can model most industry practices such as deficit
ratings, base and excess discounts, minimums and surcharges.
How to make Rate offerings:
Contract and Rate Management > Contract Management > Rate Offering

1. After getting this page, press new button. Then a Rate Manager Box will come.
2. Put Rate Offering ID as RateOffering001.

3. Select an offering type from the drop-down list. The offering type need not reflect the
transport mode of the shipment.

4. Put a Service Provider name i.e.GATI (You should create it previously).

5. Put a Perspective of the shipment.

Specify whether the Perspective is:

 Buy - Set up rates for a shipment.

 Sell - Set up rates for billing purposes. Typically, the sell perspective is used
by Third-party Logistics (3PL) firms who are offering a package of several
possible transportation legs at a single price to the customer.

 All - Choose this option if you are setting up rates for both shipping and
billing.

6. Put the actual Transport Mode.

7. Put previously made corresponding Rate Service Id i.e. RateService001.

8. Put a Rate Offering Version.

How to Create Version:

A rate offering defines a rate or a cost for a particular period of time. Because a single service
provider may have several similar offerings over a long period of time, you must specify a
version that provides the offering's “effective date” and “expiration date”. When you enter a
Version identifier, OTM populates the Effective and Expiration Date fields - you cannot edit
these fields. If a shipment falls outside the date range, the offer is not valid and a different
rate offering may apply.

Steps to make the shipment:

1. Put Rate Service ID RATESERVICE001.

2. Put Rate Service Name TESTRATESERVICE.

3. Put Rate Service Type as LOOKUP.

4. For Direct Shipment nothing more is required in this field. If you want you can make use of
Calendar.

How to Use Calendar:

Enter a Calendar ID to associate specific activities, as well as the days and times that they are
available, to this rate service. For example, you can define the days and hours that a facility
accepts trucks for unloading. This is used during shipment planning to determine if a rate
service is a viable candidate.

5. Press Details.

6. In Rate Service Details page first go to Lane ID and create a new one.

7. A Lane Header Box will appear.

8. Put lane ID, LANE 001

9. Put Source and Destination Geo Hierarchy as Location.

10. Press Lane Definitions.

11. In Location ID put source and destination location ID i.e.LOC001 and LOC002.

12. Click Finished.

13. Then put some Service Time, 2D (in how much time you are expecting this shipment will
be completed.)
14. Click Save.

15. Click Finished.

16. Rate Service is created.

Rate Record

Rate Records can only be created based on a rate offering. While the rate offering provides
general contract details from a service provider, a rate record provides specific costing or
rating data from one place to another. The record inherits much of its data from the offering
but the options selected in the offering can be overridden at the record level.

How to create Rate Record: Go to Contract and Rate Management>Contract

Management>Rate Record

1. Press New Button.

2. A search page will come.

3. Put Rate Service, ID RateService001in the Rate Offering ID box.

4. Then press Search button.

5. Then Lane Info page will come.

6. Put Rate Record ID, RATERECORD001.And Source and Destination Geo Hierarchy as
LOCATION.

7. Even in the Direct Shipment you can make use of VIA Location.

VIA Locations refer to ports that the shipment must pass through. For example, if an itinerary
is set up as Pittsburgh for the source and London as the destination, then New York could be
set up as the VIA Source Location because the shipment would go from Pittsburgh to London
via New York. In this case, a matching rate record must be set up with New York as the VIA
Source Location.

Multiple VIA Source and VIA Destination Locations can be set up on the same rate record. In
this case, you would set up a profile that would list the possible VIA locations. The VIA Source
Location ID field should not be used when a VIA Source Location Profile is used. The same is
true for the VIA Destination Location ID field. The planning logic will not read the profile field
when location field is populated, narrowing the valid VIA locations to the one in the VIA
Location ID field.

 VIA Source Location ID: Used when only a single VIA Source Location is valid.
 VIA Source Location Profile ID: Used when a list of valid source VIA locations are
valid.
 VIA Dest Location ID: Used when only a single VIA Destination Location is valid.
 VIA Dest Location Profile ID: Used when a list of valid destination VIA locations are
valid.

8. Press Attributes button.

9. Attributes window will be opened.

10. Put Source and Destination Location as LOCATION001 and LOCATION002.

11. Press Rate Cost button.

12. Press Add a Cost button.

13. Put Amount and the Basis. Select the basis for your conditional rule from the Basis
drop-down list. You may use up to 4 conditional rules for each cost.

14. And it will take you to the previous page with the selected data. Press Finished button.

Order Base

Order Manager

The Order Manager is a repository of orders that represent the requirement to move freight
from one point to another from one shipping point to one consignee location. An order in OTM
is a generic term and does not imply direction; for example, outbound to customers or
inbound from vendors. Orders are most likely created in some external order management
software package or an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system such as E-Business Suite.
Orders are then transmitted to OTM for transportation management and planning. However,
you can also enter orders directly in OTM and initiate transportation planning and optimization.

Orders can be described as two distinct business objects: order base and order release. An
order base represents the detailed information about the order; for example, an order ID, the
involved party, scheduling information, source and destination locations, accessorials, special
services, as well as the content of the order. Order content is described in terms of packaging
(called ship units) or individual line items. For example, item data could be pallets of goods,
bulk quantities of chemicals, or individual items.

Once an order base is entered, one or more order releases are created that signify that an
order is ready for shipment. A release is a way of taking an order and dividing it into one or
more individual transportation requirements that require planning and execution. A release
may be a partial line of an order or several lines or several partial lines.

There may also be situations when you want to directly add orders in OTM without using the
TransOrder interface. Order bases can be created manually as well.

How to create Order Base:

Path is: Order Management > Purchase Order > Order Base.

1. Press New button. Order Base window will open.

2. Put an Order Base ID: ORDERBASE001.

2. Allow over Releasing set as PER RELEASE.

The Allow Over Releasing drop-down list lets you indicate if a calculation should be
performed to determine if the releasing can be done on the order base ship unit or order base
line. You have the following options:
  NEVER - If you select this option the system checks if it is allowed to over
release. If you choose this option you can only release up to 20 cases total for
an order of 20 cases. Any release instruction that exceeds the already-
released Total Weight is created, but not processed. This is a total and can
include multiple release instructions.

 PER RELEASE - If you select the PER RELEASE option, then the over release
check is not executed. It will instead check if the amount being released is
greater than the order base line/ship unit amount. Then if the amount
released is more than the order base line/ship unit amounts, then it ignores
the released amount and instead uses the order base line/ship unit amounts.
For example, if you select this option for an order for 20 cases of soda, you
can create as many release instructions as you want, for up to 20 cases, for
each release instruction. If you enter an amount greater than 20 (e.g., 50
cases) in any release instruction, the instruction is processed but only for 20
cases. However, the amount released is always equal to the original amount
ordered. This is the default setting.

 ALWAYS - Choosing this option causes the system to not run the releasing
check. It indicates that the system will always use the amounts entered on the
release instructions. If you choose this option than you can release 50 cases
even if the order is for 20 cases.

4. Release Method put as ONE_TO_ONE.

The Release Method determines how released ship units are created on order releases. This
field should only be used if the order is composed of line items (and no ship units are defined).
You can edit the existing Release Method configurations or create your own method.

5. Choose Ship Unit to define packaging characteristics. For example, you can describe the
order in terms of pallets, boxes, as oppose to specific line items. If you define a ship unit, you
can optionally specify the line items that are included in it. Choose Line Item to define
individual line items.

6. Click on Ship Unit button.

 7. In the next page. Click on New Line Item.

8. Put Packaged Item ID: DDD_ITEM.

9. Put Source and Destination Location.

10. Just save it. In the next Window click on Finished.

11. Tick on the particular order base what you have created. And press Action. A drop
down will appear.

12. Click on Release Lines.

What is a Shipment?
Shipments are created from one or more Order Releases and represent the movement of
freight from one location to another.

There can be one Order Release on one shipment.

Planning an
Order released Shipment
Optimization

There can be multiple Order Releases on one shipment.

Order release

Planning and Shipment

Optimization

Order release

A shipment has all details associated with the transportation activity including:

• Service Provider

• Stop information

• Pickup and delivery times

• Equipment

• Transport Mode

• Ship unit and/or item detail

• Rate data
Once a shipment is created from an Order Release(s), users can monitor shipment activity,
modify shipments, create shipments and shipment templates, and perform various shipment
related tasks including:

• Tender shipments

• Change service provider

• Change equipment group

• Change planned, estimated, actual or appointment arrival/departure dates and times

• Add pickup and delivery appointment times

How do Business Rules Affect Shipment Planning?

 Prior to shipment planning and optimization, your business rules need to be defined in
OTM so the plan can be executed.
 To minimize changes to shipments after they are built, it is important to keep your
business rules up to date so that OTM makes the optimal decision for your business
process.

For example, if OTM plans a shipment to arrive at your distribution center at 5:30AM, but the
location does not open until 7:00AM, update the calendar on that location so the next
shipment will be planned correctly.

Customize Shipment Planning

You can customize shipment planning to your business process through planning parameter
sets.GC3 ships with a default Planning Parameter Set that specifies the standard process used
when building shipments. A Planning Parameter Set contains planning parameters. Each
planning parameter has specific values that control shipment building.

Planning Parameter Set

Planning Parameter

Planning Parameter

Planning Parameter
Creating a new Planning Parameter Set and assigning it to your domain ensures the proper
parameters are used to meet your business processes during planning and optimization.

Shipment Perspective

When shipments are created, they will be in the perspective of buy shipments or sell
shipments.

• Buy shipments represent services a planner buys from a service provider. It can include
multiple orders, customers, and pickup and delivery locations to produce the optimal
transportation solution for shipping goods. When creating a buy shipment, GC3 associates one
or more Order Releases with a single itinerary, rate, equipment type, and service provider to
determine the route for the shipment.

• Sell shipments represent the cost for shipping freight to a specific final customer and
contains the order for only one customer. They are used to provide customers with a view into
shipment activity and are created automatically.

Tendering

What is Tendering?

When a shipment is tendered, a notice is sent to the carrier with an offer to move the cargo.
OTM can be setup so that a shipment is tendered manually or automatically.

Prior to tendering, the initial status values of the shipment are set to REVIEWED_NOT
REVIEWED and SECURE RESOURCES_NOT STARTED.

There are two types of tendering in OTM:

• Tender to a specific Service Provider

• Open Tender including Spot Bid Tender and Broadcast Tender

Tender to a Specific Service Provider

When manually tendering a Shipment to a specific Service Provider, it can be a one or two
step process:

• One Step Process – This process is generally used if there is one planner managing the
entire move.
- By selecting the action of SECURE RESOURCES, the planning for the shipment is finalized
and the shipment is tendered to the carrier. Shipment status values are set to
REVIEWED_EXECUTE and SECURE RESOURCES_TENDERED.

• Two Step Process – This process is generally used if there are two people involved in the
process, one who finalizes the planning and another who arranges the transportation. There
are two actions

Associated with this process:

- APPROVE FOR EXECUTION indicates that a shipment has completed the planning process and
is ready for tendering. By using this option, the REVIEWED status value is set to
REVIEWED_EXECUTE.

- TENDER SHIPMENT sends the notification to the carrier with detailed information about the
move. The secure resources status value is set to SECURE RESOURCES_TENDERED.

Once you click SECURE RESOURCES or TENDER SHIPMENT, OTM displays a

tender confirmation page including:

• Shipment ID

• Cost data

• Start and End Time

• Service Provider

• Rate Offering

• Notification Communication Method

View the Shipment

The Shipment View page includes shipment related data and a link to the OTM shipment
status.

Shipment Status

Clicking on OTM status in the Shipment View or Edit page displays the shipment status with
the status REVIEWED and SECURE RESOURCES status values changed.

Carrier Notification

When a shipment is tendered to a specific carrier, the following occurs in OTM:

• A notice of the tender is sent to the carrier. OTM sends the notification using the highest-
ranked communication method supported by both the carrier and the planner.
• A timer previously created in OTM starts. This timer defines how long a service carrier has to
respond to the tender before it is withdrawn and potentially re-tendered to another carrier.

• The shipment status value is set to SECURE RESOURCES_TENDERED.

Accept or Decline the Tender

The carrier can either accept or decline the tender by sending a transmission through the
integration layer, by fax, by email, or by using On-line Booking and Tendering.

If the carrier is responding to the tender through On-line Booking and Tendering or by clicking
a URL in an email, OTM displays the Tender Response page.

There is also the ability to re-transmit a shipment to a carrier if the carrier did not receive the
original tender. This is available as an Action within the Shipment Manager.

Open Tender

A tender could also be sent to a list of valid service providers. This differs from tendering to a
specific service provider in that:

• The planned cost of the shipment may not be the actual cost since it depends on the service
provider bidding results.

• It is sent to multiple service providers, and either the first to respond or the lowest bid is
awarded the bid. After the shipment is awarded to a service provider, the tender process is
the same.

There are two types of Open Tender:

• Broadcast Tender

• Spot Bid Tender

Broadcast Tender

The goal of Broadcast Tender is to find a Service Provider for a “hot” load. The load is
tendered to all valid service providers that accept broadcast tenders.

The first Service Provider to accept the tender at a cost that is within a certain tolerance is
awarded the load. Once a Shipment is awarded to a Service Provider, OTM:

• Auto-assigns the Shipment to the appropriate Service Provider

• Changes the Shipment Cost

• Sets the shipment status to SECURE RESOURCES_ACCEPTED

• Sends a tender withdrawal notification to all other service providers

After the Shipment is awarded to a Service Provider, the tender process is the same as
tendering to a specific Service Provider.

Spot Bid Tender

The goal of Spot Bid Tender is to find the lowest cost Service Provider for the Shipment. The
load is tendered to all valid service providers that accept Spot Bid Tenders.

Once the tender is closed, the Service Provider who responded with the cheapest cost is
awarded the load. Once a Shipment is awarded to a Service Provider, OTM:

• Auto-assigns the Shipment to the appropriate Service Provider

• Changes the Shipment Cost

• Sets the shipment status to SECURE RESOURCES_ACCEPTED

• Sends a tender withdrawal notification to all other service providers

After the Shipment is awarded to a Service Provider, the tender process is the same as
tendering to a specific Service Provider.

What Does Open Tendering Do?

When you select either the Broadcast Tender Action or Spot Bid Tender Action, OTM displays a
list of valid service providers. The default response time is the latest of all service provider
response times. You can override the default response time using the Expected Response
Time.

Shipment Status

Clicking on OTM status in the Shipment View or Edit page displays the shipment status with
the status REVIEWED and SECURE RESOURCES status values changed.

When a shipment is tendered via Broadcast Tender or Spot Bid Tender to a list of service
providers, the following occurs in OTM:

• A notice of the tender is sent to all valid carriers.

• A timer previously created in OTM starts. The default response time is the latest of all
service provider response times.

• The shipment status is set to SECURE RESOURCES_TENDER RESPONSE OPEN.

Carriers can respond to a Broadcast Tender or Spot Bid Tender via integration or by using On-
Line Booking and Tendering.

Prior to tendering the shipment, you will view the shipment status of your shipment

1. Click Transportation Planning and Execution > Shipment Management > Buy
Shipments.

2. Click search.

3. Click the check box next to the Shipment you just created.

4. Click view.

5. Click OTM Status.

6. Close the OTM status page.

Tender Your Shipment

Tender your shipment to the service provider and review your shipment status.

1. From the Shipment view page, click Actions > Tender > Secure Resources.

2. In the confirmation page, click on the Shipment ID to view additional Shipment data.

3. Click OTM Status.

4. Close the OTM status page.

5. Close the Shipment view page.

Accept Your Tender

The service provider called you and accepted the tender so you will manually accept the
tender and review your shipment status.

1. From the Shipment view page, click Actions > Tender > Accept Tender.

2. In the confirmation page, click on the Shipment ID to access additional Shipment data.

3. Click OTM Status.

4. Close the OTM status page.

5. Close the Shipment view page.

Automation Agents

What is an Automation Agent?

Automation Agents help you to automate many manual procedures in OTM. If you have
repetitive tasks, you can save time by letting an Automation Agent in OTM do it for you.

What Can an Automation Agent Do?

Automation Agents can do most things you can do manually with an action in the manager for
that business object. For example, every time you build a new shipment, OTM tenders the
shipment.

What is the Structure of an Automation Agent?

An Automation Agent consists of:

• Agent Header

• Actions

• Error Handler

Agent Header:

Agent Header Defines triggers and conditions for execution.

Actions:

Action defines what Agent Actions to execute when the conditions are true.

Error Handler:

Defines what Agent Actions to execute if an error occurs while trying to execute the

First set of Agent Actions.

Public Automation Agents

There can be many Automation Agents running in the background while you use OTM.
Typically they are

saved in the PUBLIC domain so that they can act on business object in all domains.

Creating an Automation Agent

An automation agent listens for an event, verifies a user-defined condition, and executes one
or more actions that you choose from an action library. An agent operates against a specific
business object such as order base, order release, shipment, sell side shipment, and so on. It
includes a list of events that can occur, optional conditions that are checked, actions that
perform a process, and error controls to alert you when problems are encountered with the
agent.

For example, you could create an agent that listens for order base modifications from a
specific order owner. If modifications are detected (usually through integration although an
agent can be configured for other sources) the agent can direct OTM to:

 Fully propagate the order base change by unassigning its order release from an
existing shipment and build a new shipment.
 Acknowledge the order modification and set the appropriate statuses.
 Send the order base in XML format to an interested party.
 Notify the planner via email, fax, or some other communication method.

Steps

1. Choose Business Process Automation > Agents and Milestones > Automation
Agent from the navigation frame.
2. Click New on the Search page to create a new agent. Complete the following
(required) fields:
 Agent ID
 Agent Type

Click the Active check box if you want the agent to be turned on when you are finished
creating it.

Choose a domain for the agent from the Domain Name field.

Add one or more events to the agent.

 If you have chosen multiple events, OTM initiates action when any one of
those events occurs.

Click (if it appears) next to any event to set one of the following
parameters:
 Source - Use this parameter to identify the way in which an event takes
place:

 User - If the event occurs as a result of a person using the OTM user
interface.
 Integration - If the event occurs as a result of an XML document that
is imported into OTM via integration.
 Internal - If the event is caused by standard OTM workflow processing.

Before Persist - Use this parameter when you want to use the Persist/Don't
Persist actions.

Status Type and Status Value - Use these parameters for status-related
events.

Use the Saved Condition field to optionally enter (or find) a condition or create a new one.
(Before executing any actions for an event, an agent always checks the business object for a
saved condition.)

Click View/Enter Actions to define actions for the agent.

Click Add Action.

 Choose an action from the drop-down list, then complete any parameters that
may appear for the action.
 Click Save. Each action appears on a separate line followed by the Insert
icon. Click this icon to insert additional actions and construct the action
body to your requirements.
 Click the icon next to an action to display the parameters you defined and
make any necessary changes.
 Click the icon to remove an action from the list.
 Click Next to define the error actions for the agent.

Use the Error Handler section to construct a list of actions that will customize how the
system reacts to an error condition during agent execution. Click adds action

By default, the agent error handler is empty, which means that the system does nothing when
an error occurs (aside from logging the error).

Click Finished to save the agent.

Steps for Connecting Agents

Connect agents together (use one agent to trigger another agent) through the use of custom
(agent) events.

Note that if you use agent events to create complex agents, this can possibly cause adverse
effects on OTM performance. Because all the agents connected by agent events should be
turned on in order to work properly (in most cases), it may be preferable to use more detailed
saved conditions within an agent to create the same result, instead of using agent events to
connect two or more agents together.

Create an Agent Event

 1. Choose Business Process Automation> Power Data > Event Management.
2. Click Agent Events.
3. Click new on the Search page to create a new agent event.
4. Enter a unique event ID in the Agent Event ID field.
5. Choose a data query type ID from the Data Query Type ID drop-down list.
6. If you want to link the custom event to the OTM notification system, enter a notify
subject in the Notify Subject ID field.
7. Choose a domain for the custom event from the Domain Name drop-down list.
8. Click Finished to save the agent event.

Create (or modify) an Agent

1. Choose Business Process Automation > Agents and Milestones > Automation
Agent from the navigation frame.
2. Click New on the Search page to create a new agent and enter an Agent ID and
Agent Type.
3. Click the Active check box if you want the agent to be turned on when you are
finished creating it.
4. Enter a domain from the Domain Name drop-down list.
5. Add one or more events to the Agent.
6. Use the Saved Condition field to optionally enter (or find) a condition or create a new
one. (Before executing any actions for an event, an agent always checks the business
object for a saved condition.)
7. Click next to define actions for the agent.
8. Click Add action.
9. Select RAISE EVENT from the Action drop-down list.
10. Choose the agent event you created from the Custom Event drop-down list.

Agent Events
OTM includes a collection of events that you can choose from during the process of creating an
agent. However, if the public OTM events are not appropriate for the purposes of your agent,
you can create your own custom agent event to suit your individual business needs. This page
is accessed via Business Process Automation > Power Data > Event Management.

Use custom agent events whenever you need to string together a collection of processes or
changes to a business object in a way that would otherwise become time-consuming. Using
agent events automates this process by allowing you to raise a custom agent event as a part
of an agent, which will in turn trigger another agent to complete a process.

At a minimum, you need to create at least two agents to use an agent event properly: one
agent that raises the event, then another agent that listens for the event. In most situations,
you use the raising of custom events to raise other agent types (order release, invoice, etc.).
For example, you can create a shipment agent that changes the shipment status, and raises a
custom event that triggers an order release agent. With this example, you can do both the
listening and status changes from the same shipment agent. You can also use the data query
process to raise custom events for a group of business objects at one time.

The Agent Events page is restricted to showing only custom events. You must still use the
Event Notification page in Communication Manager to search for and configure OTM event
notifications.
Integration
Logistics systems require large amounts of data, including information about locations,
geography, service providers, rates, itineraries, as well as transactional data such as orders
and shipment status. Much of this data comes from traditional Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) systems; however, some of this information now comes from the internet. In either
case, OTM uses the following tools and techniques for data integration:

 XML-based business-to-business (B2B) integration

 Support for XML and EDI-based integration for carrier and other partner
communications
 HTML to communicate with non-EDI, non-XML partners
 Configurable, automated notification engine for intelligent alerting
 Hosted data server for cleansing and downloading key internet data

OTM uses XML to integrate with other systems through several interfaces that perform
inbound and outbound processing.

XML documents are sent to OTM using an integration tool such as WebMethods, via HTTPS
over the Internet.

To send or receive interface transmissions, a programmer creates an XML schema that

matches the GLogXML schema. GLogXML Schema is the format in which you send interface
transmissions to OTM. Each type of interface transmission you want to send to OTM or receive
from OTM has a specific XML schema that must be used. This documentation describes the
information that must appear in a particular schema, defines the pieces of the different
schemas, and lists the data that must already exist in OTM for the transmission to function
properly.

Interface Definition

An interface is a program that sends and receives properly formatted information from one
application to another. OTM has separate interfaces that process different types of data. For
example, the Transportation Orders interface (TransOrder) can import transportation order
information from a foreign system into OTM. This type of interface is called inbound since data
is imported into OTM. Outbound interfaces transmit data from OTM to other systems. For
example, shipments planned in OTM can be exported to another system for additional
processing.

To send and receive transmissions from OTM, you need to understand:

 The underlying OTM database schema. This schema defines the data elements you
want to import and export.
 The rules that govern how OTM processes data.
 How workflow can be used to automate interface processing in OTM.

OTM XML Schema

The OTM XML schema defines the data elements that OTM sends or receives for each type of
interface. Schema diagrams display the OTM data elements including their parent-child
relationships. By viewing the schema, you can create XML documents (using data from other
systems) that can be imported into OTM. Outbound data from OTM is saved in XML documents
that follow the same schema.

The following is an example of an XML diagram with unexploded elements. Elements such as
ShipmentHeader and ShipmentStop can be expanded to show the parent-child relationships to
other elements in the schema.

A few basics to help you understand the diagram notations are shown below:

 A question mark ( ? ) indicates that the element is optional

 An asterisk ( * ) indicates 0 or more (optional)
 A plus sign ( + ) indicates 1 or more (required)
 A double sided arrow ( <-> ) indicates that the element has relationships to other
elements
 The following diagram shows a "branch" indicating a choice of one, but not both. For
example, a Location Ref is either a Location GID (existing location information), or a
Location (new location information), but not both.
  An element with the following notation is a leaf. It is the lowest level element on the
tree, and cannot be exploded any further.

Global IDs (GIDs)

GIDs are global identifiers that OTM uses to define various types of information (e.g., orders,
shipments, locations, payment vouchers, etc.). A GID consists of the following three parts:

 Domain name - Typically identifies a company, separates data and secures it from
other data in a shared, Web-based environment. For example, if you are using OTM in
an environment where many companies may be using the same OTM installation, the
domain allows you to isolate data in OTM for each company. Therefore, many users
from different companies can work in the same OTM installation (or Web site) and use
data that is private and specific to their company. If you do not include a domain
name in a GID, it can be viewed across all domains in your system.
 External ID (XID) - The ID that defines the item on the external system. An external
system is any system other than OTM.
 XID qualifier - An optional element that provides a category for the XID. For
example, the XID Qualifier may indicate that a particular XID is a Purchase Order.

 You should not create GIDs with trailing spaces. These records will not be able to be
looked up via the interface.

Transmission Template Wrapper

The transmission template wrapper takes plain XML and turns it into a valid OTM transmission.
To send an actual shipment to OTM, it must include a wrapper surrounding the XML
transmission. You can then send the actual shipment back to OTM.