Bundling and Container Packing

Purpose

Bundling and container packing assigns the delivery quantities of titles and ad inserts recorded in the deliveries during circulation planning to the packaging units, bundles, postal packs and containers. In addition, bundling and container packing determines the path used to transport the packaging units to the ship-to party or the point of departure for delivery (e.g. unloading point in carrier route).

Bundling and container packing takes place using two separate functions with special uses. These two functions have the following results:

Function	Result	Use
Bundling	Bundles	For all non-postal delivery types (e.g. home delivery, direct delivery)
	Postal packs	Only for postal shipping
Container packing	Containers (group of postal packs)	Only for postal shipping

Bundling and container packing is controlled by rules defined in shipping master data (see Prerequisites). The results of bundling and container packing are recorded in the system as drop-offs .

The functions for bundling and container packing are designed as programs that can be run both in SAP background processing (periodically) and in dialog.

Prerequisites

The necessary settings in Customizing and in shipping and distribution master data must be maintained according to the following table.

Bundling for	Customizing	Shipping master data	Distribution master data
Bundles	Number range for drop-offs, function modules for bundling	Odd bundle groups, bundling groups, bundling rules	Delivery round-business partner assignment, truck routes with daily truck routes, unloading points, unloading point sequences, truck route-edition assignment, unloading viability sets, unloading rules etc.
Postal packs	Number range for postal packs, minimum numbers for postal packing, numbering type for postal packs	Shipping schedules, settings for rule determination, ZEBU file (requirements for bundling newspapers, specific to Germany)
Containers	Number range for containers, minimum numbers and weights for container packing, numbering type for containers	Shipping schedules, container packing rules, settings for determining container packing rules

The availability and weight specifications must be maintained in product master data .
Basic circulation planning ( regenerative planning ) should already have been performed and the deliveries should have been updated continuously by the netchange function . The issue mixes should be generated and assigned to the deliveries.
The following steps in the shipping procedure should have been performed for the shipping date:

Setting the order deadline
Final run of netchange function
Final assignment of issue mixes to new deliveries (which may have come into being for a new carrier route or a new geographical unit)
Run of checking function for shipping date (making any necessary corrections)

Process Flow

Bundling

For home delivery, direct delivery and distribution (non-postal delivery types)
The bundling procedure determines the transport path as follows in order to create bundles : the unloading point for the delivery is determined from the unloading viability set. The daily truck route for the unloading point is derived from the unloading point sequence and the truck route-edition assignment. If a carrier route contains several unloading points or several truck routes serve one unloading point, the delivery quantity is distributed according to the unloading rules. The delivery quantities are updated in drop-offs for each unloading point and daily truck route. These drop-offs are distributed among full and odd bundles according to the bundling rules (for each publication).
Postal shipping

Postal packing takes place for each postal package type according to postal packing rules or ship-to parties.

When postal packing is performed according to postal packing rules , the delivery quantities are distributed among postal packing levels according to the address postal code. The postal pack sizes required for this purpose are defined in Customizing. If the postal pack size on one postal packing level is exceeded, the number of items is passed on to the next postal packing level. The system groups the numbers of items to form postal packs on the individual postal packing levels according to the bundling rules and bundle dividers.

When postal packing is performed according to ship-to parties , only bundling rules are used. The postal pack size is derived from the bundle dividers in the bundling rules.

The post office for dispatch is derived from the postal code area in the postal packing level. The unloading points for the post offices are recorded with the appropriate postal networks in the shipping schedule. The unloading point for the delivery is derived from the shipping schedule. The daily truck route for the unloading point is derived from the unloading point sequence and the truck route-edition assignment. The delivery quantities are updated in drop-offs (containing special additional information for postal packs) for each unloading point and daily truck route.

Container packing

Container packing is controlled by postal packing rules and container packing rules . The postal packing rules specify the postal packing levels on which containers can be packed. If the container size defined in Customizing is undershot, container packing takes place on the next postal packing level. The container packing rules specify the weight restrictions for container packing. The weight data from product master data is required for this purpose.

Thepost officefor dispatch for postal packs and containers is derived from the postal code area in the postal packing level. The unloading point for the issues to be delivered is determined from the shipping schedule. The daily truck route is derived from the truck route-edition assignment and the unloading point sequence. The delivery quantities for postal shipping are updated indrop-offs(containing special additional information for containers) for each unloading point and daily truck route.

The diagram below illustrates the connection between the bundling and container packing functions and indicates the most important influencing factors for these functions.

Result

As a result of bundling and container packing performed on the basis of deliveries for newspapers and magazines or ad inserts, drop-offs are recorded in the system. Drop-offs for postal packs or containers contain additional specific information. Shipping documents can be created based on the drop-offs.

See also:

Shipping Master Data , Distribution Master Data and Product Master Data