Using a route schedule, you can control periodic customer deliveries of a particular shipping point to different ship-to parties (for example, customers or stores) in a certain sequence on a certain defined route. The planning is based on calendar weeks. The period unit is a day. Also, route schedules have a goods issue time.

The route schedule function supports the following processes:

• Periodic deliveries from a shipping point to stores or customers are planned in advance on the basis of calendar weeks and weekdays, also without reference to particular deliveries.
• You adapt the schedules in the specific cases to the planning. For example, you can plan a GI date for a Monday at 8 o’clock, without knowing the exact date or the delivery.
• On the basis of this planning, deliveries that are to leave the warehouse at the same time are combined into groups. In Shipping you can thus distribute the workload by processing these groups.

You can display all deliveries for a particular route schedule on a particular day, for a particular shipping point, and so on. In this way, for example, you can choose picking lists on the basis of route schedules.

You can create route schedules for the following documents:

• Sales orders
• Stock transfer orders
• Deliveries that are based on sales orders, store orders, stock allocations, stock transfer orders, and deliveries without reference.

The route schedule is displayed in the header data of the delivery. For each delivery within the route, the system prints the expected date and the expected time of the delivery (on the basis of the local time at the original shipping point) on the delivery note; the goods issue date is used for the goods issue posting and the stock valuation.

In Customizing, you define for each shipping point, delivery type, stock transfer order, and order type whether or not route schedules are to be used.

You create the route schedules in the master data for shipping. Here you define the route schedule determination and the validity period for the route schedule and the itinerary.

As soon as the legs have been defined, you can branch to another screen to determine the actual itinerary, as well as the time (days/hours/minutes) required to get from one unloading point to the next. In this screen there is a field beside each leg. Here you can enter the number of the itinerary for the individual legs of the route. If, for example, you enter legs A and B, but assign itinerary number 2 and 1 to these, B is the first unloading point on this route. If you press Enter, the legs are displayed in the correct sequence.

At the same time it is possible to control the route schedule determination for each delivery type, stock transfer order, and order type. It is activated in the same manner as the repeated route determination. If the route schedule determination for a delivery is active, the system automatically attempts, during creation or change of a delivery, to determine a route schedule and records this in the delivery. Simultaneously, the scheduling is adjusted. All the deadlines, for example, the transportation planning time, the picking time, the loading time, the goods issue time, and the delivery time can change.

Deliveries with the same route schedule and the same date can be selected for the same picking run and the same goods issue. The same procedure can be used for printing delivery notes and freight lists, for the grouping of deliveries into shipments, and for confirmation of picking orders.