Routing strategy

This article focuses on using Backoffice. For information on APIs and customizations, see the Advanced Order Routing section.

In order routing, you can define the routing strategy to best meet your consumers' needs. Based on the configured strategy, fulfillmenttools decides in which warehouse or store to fulfill the order.

The initial view shows the configured strategy as a flow diagram.

You can create categories and then assign them to the nodes to make the flow diagram easier to view. Click the Set categories button to do this.

To edit the routing strategy, we recommend reviewing the basic configuration first. To do this, hover on the Basic configuration box and click the edit icon. This opens the configuration modal for the node.

Routing node configuration

The routing node configuration is where you can define your routing strategy. The basic configuration is the first gate an order has to pass through. You can then create subsequent gates for the order to pass through to get to the best facility for the order.

For orders to be routed to a particular facility, the order type (click-and-collect or ship-from-store) the facility can accept must be set in the facility settings. This can either be done in the network view or the facility view.

Order split

The first setting you can define in the node configuration is the order split. An order split divides an order into multiple parts, which can then be routed to different facilities. Subsequently, the order is shipped in multiple parcels.

An order split can only be activated for ship-from-store orders. Since same-day orders often incur high shipping costs, you can configure order splitting to apply only to non-same-day orders.

If order split is deactivated, it will always have to be fulfilled by one facility.

See the Order split article for more information.

Routing rules

The routing strategy logic is divided into two areas. For both areas, you can configure custom rules, which supplement the predefined rules of fulfillmenttools.

• Fences exclude facilities from routing.

• Ratings weigh facilities in the routing decision.

More information on the routing strategy can be found in the Routing strategy article.

Fences

Fences exclude facilities from routing.

Use the toggles to activate or deactivate the predefined fences.

Ratings

Ratings weigh facilities in the routing decision.

Use the toggles to activate or deactivate the predefined ratings, then enter a number in the input box to add the priority. A lower number (for example, 1) indicates higher importance, while a higher number (for example, 10) indicates lower importance.

Custom routing rules

You can also create your own fences and ratings via our custom routing rules builder. You can create these as either a comparison rule or a conditional rule.

See the custom routing rules article for more details.

If you need any help configuring the rules, contact our Support team.

Short pick rules

A short pick is when an order couldn't be completely picked. This can happen when some ordered items are too low in stock or out of stock.

There are three rule configurations you can set:

• Reroute tasks which are completely short picked (0 pick)

• Reroute or order split a shipping task after a short pick

• Reroute or order split a pickup task after a short pick

See the Short pick section for more information.

Manual rerouting

By activating the manual reroute toggle, you allow someone to manually intervene in an order and reroute it via Backoffice.

For more information, see the Manual reroute section.

Fallback facility

A fallback facility can be defined if you don't want to perform a manual reroute in case an order can't be routed. If a fallback facility is defined, orders are assigned to it if they receive the status of NOT_ROUTABLE in the routing plan. Such a facility might be a super-warehouse with nearly infinite capacity (or with fast replenishment).

You can set up a fallback facility for every node in the routing strategy. If an order is unroutable, it will take the fallback facility of the node where it became unroutable.

To do this, activate the toggle, select the fallback facility from the dropdown, and input the amount of time that should pass before rerouting the fallback facility.

See the Fallback facility section for more information.

Inactivity rules

The inactivity rules set the timeframe to trigger an automatic reroute if a picking task has not been started within that time. By default, this timeframe is set to 24 hours after the pick job was created in the facility.

You can set different times for different types of tasks. For example, you could set a shorter timeframe for same day orders, as it's imperative that they're picked quickly.

See the Reroute in case of inactivity (time-triggered reroute) section for more information.

Unroutable orders

An order might not be assigned to a facility (routed) if no available facility passes a specific fence. In such a case, the system retries routing the order whenever another order is passed to the routing strategy. After a configurable amount of time, the order is set to an unroutable state. The default time is 8 hours. See the Unroutable orders article for more information.

Creating new nodes

To create a new node in the routing strategy, click the + button next to the Basic configuration node. This creates the new node in a deactivated state. Click on the edit icon to input your settings as above. Click the more icon to make the node active.

You can then click the + button to create the next node, or click the OR button to create an if node.

Node categories

Node categories allow a visual representation in the routing strategy. These categories don't affect anything else, but just provide a visual guide for your team.

To create a new category, click Set categories, then click Add category. This will create a new line in the list. Click the color at the start of the line to choose a different color. Then, click the edit icon to change the name of the category. To add a category to the node, select the edit icon on the node, then select the chosen category in the Condition section.

You can only add a category to a node if all the required conditions are inputted.