Facility connection

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Facility connections specify for each facility which other facilities within the network can be supplied and whether the end customer can be directly supplied. Details for each facility connection may include the carrier used for transportation, available packaging units (and their dimensions), transport times, and associated costs. Fallback times and costs are considered if no specific packaging units are defined.

Type

The type of the facility connection defines to which "receiver category" a facility can supply to. This can be either managed facility, customer or supplier.

Target

The target property allows restricting the connection's destination. For example, a connection can be defined for only one specific managed facility or to all managed facilities except for explicitly defined exceptions.

Context

The context defines specifications for a facility connection depending on the selected context type:

• FACILITY:

  • Define the exact facility ID(s) to which the "supplying facility" is connected, or exclude specific facilities.

• FACILITY_GROUP:

  • Define the facility groups to which the "supplying facility" is connected, or exclude specific facility groups.

• CATEGORY:

  • Define a specific category for which this facility connection can be used.

  • Example: The facility connection can only be used for shipping items of the category "dangerous goods".

• TAG_REFERENCE

  • Define whether this connection can only be used in case the request/order has a defined tag.

Contexts define which connections can be used by which request. A connection without context can be used by all requests (in routing).

The operator NOT allows users to exclude certain cases (for example, facility groups) from a connection.

Carrier reference/key

This property defines which carrier represents the connection. In case carriers are connected to the fulfillmenttools platform, the corresponding carrierKey can be referenced here as well.

Fallback costs and times

In case no shipping cost or transit time information for packaging units is defined for a connection, the fallback costs and/or times will be taken into account for a cost and time calculation during routing.

In case there are packaging unit specific prices and transit times defined, the fallback costs and times will be taken into account in case none of the available packaging units can be used for the requested items.

Cutoff times

The cutoff time defines the time point when parcels are usually picked up at a location. This time point can vary depending on the weekday as well as on public holidays.

Example

DHL picks up parcels at the store in Berlin on Monday-Friday at 5pm, Saturday at 3pm and not at all on Sundays. Although January 1st is a Thursday, no pickup will be on this specific date since it is a holiday.

In the context of external suppliers the time point of the actual handover to the carrier is usually not known. However, the cutoff times should still be set in order to enable a correct delivery time calculation. In this case, the cutoff time can be interpreted as the latest point in time until an order needs to placed to guarantee a delivery within the defined transit days.

Example

• Transit time for the facility connection "Supplier xy GmbH to Store Cologne" is 1 day.

• Cut-off time for this facility connection is Monday-Friday 4pm.

  • If the order is placed on Tuesday 2pm, the items will arrive in Cologne on Wednesday.

  • If the order is placed on Tuesday 5pm, the items will arrive in Cologne on Thursday.

Non-delivery days

Non-delivery days are days where carriers do not operate. To store this information on the platform, it is possible to set up “non-delivery-days” in the respective carrier configurations. The stored information is then taken into account when calculating delivery times and possible delivery days.

Non-delivery days can be either specific calendar dates (1 January) or a day of the week (Sunday). While days are always recurring (recurringNonDeliveryWeekdays), a specific calendar date can be set up as RECURRING or SINGLE by using the nonDeliveryType.

Non-delivery days refer to the transit days (day after pickup until delivery day). There are differences depending on the carrier. While carrier X only delivers from Mondays till Fridays, carrier Y also operates on Saturdays. In addition, deliveries are usually not made on public holidays. Public holidays again vary from country to country and province to province.

Packaging units

The packaging units define the different parcel/pallet sizes that are available for a specific facility connection.

Example

When shipping items from "Store Berlin" to the end customer via DHL, parcel sizes S, M, L can be used.

By using the context within packagingUnitsByContexts, different packaging units with different prices and transit times can be defined depending on the following factors:

• TARGET_POSTALCODE / TARGET_COUNTRY

  • Prices and transit times might differ depending on where the parcel is shipped. Parcel sizes might differ between domestic and international destinations.

• CATEGORY

  • Define a specific category for which this packaging unit can be used.

  • For example, there might be special parcels for items of category "dangerous goods".

Cases

1. A managed facility can supply another managed facility within the network (inter-facility transfer)

1. A managed facility can supply the end customer directly

1. A supplier can supply the end customer directly

4a. A supplier can supply all managed facilities within the network

4b. A supplier can supply all managed facilities within the network except the facility group XY / facility XY

4c. A supplier can supply a facility group within the network

Example: Supplier XY GmbH can supply the end customer directly, all facilities that are part of the facility group Germany and the facility "Store Zürich"