Using Oracle Transportation with Oracle WMS – Part 1

Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) has been rated very highly by analysts and customers alike. If you recall, OTM is the re-branding of the transportation planning product G-Log that Oracle acquired in 2005. Shortly after the acquisition, Oracle announced the integration of the G-Log product line with Oracle E-Business Suite 11.5.10 release. The integration since then has been updated for subsequent E-Business suite releases and covers all entities required for integrating OTM with E-Business suite such as:

Master Date: Items, Locations, etc. This is a one-way interface since the idea is that EBS will be the source of truth for master data. It’s a “Push” interface i.e. EBS pushes the master data over toOTM
Order Entry Integration: This integration is needed in those situations when you need to provide a carrier and service level at the time of order entry. This is typically needed for parcel shipments.
Shipping Itinerary Integration: Since OTM plans the trips and sends the trip information to EBS, this is a two way interface.
Warehouse Dock door and dock schedule integration: Need to synch dock doors and appointment information to and from OTM

Unlike most of the recent integrations announced by Oracle, the out of box OTM – EBS integration is not based on AIA. It is a point to point integration based on BPEL.

Is WMS integrated with OTM?

I have no idea where this comes from, but I find that there is a common misperception among consultants and customers that WMS is not integrated with OTM. The truth is that WMS is integrated with OTM and it leverages the same OTM integration that exists with EBS. In R12.1 Oracle has further enhanced it by including Warehouse dock door and dock schedule information as well in the integration footprint. What does the current integration mean from a warehousing perspective? It means that you can perform warehouse tasks based on the transportation plan. In other words you can release lines for picking prior to dock appointment and staging the products to the dock door where the dock appointment has been made. From a WMS perspective there are two integration points you should be interested in:
1. Shipping Itinerary Integration
2. Dock Door Appointments Integration
Shipping Itinerary Integration
From a warehouse perspective, it’s the delivery trip interface with OTM that is of most interest to us. This integration is trickier since by necessity it has to be a two way interface. EBS sends the order information to OTM for planning and OTM sends the shipping itinerary back to EBS based on transportation constraints and goals. The EBS then executes the pick, pack and ship process and resends the information back to OTM for rerating if required.
On the EBS side, there is a concurrent program called “Shipping transportation outbound Interface”. This program creates Order release in OTM from Delivery in EBS. So, as you probably guessed, deliveries in EBS are a pre-requisite for using this integration. Once the transportation plan is finalized in OTM, OTM triggers planned shipment interface concurrent request to create a trip in EBS. If you also use dock appointments in OTM…read on. There are some more goodies in R12.1 if you are also using WMS.

Dock Door Appointments Integration
This is a brand new interface point introduced in R12.1.Unlike the interface for shipping itinerary, this one is applicable for WMS only. This interface synchronizes the dock doors defined in WMS to OTM. This model assumes that WMS is the source of truth for dock door definitions. Oracle has provided a concurrent request for dock door synchronization

Dock Door - OTM Synch

OTM-WMS Integration
In my viewpoint, the current OTM-WMS integration is robust and works as described. However, the integration may require tweaking if you have more complex needs and/or you operate a very dynamic logistics environment. There are also, I feel, a few ‘missing links’ that, if addressed,can help customers design a more efficient fulfillment operation. My next post will explore these points and how you can position to benefit from OTM and WMS in your logistics operations.

-Amin Sikander

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