Several mass merchants require the use of dynamic routing, using a Transportation Management System (TMS), to streamline transportation costs and minimize routing mistakes. The goals of dynamic routing are to reduce transportation expense and speed product flow from suppliers to stores.
The following steps summarize the business workflow:
The mass merchant sends EDI form 850 transactions (purchase orders) with earliest ship date and cancel after date information.
Once a week, the supplier sends an EDI form 753 (request for routing) transaction to the mass merchant with Available to Ship (ATS) data (day 1). For information on the format of the EDI form 753, see 753 Export Format.
The mass merchant sends an EDI form 754 (routing response) transaction to the supplier with routing instructions for the ATS data, and the supplier picks and packs orders (day 2). For information on the format of the EDI form 754, see 754 Import Format.
The supplier ships products according to the EDI form 754 transaction instructions (day 3).