Table of Contents

Irregularity

During the execution of a transport order all kinds of events can take place that require attention. Irregularities help you record and manage these events at any level within a transport order or trip — for example an address that isn't open to receive goods, or an order delivered too late due to specific circumstances.

Overview

Irregularities help you:

  • Record exceptions with a default impact level per type, so you can triage the most urgent ones first
  • Follow up an irregularity with the 3PL status and step functionality
  • Set up custom attributes and translations on irregularity codes
  • Automatically create irregularities for the open sections of a cancelled trip
  • Count related irregularities — optionally including everything the irregularity is linked to — in a status template, and act on the result
  • Exchange e-mail messages about an irregularity with a customer, carrier, or contact, directly from the irregularity

Set up irregularity codes

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Irregularity Codes List, and then choose the related link.
  2. Choose New to create a code.
  3. Fill in the fields as necessary. The following table describes key fields.
Field Description
Code / Description Identity of the code. The description is copied onto an irregularity when you select this code, and can be translated — see below.
Caused by Default classification for irregularities of this code: Transport Company, Bill-to Customer, or Restriction.
Level of Impact Default impact — Information, Warning, or Error — shown as a color on the irregularity list and card, and copied onto the irregularity.
Default Status Template The status lifecycle a new irregularity of this code starts in. Required — without it, the irregularity has no usable status.
Create New Shipment When enabled, and the irregularity is fully linked to a shipment, selecting this code automatically creates a replacement section for that shipment.
Status Original Shipment The status the original shipment should get when a replacement shipment is created.
Resolution Action What happens when this code's irregularities are resolved: nothing, delete the irregularity, or move it to a Resolved Status.
Address Source The address that is copied onto irregularities created from a selection with this code. If empty, the default from Irregularity Setup is used.
Grouping Criteria Code How selected orders or sections are grouped into irregularities when you use this code. If empty, the default from Irregularity Setup is used.
Note

Register at least one status template for the Irregularities table, with one status that allows posting, before creating irregularity codes.

Attributes

Choose the action Attributes on an irregularity code to set up to 10 custom attributes for that code. When you select the code on an irregularity, its attribute values are copied onto the irregularity — only the attributes configured to be visible are shown.

Translations

Choose the action Translations on an irregularity code to add translated descriptions per language. If no translation exists for a language, the base Description is used.

Create irregularities from a selection

Use Create Irregularities (Selection) to register irregularities for several orders or sections in one step, and to decide how they're grouped. The existing Create Irregularity action doesn't change: it still creates one irregularity for the record you're on and then opens the irregularity card. On the section list, Create Irregularity is available as well and works the same way.

  1. Open the Order List or the Section List, and select the orders or sections.
  2. Choose Create Irregularities (Selection).
  3. In the Create Irregularities dialog, review the values that are proposed, and change them where needed:
    • Irregularity Code: the code applied to the new irregularities. If you change the code, the address source and grouping are reloaded from that code, or from Irregularity Setup when the code has none.
    • Address Source: choose From Address or To Address to copy that address from the selected documents, None for no address, or Manual to enter an address yourself. For Manual, the Address No. field appears.
    • Grouping Criteria Code: how the selected documents are grouped. Leave it empty to create one irregularity per selected document.
  4. Choose OK.

The selected orders or sections are added to the new irregularity as its source. Documents that get the same grouping value end up in the same irregularity. For example, if you select five sections of two orders and the grouping criteria group on the order, two irregularities are created.

If you use From Address or To Address, the documents in one group must have the same address. If a document has no address, or the addresses in a group differ, you get an error. Change the grouping or the address source, and try again.

Note

The grouping criteria that you can choose are the existing grouping criteria of type TMS Document Header that aren't blocked.

After the irregularities are created, the result depends on Show Created Irregularities in Irregularity Setup. When it's enabled, the irregularity card opens if one irregularity was created, or a message shows how many were created if there are several. When it's disabled, nothing opens.

Set up defaults for a selection

You can propose values in the Create Irregularities dialog, so planners don't have to enter them every time. The planner can always change them in the dialog. These settings only apply to Create Irregularities (Selection). They don't affect Create Irregularity.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Irregularity Setup, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Create from Selection FastTab, fill in the fields as necessary. The following table describes the fields.
Field Description
Default Irregularity Code The code that is proposed when the dialog opens.
Default Address Source The address source that is used when the irregularity code has no address source.
Default Grouping Criteria Code The grouping that is used when the irregularity code has no grouping criteria. Leave it empty to create one irregularity per document.
Show Created Irregularities Whether the created irregularity opens after you choose OK. When several irregularities are created, a message is shown instead.

The address source and grouping come first from the irregularity code that is selected in the dialog. Only when the code has none, the defaults in this table are used. To set a code-specific address source and grouping, see Set up irregularity codes. If you don't set up any defaults, you can still use the action and choose everything in the dialog.

Automatically create irregularities when cancelling a trip

Use the function set function CANCEL TRIP IRR (on the trip) to automatically create an irregularity for every open section of a trip — for example, from a step run when a trip is cancelled. A section counts as open when its status is before Unloaded.

Parameter Description
TRIPNO The trip to create irregularities for. Required.
IRREGULARITY CODE The irregularity code applied to each created irregularity.
SECT STATUS FILTER Optional filter on the section's status code.
GROUPING CRIT. CODE Optional grouping criteria — when set, sections matching the same criteria are added to one existing irregularity instead of creating a new one each time.
COPY HU When enabled, the section's carriers (handling units) are added to the irregularity as related entities.
REMARKS Remarks set on each created irregularity.

Use the status function Count Irregularities related to current record to check, at any point in a status flow, how many irregularities exist for the current record — and optionally act when there are too many.

Parameter Description
IRREG. CODE FILTER / STATUS CODE FILTER / IMPACT LEVEL FILTER Optional filters on the irregularities to count.
LIMIT The maximum number of irregularities allowed.
INCL. ENT. RELATIONS When enabled, counts every irregularity related to the current record through its entity relations, not only the ones directly linked by document number. For an order, this also includes irregularities on the order's sections.
WHEN LIMIT EXCEEDED What happens when the count exceeds the limit: show an error, ask for confirmation, or show a message.
NEW ORDER STATUS Optional. When set and the limit is exceeded, the current record is moved to this status instead of showing the error/confirmation/message above.

Exchange messages about an irregularity

Open an irregularity and use the conversation subform to keep a running e-mail history with the customer, carrier, or another party about the exception, directly next to the irregularity.

  • Use Reply / Reply All on a message to draft a response; the recipients (and, on Reply All, all other original recipients) are copied onto the draft automatically.
  • Use the function set function CREATE INTERACTION to start a new conversation with a specific party as part of a scripted flow — for example a step that both notifies the carrier and advances the irregularity's status.
Note

When a reply arrives by e-mail, it's matched to the irregularity and added to the conversation automatically. Depending on setup, a reply from a specific party can also automatically advance the irregularity to a configured status — for example, moving it back to In progress as soon as the customer responds.

Resolve an irregularity with a function

Use the resolution functions of the TMS Irreg Resolution Functions function set in a step to resolve an irregularity in one go, for example by creating a new order or by moving a carrier to another planning unit. Each function works on the orders, sections, and carriers that are linked to the irregularity as a cause.

Function What it does
CREATE RETRY ORDER Creates a new order as a copy of the original order and adds the linked carriers to it. For the parameters, see Create retry order.
CREATE RETRY SECTION Creates a new order, including the goods, carriers, and comments, as a copy of the order of the linked section, and optionally cancels the original section. The original order is cancelled when all its sections are cancelled. Otherwise, it's partly cancelled. For the parameters, see Create retry order for section.
CREATE RETURN ORDER Creates a return order for the linked section, with the loading and unloading addresses switched, and optionally sets a status on the original section. For the parameters, see Create return order.
CREATE RETURN CARR Creates a return order for the linked carriers, with the addresses switched, and optionally cancels the original carriers. For the parameters, see Create return carrier.
UPD. CARR PLANBOX Moves the linked carriers to the plan box that was proposed for them. For the parameters, see Update carrier plan box.
UPD. CARR PLAN DEP. Moves the linked carriers to the plan department that was proposed for them. For the parameters, see Update carrier plan department.
UPD. CARR DEPARTMENT Moves the linked carriers to the department that was proposed for them. For the parameters, see Update carrier department.
UPD. CARR DIMENSION Corrects the dimensions of the linked carrier with the deviating values that were registered. For the parameters, see Update carrier dimensions.
PROC. IRREGULARITIES Sets a status or runs a step for the irregularities of the same order. For the parameters, see Process irregularities.

The status parameters of these functions are optional, except IRR. RESOLVED STATUS in CREATE RETURN CARR and UPD. CARR DEPARTMENT. When you leave an optional status parameter empty, the function skips that status update. Use IRR. RESOLVED STATUS to set the status of the irregularity after the function has run.

Change the plan box, plan department, or department

The three update functions use the new value that was proposed for the carriers. They work in one of two ways:

  • When the new value applies to all carriers of the section and UPD. IF ALL UPDATED is enabled, the function updates the original order, the original section, or both. UPD. SECTION/ORDER sets which one: 0 for the order, 1 for the section, or 2 for both.
  • Otherwise, the function creates a new order with the new value and adds the carriers to it. Use CARR CXL STATUS to set a new status on the original carriers.

Besides the carrier and order status parameters that are described in Create retry order, these functions have the following parameters.

Parameter Description
UPD. IF ALL UPDATED Update the original order instead of creating a new one when all carriers have a new value.
UPD. SECTION/ORDER The document to update: 0 for the order, 1 for the section, or 2 for both.
UPD. STATUS The status to set on the updated document. Not possible when you update both.
CLEAR PLAN VALUES The other plan values to clear: 1 for the department, 2 for the plan department, and 3 for the plan box. Combine values with &, for example 1&3. Each function ignores its own value.
RESET LOAD TIMES / RESET UNLOAD TIMES Clear the loading or unloading times. Only available for UPD. CARR PLAN DEP. and UPD. CARR DEPARTMENT.
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