Planning and Execution of Delivery Scheduling to Chain Store Branches Using a Fleet of Vehicles
Priority's Delivery Scheduling module enables you to:

• Set up distribution routes and arrange order delivery by date and route
• Manage a fleet of vehicles, defining weight and volume capacity
• Automatically assign vehicles by date and distribution route, controlling for weight/volume limitations
• Prepare order picklists according to distribution routv Produce sales invoices and shipping documents per distribution route

Customers' orders are rerouted for delivery from the logistical center. When orders are delivered, picklists are imported directly from the logistical center, thereby updating order and inventory balances and generating shipping documents and customer invoices.

Priority includes a program for automatic assignment of sales orders to distribution routes. The Schedule Deliveries program assigns sales orders to distribution routes based on the order supply date, delivery routing, delivery days defined for the customer, and the company's working hours. For an order to be included by the Schedule Deliveries program, it must have a status flagged in the Schedule Deliveries column of the Statuses for Orders form.

Billing customers on the basis of a sales order, before goods are shipped, while checking the customer's current credit balance

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To bill a customer for an order prior to shipment, while checking the current credit balance, in a manner that allows you to later open a customer shipment document linked to the sales order:

• Open a multi-shipment invoice and link it to the sales order. The order remains open and the usage of customer credit is transferred from the order to the invoice.
• Open a customer shipment document for the customer to a consignment warehouse, on the basis of the order. The order is closed, and the shipment does not use the customer's credit, since it is recorded to a consignment warehouse. This allows you to easily track the goods that were "shipped" but not supplied to the customer, according to the contents of the consignment warehouse. It also prevents any duplication in the balance sheet - both for the customer debit and for inventory - since the consignment warehouse is not flagged for inventory valuation.
• After payment is received from the customer, open a second customer shipment document based on the first. This document, which will not be flagged as billable, transfers the goods from the consignment warehouse to the customer.

Companies whose sales reps circulate in the field with handheld devices can provide their reps with comprehensive data regarding a customer's debts. Once a day, the device can be loaded with up-to-date detailed information regarding open invoices, post-dated checks, etc.

Managing price lists and discounts by a customer group while maintaining a single entry for price lists and discounts for a given customer group.
Define a representative customer for each customer group. Changes and updates to price terms or discounts for the representative customer take effect immediately for all customers in that group.

Priority contains a Parts per Vendor form for listing the various parts provided by a specific vendor. When selecting the vendor in purchase documents, Choose lists include only those products that vendor provides, and not the entire part catalogue.

The bonus system in Priority enables you to offer customers bonus parts when they order a certain quantity of a specific part or parts belonging to the same part family. There are two types of bonuses:

• Regular bonuses are given upon purchase of a certain part by some or all customers.
• Special bonuses are defined for specific customers and are given to those customers only.

You can define progressive bonuses based on quantity purchased, so as to increase the customers' incentive to purchase large quantities.

MRP Planning in Commercial Companies

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) for Distributors enables the planning of required issues for sales orders and forecast orders (without addressing BOMs or production/assembly operations of any kind).
Such planning "explodes" requirements for the assembled product to the next level down in the BOM. For instance, it will generate purchase requisitions for the component parts of a bicycle.

Priority enables you to record blanket purchase orders, which offer special pricing terms in exchange for a commitment to purchase a specified quantity of parts within a set time frame. The blanket order acts as a basis for the production of multiple purchase orders. The system provides a means of tracking the remaining quantity in the blanket order, as well as the monetary value of the order balance.

Priority enables you to maintain a status for each line item in a purchase order from the vendor, providing a means of tracking and supervision of the estimated time to receipt of ordered items to the company warehouse.

This module supports optimization of the three basic operations of warehouse management:

• Directed Picking
• Directed Replenishment
• Directed Putaway

These are all subject to constraints defined in advance by the warehouse manager.
You can also use this module to plan other routine warehouse tasks, such as inventory count, return to vendor, warehouse transfer, etc. For each warehouse operation recorded in this module, an appropriate inventory transaction document (e.g., shipping, sales invoice, or warehouse transfer document) is created, using built-in programs.

The module interfaces with automated data collection (ADC) systems, and supports input of inventory data via handheld devices and other data collection tools.

Priority's Special Offers module enables users to offer incentives to customers that purchase a designated amount of goods within a defined period.
In the first stage, you assign a name, start and end dates, and Priority to the offer (i.e., if two offers are defined for the same part or part family, the offer Priority determines which one will be attached first to invoiced sales when the campaign is over). Later on, you can define a target quantity for the part, which the customer must purchase in order to be eligible for offer benefits. Alternatively, you can define a target sum; customers who purchase target parts equaling this sum during the defined offer period will be eligible for benefits.

Customer compensation can be according to any one of the following models:

• Offered Products: Select a part number and quantity to which the customer will be entitled if they meet the offer target.
• Credit in Percentage of total purchases during the offer period: Determine the credit % which the customer will receive.
• Fixed Monetary Credit for purchases made during the offer period: Indicate the amount of credit which the customer will receive.

For companies that deal with diverse parts characterized by a variety of parameters (e.g., spare car parts), Priority offers a module that allows you to define specifications for each part, and to locate the part from within the lines of a sales order using a Part Specifications Explorer. For example, you can locate a spare car part by the car's make and model, the side damaged, etc.

Priority's Replenish Consignment Warehouses program calculates current and projected inventory levels in consignment warehouses and determines the quantities of each part that are needed to replenish the supply, according to a set of inventory parameters defined by the user. Furthermore, the program can be set up to open the necessary orders automatically.

Companies that manufacture and distribute products often maintain identical parts with different characteristics. For instance, for the electrical industry, this may be identical products with different voltages (110V vs. 220V); in the fashion industry, this may be shirts of different colors, fabrics and/or sizes. These products need to be maintained separately in inventory, yet should be analyzed in executive reports as the same product.
Priority allows you to define a common base product for parts with similar characteristics. In this manner, for example, you can analyze sales data for a 110V part separately, or for the base product, which takes into account sales of both the 110V part and its parallel 220V part. This makes it easier to determine how many units of a particular product were sold or will be sold, regardless of differences in a particular feature (voltage, color, fabric, size, etc.).

The Problem:
In factories that process a large quantity of parts, it is too

difficult to maintain the various levels of safety stock manually. The solution described here allows you to calculate safety stock for each part in a controlled automatic manner. The calculation is performed on the basis of actual material usage during a defined period, and includes the possibility of adding coefficients or manually revising recommended quantities.

The Solution:

Priority provides a form that displays the usage of raw materials during the desired period, and recommends the appropriate level of safety stock on the basis of this data, as well as various coefficients. Usage data are taken from issues to the plant floor, warehouse transfers and customer sales.You can manually revise the recommended safety stock after approving the results displayed in the form. You can also perform a general update of the safety stock on the basis of the form data.