BISCIT Delivery Planning - User Guide
- 1 Overview
- 2 General Information
- 3 Getting Started
- 4 Login
- 5 Comments
- 5.1 Dispatch Board
- 5.1.1 Internal Notes
- 5.1.2 Daily Notes
- 5.2 Run Page
- 5.1 Dispatch Board
- 6 Vehicle Management
- 7 Route Management
- 8 Settings
- 8.1 General Settings
- 8.2 Company & Plant
- 8.3 Routing
- 8.4 Time Factors
- 8.5 Cost Factors
- 8.6 Ship Via Mappings
- 9 Run Page
Overview
BISCIT Delivery Planning (BDP) is the final piece in the puzzle sitting between Epicor Kinetic Warehouse (EKW) and Proof of Delivery (POD). BDP offers proactive planning and end to end visibility from order to delivery.
The drag and drop functionality allows users to react to changing priorities quickly enhancing your planning capabilities. Increased visibility promotes earlier planning, optimizing logistics resources for greater efficiency. Consequently, it elevates the customer service experience by ensuring timely deliveries, every time.
With route optimization and seamless integration with EKW’s Delivery Staging feature, this enables your team to strategically load customer shipments onto delivery vehicles in reverse delivery sequence unlocking unprecedented efficiencies and streamlining your distribution operations.
As it is fully integrated to POD, it ensures that delivery instructions and optimized routes are effortlessly communicated. POD’s capture of ‘sign on glass’ signatures and images provide a seamless and efficient delivery confirmation experience.
BDP is purpose built for Epicor Kinetic, with real time integration resulting in a singular, reliable source of truth, ensuring data consistency and integrity across your operations.
General Information
Ensure that all users that plan on operating in BDP (i.e. Moving data, optimizing runs) are added to a new “DispatchPortalGroup” security group.
1. Create a new Group in Epicor ‘Security Group Maintenance’ called “DispatchPortalGroup”
2. Go to user account and security maintenance.
3. Enter the user to be assigned to the group.
4. Go to groups and ensure “DispatchPortalGroup” is an authorized group for the user.
Getting Started
1. Go to https://bdp.biscit.com . For Demo please use the link below:
If the user is using BDP for demo purposes, please use this link: https://dispatch-portal-demo.biscit.co/
2. Agree to the Terms of Service.
3. Enter Epicor server name and click Continue.
4. Enter User Name and Password.
5. Select Company and Site.
6. Click Log in.
7. A pop up will appear saying the install has been successful.
a. Click OK, and the browser window will automatically close.
b. Continue to Step 8.
8. Regenerate the Epicor Data Model for your Epicor environment.
9. Refresh Epicor application pool.
10. Log into Epicor and open the Conversion Workbench and run Conversion 210.
11. Refresh the Epicor application pool.
12. Log in to BDP to complete automated setup steps now that the services exist.
Epicor Checks
1. Open Site Maintenance.
2. Open User Account Security Maintenance and add users to the DispatchPortalGroup security group that has been automatically created during installation.
Ensure that users that are going to be accessing the BDP have access to user data within your Epicor environment.
How to create Data in BDP
Creating sales order data:
1. Go to the Epicor instance you are connecting to (either the client or via the web browser).
2. Search for and select the Order Entry module.
3. Once opened, select the New button to create a New Order.
4. Enter in the following details:
customer, need by and ship by date, and then click save. This will give you an order number
Title | Information |
---|---|
Customer | Input Customer |
Need by and | Input Need by and |
Ship by date | Input Ship by date |
5. In the Lines page and the Detail section and click on the New button to create a new line.
6. Enter in the part and the quantity, and click on the Save button.
7. Select the Ready to fulfill checkbox and on the Save button.
9. The order will be seen in BDP.
Creating transfer order data
1. Go to the Epicor instance you are connecting to (either the client or via the web browser).
2. Search for and select Transfer Order Entry module.
3. Click the new button and enter from site.
4. Click on the save button.
5. Go to the Line Details section and click the New button to create a line.
6. Complete the following details:
Title | Information |
---|---|
Part number, | Input Customer |
Quantities | Input Quantities |
Need by | Input Need by and |
Ship by date | Input Ship by date |
7. Click on the Save Button.
Login
1. Type in the BDP web address (https://bdp.biscit.com) into the browser Address field, and hit ENTER.
2. Read the Terms of Service.
3. Once read and understood toggle the I accept switch to the right and click on Continue.
4. In the Server field, type in the license server url and click on Continue.
5. Enter the user credentials in the respective User Name and Password fields.
6. Click Login.
7. In the Company Configuration screen, choose the appropriate Company and Plant from the drop-down and click on Log In.
8. Once logged in, the user will be redirected to the BDP Home screen, where the Dispatch Board is also located.
a. Clicking on the Advanced Filter button allows the user to search using the following parameters:
1) Order Number
2) Customer Name
3) Part Number
b. The Advanced Filter button will appear to be highlighted in orange if a parameter has been selected.
c. The search parameters can be cleared by clicking the Clear button.
Comments
The BDP application allows users to add comments seamlessly across two key areas: the Run page and the Dispatch Board. These features enable effective communication and collaboration, helping users document, share, and reference important information directly within the application.
Dispatch Board
You can access and edit two types of notes within the Dispatch Board: internal run notes and daily notes. Internal run notes provide a way to document specific details about a run, while daily notes allow users to add comments about a particular day or even a range of days, offering greater flexibility for planning and communication.
Internal Notes
a. On the BDP Home screen, click on the comment box against a run.
b. An ‘Internal Note’ text box will appear that will allow the user to add a note against a run, once the note is complete, click save.
c. Once saved, the board will refresh and the note will be orange, indicating that there is an internal note against the run.
Daily Notes
a. On the BDP Home screen, click on the comment box against a day.
b. A comment modal will appear, allowing the user to specify a start date (the first day the note will apply), an end date (the final day the note will apply), and a note section to add details for a specific day or range of days. Click save once complete, and the board will refresh, and the selected dates with the note added will appear orange to specify that there is a note on that day.
Run Page
a. On the BDP Home screen, select a Run to view it.
b. Click on the notes icon within a run to view the Internal Notes.
c. In the Internal Notes view, note the intended comments that a dispatcher will need while making their delivery.
Example 1:
Example 2:
c. Notes made under the Internal Notes will be noted as well in any packs under that run in EPICOR.
Vehicle Management
Adding a new Truck
a. In the Trucks page, click on New Truck to initiate the creation of a new truck.
b. In the New Truck screen, input all the appropriate information to create the new truck.
Title | Information |
---|---|
ID | Input ID |
Description | Input Description |
Length | Input Length |
Height | Input Height |
Tare Weight | Input Tare Weight |
c. Click on Create New Truck.
Editing a Truck
a. In the Trucks page, click on pencil icon beside a truck listing and edit the necessary information in the fields.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Description | Input Description |
Length | Input Length |
Height | Input Height |
Tare Weight | Input Tare Weight |
c. Once done editing, click on Update.
d. An existing truck can also be deleted.
e. Click on Delete Truck to delete an existing truck.
Adding Trailers
a. In the Trailers page, click on New Trailers to initiate the creation of a new trailers.
b. In the New Trailers screen, input all the appropriate information to create the new trailers.
Title | Information |
---|---|
ID | Input ID |
Description | Input Description |
Length | Input Length |
Height | Input Height |
Tare Weight | Input Tare Weight |
c. Click on Create New Trailers.
Editing Trailers
a. In the Trailers page, click on pencil icon beside a trailers listing and edit the necessary information in the fields.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Description | Input Description |
Length | Input Length |
Height | Input Height |
Tare Weight | Input Tare Weight |
c. Once done editing, click on Update.
d. An existing trailer can also be deleted.
e. Click on Delete Trailer to delete an existing trailer.
Adding new Forklifts
a. In the Forklifts page, click on New Forklifts to initiate the creation of a new forklifts.
b. In the New Forklifts screen, input all the appropriate information to create the new forklifts.
Title | Information |
---|---|
ID | Input ID |
Description | Input Description |
Weight | Input Weight |
c. Click on Create New Forklifts .
Editing existing Forklifts
a. In the Forklifts page, click on pencil icon beside a forklifts listing and edit the necessary information in the fields.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Description | Input Description |
Weight | Input Weight |
c. Once done editing, click on Update.
d. An existing trailer can also be deleted.
e. Click on Delete Forklifts to delete an existing trailer.
Route Management
Creating a new route.
a. In the Route Management page, click on the New Route to initiate the creation of a new route.
b. In the New Route screen, input all the appropriate information to create the new route.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Route ID | Input Route ID |
Type | Normal Route - A route that goes from the depot to the list of addresses. Switch Route - A route that will go from the depot to a specified collection point, where deliveries on a run will be delivered from. Remote Route - A collection point from the above switch route. Once the driver reaches the remote route, the deliveries on the run will originate from this point. |
Departure Time | Input Departure Time |
Driver | Driver Name |
Truck | Input Truck |
Forklift | Input Forklift |
Trailer | Input Trailer |
c. Click on Create New Route.
Editing an existing route.
a. In the Route Management page, click on the pencil icon beside an existing route to edit it.
b. In the Route screen, all the details in an existing route can be changed.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Departure Time | Input Departure Time |
Driver | Driver Name - A list of employees in the EPICOR system |
Truck | Input Truck |
Forklift | Input Forklift |
Trailer | Input Trailer |
c. Once done editing, click on Update.
d. An existing route can also be deleted.
e. Click on Delete Route to delete an existing route.
Settings
General Settings
a. In the Settings section, click on General Settings.
b. Set the necessary settings accordingly:
Title | Information |
---|---|
App Version | Specifies the version the user is using for BDP. |
Minimize Weekends | This is a setting that will impact the Dispatch Board. |
Unit system | Allows the user to specify whether or not they would like to view data in Imperial or Metric system accordingly. For example, if Metric was selected, it would display the vehicle weight/length in metres/kilograms. If Imperial was selected, it would display in feet/pounds |
Decimal Accuracy | This will display the height/weight measurements to the amount of decimals specified, with maximum being 2 decimals. |
c. Click Save.
Company & Plant
a. In the Settings section, click on Company & Plant.
b. Choose the appropriate Company and Plant from the drop-down list.
c. Click Save.
Routing
a. In the Settings section, click on Routing.
b. In the Azure Maps Key field, enter the the appropriate Azure Maps Key.
c. Click Save.
Time Factors
a. In the Settings section, click on Time Factors.
Title | Information |
---|---|
OTS Delivery (minutes) | Input OTS Delivery (in minutes). This will add the minutes that have been entered against the delivery time for each one time ship to order delivery on a run. |
Border Times (minutes) | Input Border Times (in minutes). This will add the minutes that have been entered against the delivery time for each border crossing that is present on a run. The minutes entered here will be doubled on optimisation to account for the return trip back through the border. |
Skid Times (minutes) | Input Skid Times (in minutes). This will add the minutes that have been entered against the delivery time for each pallet on a run. A pallet will be grouped by a pack, so if there are 2 packs on a delivery, then it will be assumed that there are 2 pallets. |
Unplanned Contingencies (minutes) | Input Unplanned Contingencies (in minutes). This will add the minutes that have been entered against the delivery time for unplanned contingencies (e.g. Stopping for food, stopping for the bathroom etc.). |
Break times (minutes) | Input Break times (in minutes). This will add the minutes that have been entered against the delivery time for break times the driver is entitled to. This will account for how many break minutes per hour the driver is entitled to. |
Assumes Stop Duration (minute) | Input Assumes Stop Duration (in minute). This will add the minutes that have been entered against the delivery time for assumptions on stop duration (e.g. Stopping for fuel, customer stop times etc.). |
c. Click on Save.
Cost Factors
a. In the Settings section, click on Cost Factors.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Vehicle Cost (dollars) | Input Vehicle Cost (in dollars). This will be an estimate of the cost of the vehicle. (Truck Tyres, Vehicle Maintenance, Cleaning etc.) |
Fuel Cost (dollars) | Input Fuel Cost (in dollars). This will be an estimate of the cost of fuel per km. |
Labor Cost (dollars) | Input Labor Cost (in dollars). This will estimate the cost of labor per hour. For example, if a run is 6 hours, it will be the inputted value times 6. |
Miscellaneous Cost(dollars) | Input Miscellaneous Cost(in dollars). This will be an estimate of miscellaneous cost per run. |
c. Click on Save.
Ship Via Mappings
a. In the Settings section, click on Ship Via Mappings.
a. In the Settings section, click on Ship Via Mappings.
b. Click on +New Mapping.
c. Select a Ship Via and Route ID using the drop-down boxes.
d. Click on Create New Ship Via Mappings.
Run Page
How to Go to Run Page.
a. Click on the Home section to view the Dispatch Board.
b. click on a run to open the Run Page.
b. In the Run Page, user can edit the Route Details.
Editing Route Details.
a. Beside the Route Details header, click on the edit icon.
b. In the Edit Run Details screen, any of the details can be edited by selecting a new item from the respective drop-down.
Title | Information |
---|---|
Driver | Edit Driver by selecting from drop-down |
Truck | Edit Truck by selecting from drop-down |
Forklift | Edit Forklift by selecting from drop-down |
Trailer | Edit Trailer by selecting from drop-down |
c. Click on Update to complete any amendments to the Route Details.
Optimising Route.
a. In the Run Page, estimates are calculated accordingly for Travel Time and Cost will be seen here when Time Factors and Cost Estimates have been set up in the Settings section.
b. Click on the Reoptimise Route button and click YES to calculate the Travel Time and Est. Cost.
Editing a Delivery/Release.
a. In the Run Page, under the Deliveries, click on the edit icon.
b. Tick the appropriate order checkbox to edit the order.
c. Click on the calendar icon beside the date to choose a different delivery date.
d. Choose a new route in the drop-down.
e. Click on Update Selected Releases to complete the amendments to the selected orders.
Viewing an Order Timeline
a. Under Deliveries, click on the headset icon beside an order.
b. This will be pull up the Order Timeline view
Title | Information |
---|---|
Order Created | When an order is made and submitted to Epicor |
Order Released | When the first item is release to the material queue |
Order Allocated to picker | When an employee has picked an order and is allocated to them |
Picking | Shows how many items have been picked |
Order Packed | Will indicate if an order has a pack number and a pack ID |
Order Shipped | When an order has been shipped |