FeDex Delivery Update: Wednesday 4th February

Orders dispatched on Tuesday 3rd February for delivery today may again be disrupted by the weather conditions. Here is the latest update from FeDEx:

Severe Weather conditions and black ice have been reported by the following depots, which has resulted in hazardous conditions on many side roads throughout the regions, therefore deliveries within these areas will be affected:- Exeter (15/115), Scunthorpe (47), Harlow (23), Aylesbury (24/124), Dartford (305/76), Leeds (50), Sheffield (46), Swansea (98/28), Fareham (11/12/84), Gloucester (26), Cardiff (27), Gretna (54/58), Croydon (1/77), Swindon (83), Derby (39), Launceston (16/72/81/172), Byfleet (7/319) and Camberley (18)

Our apologies for any inconvenience caused - if you have a query on a specific order please contact our customer service team directly in the normal manner.

Single Line Backorders

Probably one of the most frustrating issues we currently have is that of single line backorders sent separately by post. They are time consuming and inefficient to handle for both retailer and distributor and as a consequence are a high priority for us to resolve.

Progress to date – we closed a significant gap back in mid January where stock was allocated to backorders but they were not shipped for a short period of time. A number of these backorders combined with normal orders in the usual manner, however a significant portion did not (as previous blog posts relate) and continue not to do so. However with better visibility of the specific causes we have made good progress in pinpointing the reasons and seeking a solution. There are around seven possible and largely related scenarios of which the following is an example concerning Synergi orders as follows:

· Place a Synergi order for 30 articles and select “Don’t send backorders with this order”
· Your order arrives with 25 of the 30 articles and no backorders. So far so good.
· However – the 5 outstanding backorders are each being created in SAP with the same effective instruction – “Don’t send backorders with this order”
· So when you place your next order and we now have stock for say backorder A, SAP triggers backorder A to be released, but as it carries the instruction “Don’t send backorders with this order” it sends Backorder A separately from your stock order.

In practice the logic is more complex as in SAP the setting is: Can this order (or backorder) be combined with another order, which is not the same concept of backorders as we currently understand them.

In order to minimise the incidence of creating single line backorders under this scenario you may wish to avoid using the “Don’t send backorders with this order” option in Synergi. We realise this has operational implications, which are not perfect so you will need to judge the benefits for your store. We are also exploring the possibility of amending backorders already created in this manner for your store.

We will update on progress as soon as we have a solution in place.

Update: Fedex Deliveries Tuesday 3rd February

We anticipated that FeDex might have some difficulty delivering orders despatched by STLD on Monday. Below is an extract from their website indicating the depots most affected:

“Severe Weather conditions and heavy snowfall/black ice has been reported by the following depots, which has resulted in hazardous conditions and many road closures throughout the regions, therefore deliveries within these areas will be affected:- Scunthorpe (47), Sheffield (46), Frome (114), Exeter (15/115), Gretna (54/58), Gloucester (26), Byfleet (7/319), Brighton (3), Harlow (23), Leeds (50), Croydon (1/77), Fareham (11/12/84), Swansea (28/98), Aylesbury (24/124), Launceston (16/72/81/172), Cardiff (27), Camberley (18) and Littleborough (90).”

If you have a query on a specific order please contact our customer service team directly in the normal manner.

Kind Regards

STLD Blog Team

Severe weather - Update

Hi All

Further to the earlier update on weather conditions, I can confirm that we are managing to despatch orders placed today and our courier (Fedex) will be picking up as normal from our warehouse. They have, however indicated that there may be some issues with their central hub in Stoke resulting in some parts of the country not recieving a normal service.

We hope this does not cause you too much disruption.

Kind Regards

STLD Blog Team

Two Invoices for One Delivery

Hi All

In SAP one of the requirements we had from both retailers and distribution customers was to improve on how we gave extended credit terms for seasonal product such as Christmas cards. For example, when the initial Christmas order is shipped, if a pack of Christmas Cards is out of stock and subsequently a normal order picks up a backorder for that pack, then the only way to handle the differing credit terms (eg 30 days & 60 days) is to create 2 separate invoices for the one delivery. This is not the only scenario where two invoices can result, but it does illustrate that in this instance its not an error but a consequence of meeting one of our requirements from the system.

STL Blog Team