Configuring Locations for Automatic Location Assignment

Locations are used as a record of the physical offices or buildings in your organization, such as corporate offices, warehouses, or retail premises. When you enable automatic location assignment (ALA), you use locations to represent the fulfillment locations in your business. Changing the following attributes of a location can affect how automatic location assignment works:

Location type – Describes the kind of location. Location types can be Store, Warehouse, or blank. Later, you can choose a location type as an attribute of an automatic location assignment rule.
Automatic location assignment options – In the Automatic Location Assignment subtab, you can allow or disallow automatic location assignment. If you allow fulfillment from a location, you can include or exclude specific regions. Automatic location assignment is disallowed by default, meaning NetSuite does not take the location into account when assigning locations automatically to sales order lines. Additionally, the location does not appear in any regions you create.
Buffer stock – To prevent a shortage of stock at a retail location, you can set the minimum quantity of inventory that must always be available at the location. The automatic location assignment engine will not assign a location to a sales order line if doing so causes the inventory to drop below the buffer stock. You might want to specify buffer stock to reserve inventory at a store location for walk-in customers.

Note:
Supply Allocation does not consider buffer stock when allocating and setting expected item ship dates. Supply allocation allows you to allocate incoming supply, without considering buffer stock.

For example, in a kitchenware store, there are currently 12 units available of a stoneware dish. The buffer stock quantity for the store is set to 10. If you create a sales order for five dishes, automatic location assignment will disregard the location because assigning the sales order line to the store would cause inventory of the dish to go below the buffer stock.

Note:
The buffer stock quantity applies to all inventory items at the location regardless of the type, class, or category of item. For example, in a store that sells kitchenware, the same buffer stock quantity would apply to a silver fork, a stoneware dish, and a gas-fired stove.

Note:
If the Store Pickup feature is enabled, the same buffer stock level on the location record also applies to store pickup orders. If the line item quantity in the sales order causes the inventory of the item at the location to drop below the buffer stock, you cannot select the location for store pickup. See Store Pickup for more information.
Geolocation method – In the Automatic Location Assignment subtab, you can choose how NetSuite calculates the geographic position of the location. By default, automatic location assignment uses the postal code entered in the address fields to calculate the geographical position of the location. However, you can also enter the precise latitude and longitude coordinates of the location and set the geolocation method to use those coordinates instead.

For general information about working with the location record, see Locations Overview.

Shipping Regions

When you enable automatic location assignment in a location record, you can limit the regions to which goods can be shipped from the location. There are two methods you can use to restrict shipments to regions:

Allow shipments worldwide but exclude some regions
Allow shipments to specific regions by explicitly including and excluding regions

An excluded region can be a subset of another larger region. For example, if you want to allow shipments to all states in the United States except Hawaii, you might create a region at the country level for the United States of America (USA) and another region for the state of Hawaii; you can then add USA to the list of included regions and add Hawaii to the list of excluded regions.

Geolocation Method

The geolocation method used by automatic location assignment determines how NetSuite calculates the geographical position of a location. NetSuite uses the postal code specified in the location address fields by default. Because the geographical area covered by a postal code is usually irregular in shape, NetSuite uses the centroid (or geometrical center) of the postal code area.

Note:

Countries with a higher density of postal codes generally provide a higher degree of precision.

You can also enter the latitude and longitude coordinates of a location on the location record and then set the geolocation method to use those coordinates. You might do this if you do not have a postal code for the location, or you want to use the precise geographic coordinates of the location. NetSuite accepts latitude and longitude coordinates in decimal form only. For example, to represent a latitude that is 37º 32’ 12.5” north of the equator, enter the decimal coordinates “37.536798”. Include at least four decimal places to achieve a precise location.

Shipping Capacity

When the Fulfillment Request feature is enabled, you can enter the shipping capacity for locations in your company. Automatic location assignment takes the shipping capacity into account when assigning locations. If the shipping capacity at a location is reached, ALA does not assign sales order lines to the location. Two measures of shipping capacity are available:

Daily shipping capacity – Daily shipping capacity refers to the maximum number of shipping sales orders that can be assigned to a location by automatic location assignment in one day (from 00:00 to 23:59). NetSuite measures the current number of shipping sales orders by counting the number of fulfillment requests created for the location.

Example

The daily shipping capacity for a retail store in San Diego is set to 15. On Monday, by 11 a.m., 10 fulfillment requests have been created for the store – the store can still receive additional fulfillment requests. At 2 p.m., 15 fulfillment requests have been created for the store. Because the daily shipping capacity has been reached, automatic location assignment will no longer assign the location to sales order lines during the day.
Total shipping capacity – The total shipping capacity represents the maximum number of orders allowed to accumulate in the work queue at the location. NetSuite measures the shipping capacity by counting the number of open fulfillment requests for the location. Leave the total shipping capacity blank to indicate the location has unrestricted capacity. When the total shipping capacity at a location is reached, NetSuite stops assigning fulfillment requests until at least one of the fulfillment requests is fulfilled.

If you plan to use fulfillment workload distribution as a strategy in a location assignment rule, NetSuite measures the current available work capacity of each location and assigns the location with the highest capacity.

It is useful to enter shipping capacity when using retail locations in a ship from store fulfillment workflow. For more information about fulfillment requests, see Fulfillment Requests.

To create a location for automatic location assignment:

Go to Setup > Company > Classifications > Locations.
Enter a name to identify the location.
Select the type of location: blank, Store, or Warehouse.

The location type for new records is set to blank by default. In automatic location assignment rules, you can select a blank location type as one of the rule attributes. See Automatic Location Assignment Rules.
Ensure the Make Inventory Available box is checked.
In the Address subtab, click Edit next to the address box and enter the full address details of the location, including the location’s postal code.

Important:
If you plan to create location assignment rules that use the closest location strategy, it is important to indicate the correct country and postal code in the address details of the location. When a rule uses the closest location strategy, NetSuite can only assign a location automatically if it has a postal code or you enter the precise latitude and longitude coordinates manually. The shipping address must also have a valid postal code.
Click Save to save the record and then click Edit to continue creating the location.
Click the Automatic Location Assignment subtab to enter automatic location assignment settings.
1. Choose how you want to define the geographic coordinates of the location:
  - To use coordinates based on the location’s postal code, select Derive From Postal Code as the geolocation method. The default setting for all locations is Derive From Postal Code.
    
    Note:
    Make sure the postal code is specified in the address details of the location. If there is no postal code, NetSuite cannot assign the location automatically to a sales order line.
  - To use the exact geographic coordinates of the location:
    1. In the Latitude/longitude Coordinates fields, enter the latitude and longitude of the location in decimal format (for example, “37.536798”). The decimal symbol is dependent on the number format of your user preferences – see Setting Number Formats for more information.
    2. In the Automatic Location Assignment subtab, select Use Lat/Long Coordinates as the geolocation method.
2. In the Automatic Location Assignment field, choose to allow or disallow location assignment:
  - Disallow – Indicates that NetSuite does not take this location into account when assigning locations automatically.
  - Allow Worldwide – Indicates that this location can ship to any address worldwide.
  - Allow Worldwide Except Excluded Regions – NetSuite takes this location into account for all shipping addresses except addresses that are located in the excluded regions. You must specify at least one excluded region.
  - Allow Specified Regions Only – You must specify the regions to which shipments are allowed and the regions to which shipments are prohibited. You must specify at least one included region, and optionally, one or more excluded regions.
3. If you allow automatic location assignment based on regions, make sure you specify the relevant regions in the Included Regions and Excluded Regions tables.
4. In the Buffer Stock field, enter the buffer stock level for all items at the location.
5. If you use the Fulfillment Request feature and you plan to use fulfillment workload distribution as a fulfillment strategy, define order capacity for the location:
  - In the Total Shipping Capacity field, enter the maximum number of shipping orders that can be allocated to the location regardless of when the orders are allocated. The total shipping capacity is typically higher than the daily shipping capacity and allows orders to accumulate at the location up to the specified number.
  For more information about fulfillment requests, see Fulfillment Requests. For more information about fulfillment workload distribution, see Choosing a Fulfillment Strategy.
  
  Note:
  The shipping capacity fields are only available when the Fulfillment Request feature is enabled.
Click Save.

Preparing Existing Locations for Automatic Location Assignment

Location records in NetSuite are used for various purposes, including the automatic assignment of fulfillment locations in a sales order. If you already use locations in NetSuite, you might need to complete the following tasks to ensure the locations are assigned as expected by automatic location assignment:

Create a saved search for all locations with an empty postal code and those for which automatic location assignment is allowed. See Saved Searches for more information about saved searches.
Based on the results of the saved search, either update the postal code in the locations or specify the latitude and longitude manually.
Allow automatic location assignment for the locations.

Shipping Regions

Geolocation Method

Shipping Capacity

To create a location for automatic location assignment:

Preparing Existing Locations for Automatic Location Assignment

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