Order Orchestration Module Overview
Authors:
Nandha Balaguru, Esma Tuzovic, Cille Schliebitz, Anita Gu
Changed on:
3 Feb 2025
Overview
The 'Order Orchestration' module is integral to Fluent Order Management. It handles the end-to-end management of orders from creation to fulfillment. It optimizes the fulfillment process, allowing flexibility and control over sourcing and fulfillment strategies.
Key points
- Dynamic Sourcing: Selects the best location based on inventory and business rules.
- Split Fulfillment: Supports fulfilling orders from multiple locations.
- Custom Workflows: Allows tailoring workflows for Home Delivery, Click & Collect, and more.
- Fulfillment Management: Tracks multiple fulfillments and manages SLAs and exceptions.
- Retailer Benefits: Reduces costs, optimizes sourcing, and ensures operational flexibility.
Where the 'Order Orchestration' Module sits within Fluent Order Management
A diagram of the main layers of Fluent Order Management is shown below. As you can see, 'Order Orchestration' is one of the core modules of the platform:
A quick recap of key concepts related to 'Order Orchestration'
Order | A Order is created when a customer completes a purchase on any sales channel connected to Fluent OMS. Once the order is created in Fluent OMS, the associated order workflow (determined based on the order.type) will kick in. |
Fulfillment | A Fulfillment represents a location that is picking and packing one (or more) items of an order for the customer. A fulfillment is assigned to a location based on the available inventory and the sourcing rules. Note: If more than one location is used to fulfill an order, multiple fulfillments will be created against the order |
Article or Parcel | An Article represents the physical parcel containing order items to be shipped or collected from the location. It's created when one (or more) items are packed and confirmed into a physical parcel. Note: A fulfillment may have more than 1 article. This happens when there may be too many items for one parcel, or the items may be too large to fit into the same parcel. It is at the discretion of the Store Assistant to decide how many physical parcels are required to pack all of the items. The number of physical parcels is equal to the number of articles created. |
Consignment | A Consignment is created when an article needs to be shipped via a carrier service. It's used to track the delivery of an article to the customer's delivery address. The consignment reference matches the carrier consignment, including the tracking reference and URL. |
Sourcing, Networks, and Split fulfillment
Sourcing is the ability to search or select the best available location that can fulfill a customer's order.
A network refers to a logical grouping of physical locations. Networks usually reflect the types of geography of specific locations you want to use for sourcing.
Split Fulfillment is the ability to fulfill a single order from multiple fulfillment locations. Each additional location can be seen as a 'Split.' E.g., if we had 3 locations fulfilling a single order, it would have 3 ‘Splits'.
An example of a Network:
Retailers may want to group their store locations into a Click and Collect (CC) Network. When a CC order is placed, the workflow will do an availability search in the Click and Collect Virtual Catalog which is linked to a particular set of store locations in the network.
Reference features and capabilities of the Order Module.
The Order Reference Module is the foundation for order-related implementations. Fluent Commerce provides three reference workflows - Home Delivery (HD), Click and Collect (CC), and Mixed Baskets. New Order workflows can also support additional Order Types when the reference workflows cannot accommodate your client's (or customer's) needs.
Manage multiple fulfillments
- A retailer can have a single order with multiple fulfillments. Being able to track this information is key.
- Statuses are available in the standard order workflows. These statuses can be changed to match the retailer's terminology.
- Status information can be reviewed within the UI under Order Management or when reviewing the Workflow Builder.
Manage different scenarios
Manage scenarios where we cannot fulfill the whole order from a single location and need to use split, partial, and consolidated fulfillment logic.
Orchestrate order sourcing and fulfillment from multiple sources
Retailers can orchestrate order sourcing and fulfillment from multiple sources across their networks based on their unique business requirements, resulting in cost optimization and enhanced customer experience.
Examples of sourcing strategies:
- Deliver from the closest location to the customer.
- Increase the opportunity to fulfill a customer's order by splitting fulfillments across multiple locations.
- Fulfillment from Warehouses, Distribution Centers (DCs) and Stores.
- Fulfillment from Drop Ship Vendors (DSVs) and Third Party Logistics Companies (3PLs).
- Fulfill a specific order type from a dedicated Network.
Additional possibilities
With the Order Orchestration module, it's also possible to:
- Handle Rejected Fulfillment requests.
- Manage Fulfillment SLAs.
- Handle Fulfillment Exceptions.
Benefits to retailers
- Optimally route orders so retailers can reduce the cost to serve their customers.
- Ship from the right location every time.
- Optimize sourcing allocation.
- Order orchestration allows retailers to tailor their Order workflow based on their key priorities and manage specific logic for Home Delivery and Click and Collect Journeys.
"During the Covid-19 pandemic, Fluent Order Management was able to support our clients that needed to react swiftly to unplanned events. This included switching sourcing logic from warehouses which had to close temporarily due to government-imposed restrictions to smaller store formats, where a single store assistant could continue to pick customer orders and ship them from the store."
