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The supply chain system is one of the most important systems in the e-commerce platform. It runs through procurement management, warehouse management, distribution management, vehicle management, performance management, etc. The supply chain system also needs to communicate with the order system, customer service system, and production planning system. , BI and other external systems, the construction of the supply chain system focuses on sorting out and optimizing the operation process, and is more business-oriented. This article focuses on the business architecture level.

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System architecture design

A closed-loop diagram of an e-commerce logistics business:

Closed loop of e-commerce logistics business

Sort out the business process and present you with a complete view of the e-commerce logistics business:

Consumers select the products they need from online shopping platforms (such as Taobao, Jingdong, Pinduoduo, etc.) and complete the order operation. At this time, an order is generated. The order system uses the algorithm program according to the delivery address of the consumer. , assign the order to one or more warehouses, which may involve order splitting, splitting an order into multiple sub-orders, and generating an outbound order.
The supply chain management platform transmits the received outbound order to the warehouse management system. In order to improve efficiency, the warehouse management system does not use the method of picking goods once when one outbound order is received, but picks in waves. Goods, that is, after accumulating a certain amount of orders, pick the goods in batches, and then pack them into boxes, pack them, and leave the warehouse.
When the system finds that some commodities are insufficient in stock, it will automatically trigger a purchase order and send it to the supplier. The supplier's management system will receive the replenishment order and confirm the order and make an appointment for delivery through the supplier management system. and so on.
After the package of goods purchased by consumers leaves the warehouse, the package information will flow to the delivery management system. The delivery management system will track the status of each package, and the package will be sent to each delivery site. After the delivery site receives the package, it will Confirm in the management system, assign the package to each delivery person according to the scope of delivery, or entrust a third-party delivery company to deliver.
According to the delivery route planned by the delivery system, the delivery staff will go to the community where the consumer is located in turn. When the customer signs for the package, the package status information will be sent back to the delivery system.
The information of the entire circulation process of orders and packages is transparent to consumers. Websites such as JD.com and Taobao can push the status information of orders and packages to consumers in a timely manner to improve the customer's consumption experience.

According to the above process, it can be concluded that the business architecture diagram of the supply chain system is shown in the following figure:

The middle part is the core module of the inventory management system, including supplier appointment delivery, warehouse receipt, inspection and storage, product shelf, order product picking, package sorting, package packaging, package delivery, out-of-stock replenishment, etc.

In the above figure, the two sides are auxiliary modules, whose functions include warehouse goods transfer, worker performance management, warehouse optimization, warehouse service billing, cross-shipment, return and exchange and other reverse logistics.
The lower part of the above picture is the system for data interaction with the warehouse management system, these systems include order system, delivery system, document status monitoring management system, material planning system, customer service system, etc.

warehouse management system

This is an important part of the entire supply chain management system, as shown in the figure below:

The main business modules of this system are introduced in detail below:

1. Storage business

There are many types of warehousing, such as purchase warehousing, transfer warehousing, returned goods warehousing, etc. First import the ASN code of the product into the system, and make a delivery reservation through the delivery reservation module.
When the goods are delivered to the warehouse, the warehouse will check and put them into the warehouse, and check the model, validity period, and packaging of the goods, and then they can be accepted after passing the inspection.
According to the suggestion of the system, the goods are put on the shelves.

2. Outbound business

The warehouse management system receives the outbound order information transmitted by the order system, and performs operations such as wave making, picking, sorting, packing, and outbound operations. The wave supports automatic waves and manual waves. The goods support RF picking, paper order picking, system recommended picking, etc.

3. Inventory management

This function is the main operation module for warehouse goods. The functions include inventory movement, inventory inventory, inventory lock, etc. After the goods are put on the shelves, the goods cannot be moved arbitrarily, otherwise it will easily cause the system inventory and physical inventory to be inconsistent, causing loss problems.

4. System management, basic management

This part is the setting module of some basic information, permissions and system configuration. Usually, the data is imported during the system initialization, and then these information data are maintained according to the actual situation.