4. Order status reporting.

This final order-processing activity ensures that good customer service is provided by keeping the customer informed of any delays in order processing or delivery of the order. Specifically, this includes (1) tracing and tracking the order throughout the entire order cycle; and (2) communicating with the customer about where the order may be in the order cycle and when it may be delivered. This monitoring activity does not affect the overall time to process an order.

Exercises.

1) Answer the questions.

1. What activities are included into order processing?

2. Are there any priority rules?

3. Which of the order processing activities is the monitoring one? What does in insure?

4. What is a split delivery?

5. In what way has order entry process changed lately?

2) Fill in the following words into the text (complete, entry, timely, chain, materials, information, accurate, on, efforts, activities).

Over the years, the cost of providing _____________ and ______________ information throughout the supply ____________ has dropped dramatically, whereas the cost of labour and____________have risen. Because of this, there have been increasing ____________ to substitute resources with _______________.

Order ____________ is represented by the following ___________: order preparation, order transmittal, order ____________, order filling, and status reporting. The time required to __________ each activity depends __________ the type of ordering.

3)Make word combinations using the following words.

1) order	a) industry
2) freight	b) retrieval
3) handling	c) stage
4) monitoring	d) orders
5) priority	e) consolidation
6) hold	f) cycle
7) delivery	g) date
8) initial	h) number
9) stock	i) time
10) service	j) activity

4)Match the following expressions with their meanings.

1) order cycle time	a) gathering information about products and formally requesting them to be purchased
2) to hold an order	b) choosing the most important orders to delivered first
3) to fill an order	c) products that are not available
4) a backup source	d) the total amount of time to process an order
5) order filling priority	e) postpone the fulfillment till a later date
6) order preparation	f) additional, supplementary resource
7) out-of-stock items	g) to deliver to a customer

Part 2. Types of order processing.

1. Industrial Order Processing.

A manual order-processing system is one that has a high component of human activ­ity throughout the system. Some aspects of order processing may be automated or handled electronically, but manual activity will represent the largest portion of the order-processing cycle. Consider how a manufacturer selling to industrial customers designed its order-processing system.

Example

The Samson-Packard Company produces a full line of custom hose couplings, valves, and high-strength hose for industrial use. The company processes 50 orders per day on the average. The order-processing portion of the total order cycle time is 4 to 8 days out of 15 to 25 days. The total order cycle time is long, because orders are manufactured to customer specifications. The primary steps in the order-processing cycle, excluding the order filling activity, are the following:

1. Customer requests are entered into the order-processing system in two ways. First, salespeople collect orders from the field and mail or telephone them to company headquarters. Second, customers take the initiative to mail or tele­phone their orders directly to headquarters. The customized nature of most cus­tomer orders precludes ordering through the company's Web site. Electronic data interchange (EDI) connection with most customers is not available.

2. Upon receipt of telephone orders, a customer service receptionist transcribes the order to an abbreviated order form. Along with the mailed-in orders, the orders accumulated for a given day are passed along to the senior customer service representative, who then tallies the information for the sales manager.

3. The sales manager reviews the order information to keep abreast of the sales activity. He also occasionally writes special notes of instruction on an order about the needs of a particular customer.

4. Next, the orders are sent to the order-preparation clerks, who transcribe the order information, along with special instructions, onto Samson-Packard's stan­dard order form.

5. At this point, the orders are sent to the accounting department for credit checks. They are then forwarded to the sales department for price verification.

6. Next, the data processing department keys the order information into the com­puter to be used for transmission to the plant, for more convenient handling, and for easy tracing of the order once in process.

7. Finally, the senior customer service representative checks the order in its final form and transmits it via electronic transmission to the appropriate plant. In the same process, an order acknowledgment is prepared for the customer and e-mailed as order verification.