NetSuite Automatic Location Assignment

NetSuite’s Automatic Location Assignment feature is a valuable tool for streamlining order fulfillment processes. By automating the assignment of fulfillment locations, businesses can save time and reduce the risk of errors. This feature allows you to set up rules and parameters to determine where items should be fulfilled from, based on factors such as stock availability, shipping zones, or other criteria.

How the Automatic Location Assignment Works in NetSuite

1. The Automatic Location Assignment (ALA) feature works with the Supply Allocation feature to accelerate and enhance the order fulfillment process.
2. After Supply Allocation provides a list of locations and dates, Automatic Location Assignment then chooses the best location according to the ALA configuration and rules.
3. If Supply Allocation cannot provide a list of locations, ALA sets locations on sales order lines if there are backorder rules defined.
4. After Automatic Location Assignment assigns locations to sales order lines, Supply Allocation allocates the supply and sets the expected ship dates.

Setting Up Automatic Location Assignment

To enable the feature, go to Setup > Company > Enable Features. On the Transactions subtab, under the Shipping & Receiving section, check the Automatic Location Assignment box.

Create an automatic location assignment configuration

• Automatic location assignment configuration is simply a collection of rules and backorder rules.

• To create a new Configuration go to Setup > Order Management > Automatic Location Assignment Management > Configurations > New.

• You have the ability to create multiple configurations with different rules and then designate one of them as the default configuration in your account.
• In a OneWorld account, you can create multiple configurations for each subsidiary.
• You can order the list of rules in the configuration, with the rules at the top of the list being evaluated first.

Create automatic location assignment rules

An automatic location assignment rule is a combination of settings and options that tells the automatic location assignment engine how to assign fulfillment locations to sales order lines.

To create an automatic location assignment rule

• Open the Automatic Location Assignment configuration
• Click the New Rule button to create a new rule to this Configuration.

• We can define the criteria for assigning the fulfill locations to lines after opening the new rule record

• You can choose whether the rule is valid for all line items, or whether it is only valid for a selection of items with the help of a search
• You can define which locations can be assigned to a sales order line. You can limit locations by location type, by a specific set of locations, and by distance (in a radius) to the shipping address.
• We can also select a Fulfillment strategy to choose the Closest Location : to assign the location that is closest to the shipping address. (NetSuite calculates distance as a straight line between the shipping address and locations)

Choose automatic location assignment settings

As well as creating configurations and rules for automatic location assignment, you need to define when automatic location assignment runs.

• Go to Setup > Order Management > Setup Tasks > Advanced Order Management.
• Here you can choose whether to use the Automation process or stop it, and you can also select the instance where you want to initiate the automation. Like Sales order Approved and Payment hold is released.
• Also you can select the default Configuration to be assigned to the subsidiary.

• You can see the Fulfill locations assigned to the Sales order lines when the order is approved or according to the preference set for initiation of automation in the Fulfill location Column.