Lean and Technology: Working Hand in Hand to Enable and Energize Your Global Supply Chain

16. Order-Fulfillment Systems

Order fulfillment is the process from the point of sales order to delivery of a product to the customer. In general, it refers to the way firms respond to customer orders. In many instances, the term order fulfillment is used to describe the act of distribution or the logistics function only. For the purposes of this chapter, we use this term to include warehouse, order, and customer relationship management and the systems used to manage these processes. The actual physical delivery of goods to the customer was covered in Chapter 15, “Transportation Management Systems (TMS).” All these processes and accompanying systems, whether referred to by these names or not, are typically linked together to help fulfill customer ...