How to implement distance consideration and importance of flag "Weightage given to distance" in Sterling product 

Answer

"Consider distance between ship-to and ship-from locations for prioritization" flag in the scheduling rule means the following.  
• Check this box to enable the geography-based distance calculations for choosing a ship node. Important: If you select this field, ensure Optimize On is set to Priority.

Also,  

• Weightage given to distance:  Enter the weighting factor for distance.  
Once the distance between the ship-location and the ship node address is calculated using longitude and latitude, it is multiplied by this weighting factor.
Enter any fractional number greater than, or equal to, zero. A value of 0 nullifies any distance considerations in the calculation.

• Weightage given to Node:  Enter the weighting factor for node priority. The ship node priority specified in the distribution group is multiplied by this weighting factor.  
Enter any fractional number greater than, or equal to, zero. A value of 0 nullifies any node priority considerations in the calculation.

Note,
If you are optimizing node selection based on "Priority", the Sterling Multi-Channel Fulfillment Solution calculates the node priority as:
{Weight factor for distance * distance in miles as calculated based on longitude and latitude} + {Weight factor for priority * priority setup in the distribution node group.} So this factor is found for each node in the possible options and suggests the option with the highest total.

Trouble-shoot tips when distance consideration does not seem to work:
•Check if you have done any set-up to calculate distance?It might be possible that distance is not getting calculated.

The step required for distance calculation to be done is the YFS_ZIP_CODE_LOCATION table needs to be populated with SQL which updates the geographical data. Here, <country>_geographical_data if the customer operates in <country>. We only provide this sql OOB for US geographical data and has to be obtained from some external vendor for other locations. This script should contain all zip codes along with latitude and longitude data of <country>. It is advised to review your system requirements and determine the actual zip codes you need to load to the database.