How to re-schedule orders which are scheduled against future supply, if the future supply gets cancelled or is unavailable?

Answer

Orders which are already in a 'Scheduled' status are not processed by the schedule agent or the scheduleOrder API. However, if the order was scheduled against a future supply, there could be a requirement to re-schedule the order if the future supply gets cancelled or otherwise becomes unavailable. Usually, to meet such a business requirement, the RELEASE transaction is used. The RELEASE agent or the releaseOrder API would backorder the order. After that, the schedule agent/API would be able to pick the backordered order and re-schedule it. (Please note that the schedule agent parameter OrderFilter should be set either as A, for all orders to be picked up or as B, for only backordered orders to be picked up).

In some scenarios, if it has been configured to release an order only "x" number of days before the Requested Delivery Date, it is possible that the orders get stuck in a scheduled status (for a finite period) when the future supply gets cancelled. Consider this example:

- Order is scheduled against a future supply expected 60 days in the future. The Order shall be shipped and delivered on the same day.
- The order shall be released only 10 days before the Delivery Date.
- Now, if the future supply gets cancelled, neither the schedule agent nor the release agent would process the order. The schedule agent would not process since the order is already in a 'Scheduled' status. The release agent would not process the order since it has been configured to release the order only 10 days before the Delivery Date (which is still 50 days away).

Solution:
In the ON_CANCEL event of the future supply, the unScheduleOrder API can be invoked for the corresponding Sales Order. The SupplyReference attribute can be used to identify the corresponding SalesOrder. This would ensure that the Sales Order is unscheduled when the future supply is cancelled and the schedule agent would thus be able to re-schedule such orders.