With ECN4, Equipment Control can allow CHE operators to choose the most accessible generic empty container for delivery to road trucks. At the time of gate check in, XPS selects a target container for delivery. However, while the truck is going to the stack things may change, for example, the trucks may arrive out of order, or the target container may be covered by another container that has just arrived. Therefore, the CHE operator may swap the requested container with an equivalent container that requires fewer moves.
To validate empty delivery swaps, you must configure your gate with the CheckDelivery gate stage. This enables ECN4 to send a message to N4 to execute the business tasks included at the CheckDelivery gate stage. If an error occurs, N4 reports any validation failures back to ECN4 and ECN4 displays an error for the CHE operator.
In addition, for delivery validation to work, you need to start the Bento Server (ECN4 support) job on one of the nodes in the N4 cluster. Otherwise, ECN4 cannot communicate with N4. This is because the Bento server that N4 hosts receives validation requests from ECN4. Depending on the type of transaction ID, the Bento server locates the right handler and delegates the call to that handler. For information, see Launch the Bento server background job in the Navis N4: Setup, Maintenance, and System Diagnostics Guide.
For information about dispatching these types of jobs, see Delivery of an empty container, with a swap.
The instructions below assume you have a basic knowledge of gate configuration for N4.
To set up the CheckDelivery gate stage:
In N4, define a new gate stage called CheckDelivery as the first outgate stage before the yard gate stage.
Add the deliver gate transaction types that you want to validate. The CheckDelivery gate stage supports validations for the Deliver Empty, Deliver Export, and Dray Off transaction types. However, only the Deliver Empty transaction type supports the validation for empty container swapping.
Include the following business tasks at the CheckDelivery gate stage:
NotifyEquipmentDelivery (on page 1): To send a message to XPS with the container number of the actual container delivered at the outgate.
SelectEmptyContainer (on page 1): To enable work instruction swapping.
RejectContainerNotSwappableForWorkInstruction (on page 1): To validate empty container swapping if you are using Equipment Control. It is not required for Radio Server.
By default, if empties are swappable, ECN4Web displays the equipment type (EQTP) on the job list instead of the equipment ID (EQID). This is so that the driver is allowed to select the best container (of that type) for the delivery. If an Empty delivery order (EDO) is not swappable, the EQID displays in the job list.
RejectContainerSubstitution (on page 1): To reject any container other than the one the operator swapped for.
You can include this business task only if you include the NotifyEquipmentDelivery business task. Otherwise, when the trucker arrives at the gate, the container ID that it expects will be the original container ID selected by XPS.
CopyContainerProvidedToNbr (on page 1): To copy the value XPS provides in the Container Number Provided field to the Container Number field.
Ensure that the CopyContainerProvidedToNbr (on page 1) business task is excluded at the yard stage.
PlaceUnitOnTruck (on page 1): To place the departing unit on the truck.
In addition to the changes to the CheckDelivery gate stage, at the outgate stage, you must:
Include the PlaceUnitOnTruck (on page 1) business task.
Include the ReturnSwappedContainerToYard (on page 1) business task.
Include the NotifyEquipmentDelivery business task at the outgate stage at the Truck Visit level.
Enter the final container number in the Container Nbr field and not the Container Nbr Requested field.