What activity is required to administratively process a customer's order for shipment or production?

The activity required to administratively process a customer's order for shipment or production is order processing. This encompasses the steps necessary to handle customer orders, which include receiving the order, verifying it, checking product availability, and preparing documentation for the fulfillment of that order.

Order processing is crucial because it ensures that customer requests are accurately captured and managed throughout the logistics and delivery chain. This encompasses everything from entering the order into the system to notifying relevant departments about inventory needs and scheduling shipment.

While order picking, inventory management, and shipping coordination are all important aspects of the logistics process, they occur after or as a result of order processing. Order picking involves selecting the correct items from inventory, inventory management deals with maintaining and tracking stock levels, and shipping coordination focuses on the logistics of getting the product to the customer. Thus, order processing serves as the foundational step that initiates these subsequent activities.