Item Definition and Maintenance in Inventory

Item Definition and Maintenance

Items in the business are the goods in which the business deals or which are used for producing the finished goods that the business produces.

Item is a part or service is what the business

       ·         Buys

       ·         Sells

       ·         Plans

       ·         Manufactures

       ·         Stocks

Item definition

When defining an item from oracle the user needs to perform the below steps

       1.       Copy the item or template

       2.       Copy the item attributes

       3.       Assign items to child organizations

       4.       Specify org level item attributes

       5.       Define item costs

Item Master Organization is the logical entity that is used to define the items. Any item defined in the system needs to be defined in the master organization and then assigned to the child organizations

Item Attributes are the characteristics that define the different properties of the item and the operations that can be performed on it. Some of the item attributes are:

        ·         Purchasable

        ·         Orderable

        ·         Transactable

        ·         BOM Allowed etc

These item attributes specify what operations can be performed on the item for e.g.: Web Orderable : this attribute specifies if the item can be ordered by the customer over the web

Item Template: All the items in the business have many attributes which might be the same across different items, thus when defining these items the business user will have to check/set all these attributes to ensure that the attributes are set correctly , this means a lot of manual effort given the number of items to be defined is very large. Thus oracle has given a functionality called item templates. An item template is allows the users to specify a set of attributes which are to be set for the items to be defined in the system, thus when defining an item the user can select an item template and Oracle system will assign all the attributes to the item which are defined in the item template.

Item Status: When an item is defined or for defined items there is an item status. The  item status defines the current status of an item if the item is currently active or inactive.

Item Categories and Category sets

A category is a logical classification of items that have similar characteristics

 A Category set is a distinct grouping scheme and consists of categories

 Users can define an unlimited number of categories and group subsets of your categories into category sets

 A category can belong to multiple category sets

Item Org Assignment: When an item is defined the item is always defined in the item master organization. Once the item is defined in the item master org , it needs to be assigned to the child organization.  Once the item is defined to be transacted in the system it needs to be assigned to the child organizations from where all the business transactions take place

Overview of Oracle Inventory

Overview of Oracle Inventory

Inventory in a business manages all the goods/entities in which the business deals and keeps a track of the goods. In this post we will se a high level overview of the Oracle inventory and in the succeeding posts we will cover the topics in greater detail.

The basic cycle in the Inventory is:

·         Receipt of Goods when it arrives

·         Transfer of goods within the organization

·         Issue the goods when a sale is made

Main Capabilities of Inventory

1.       Defined items

2.       Assign part numbers

3.       Define the inventory organization structure

4.       Material Tracking

5.       Plan material replenishments

6.       Material Issue

7.       Material Receiving

8.       Track material manufacturing

We will have a quick overview of the different functionalities :

1.       Define items: A business involved in the manufacture or sale of products needs to define the items/goods that it will be dealing in. Inventory module of Oracle is responsible for defining the items and its properties

2.       Assign Part Numbers: Once the items are defined they need to be identified  in the system across the other modules too , Inventory will assign the part numbers to the items for by other modules too

3.       Inventory Organization Structure : Depending on the business setup the inventory structure of the business might be defined into Operating units, Inventory Orgs, Sub-inventory , locators etc. This activity is performed by the inventory module of Oracle

4.       Material Tracking: The business needs to keep a track of all the business items ie what is the currently availability in the business for transactions , where is the inventory available in the business for effective business processing. The inventory module keeps a track of all the items a, their availability and locations in the organization

5.       Material Replenishment: The business will need to produce the goods it deals in or the raw materials for continual supply . Inventory module will perform the material requirement planning to effectively plan material replenishment

6.       Material Issue: Once the business sells the goods they need to be issued from the warehouse to be shipped to the customer. The inventory module will handle the issue of goods from the warehouse to be delivered to the customer

Material Issue can be perfumed by the business for a number of reasons:

                    I.            Sale of Goods to customer

                  II.            Internal sale of goods

                III.            Return of defective goods

                IV.            Component Issue

                  V.            Inter Organization Transfers

                VI.            Sub-inventory transfers

              VII.            User defined Issue

7.       Material Receipt: There are instances when the goods will come into the inventory , the inventory module is responsible for keeping a track of all the receiving/goods coming into the inventory

Material Receipt in the inventory can happen for a number of reasons:

                                I.            Purchase Order Receipts

                              II.            Assembly Returns

                            III.            Return Sales Orders

                            IV.            Component Returns

                              V.            User defined return

                            VI.            Inter Organization transfers