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