Serialized Inventory Flags

Each Catalog and Inventory record contains a Serial field which defines how each product should be handled by the Serialized Inventory System.  These serialized inventory fields or “flags” must be properly set when an item is created in the Catalog and in the Inventory Master files.  In normal circumstances, the serial information from the Product Catalog record is used to automatically set the serial flags in the Inventory Master records for a specific product.

Product Catalog File

The Product Catalog file contains the following fields that are used by the Serialized Inventory system

Serial:  The Serial flag indicates whether or not the product is serialized and if the item is serialized when it is received into inventory.

•      If a unique serial number is used to identify the product, and this serial number should be tracked from the time it is received, the Serial flag for the item should be set to “Y”.  This setting is the default and recommended setting for handling serialized inventory and it provides the most control and validation during transaction processing.  If an item has the Serial flag set to “Y”, the system will prompt for serial numbers for the item during the Inventory Receiving process.  If an item is flagged as Serial “Y”, the system will also expect the serial number to exist in the Serial Master file when the item is invoiced to a customer.  As items are invoiced, the system checks the serial numbers being entered for the item against the open (in stock) records in the Serial Master file.  If the serial record exists and can be sold, the system accepts the serial number and it updates the Serial record with information about the transaction being processed.   If the serial number cannot be found or has already been sold, an error message is output to inform the operator that the serial number is not valid.

•      If a unique serial number is used to identify the product but this  serial number is not recorded until the item is sold, or shipped out to a customer, the serial flag should be set to “S” (Sales only).  If the Serial flag is set to S  the system will record the serial number for the item during invoicing or as the item is produced using the Shop Order program.

•      If a unique serial number is not used to identify the product, the Serial flag in the Catalog record should be set to “N”.

Note:  You may flag an item as serialized even if the serial number is not provided by the vendor.  This situation can occur when you record serial numbers only at invoicing, or when you assign serial numbers to items that you build in house.

Inventory Master

The Inventory Master File contains the same Serial field that is maintained in the Catalog file and it also contains some other fields that are used by the Serialized Inventory System.

Serial:  The Serial flag indicates whether or not the inventory item is serialized, and whether it is serialized on receipt, or only when the item is sold or shipped out.  The Serial field for each item should be set to the same value in the Catalog and the Inventory Master Files and the field should be normalized from the Catalog record. 

Serial Prefix:  The Serial Prefix field is used to automatically assign a serial number to items that are built in house.  If an item that you assemble in house is flagged as Serialized and the Serial No field for the item is loaded with a non – zero value, the Shop Floor System will use the information in the Serial Prefix and Serial No fields to automatically assign the next available serial number to the item as the item is completed.   The Serial Prefix field allows you to use non numeric information to build up the serial number for the item. 

Serial No: The Serial No field is used to automatically assign a serial number to items that are built in house.  If an item that you assemble in house is flagged as Serialized and the Serial No field for the item is loaded with a non – zero value, the Shop Floor System will use the information in the Serial Prefix and Serial No fields to automatically assign the next available serial number to the item as the item is completed.   The Serial No field stores the numeric information that is to build up the serial number for the item (this numeric information is added to or appended to the information in the Serial Prefix field.

Note:  Items that are serialized automatically by the Shop Floor System should have the Serial Receipt flag set to “N”.  Also, since each serial/item number combination in the system must be unique, the Serial No counter should be set to values that will not overlap if the same item is serialized automatically in more than one location.

Serial Receipt Flag:  The Serial Receipt flag was used along with the Serial flag in prior versions of the system.  The Serial Receipt flag determined if the serial number for the item should be recorded at receiving or only when the item was sold.  If an item had both the Serial and the Serial Receipt flag set to Y, the system would prompt for serial numbers for the item during the Inventory Receiving process.  If the Serial flag is set to Y and the Serial Receipt flag is set to “N” the system would record the serial number for the item during invoicing or as the item is produced using the Shop Order program.

If an item was flagged as Serial Receipt “Y”, the system will also expect the serial number to exist in the Serial Master file when the item is invoiced to a customer or used by the assembly process.  As items with the Serial Receipt flag are invoiced or consumed by production, the system checks the serial numbers being entered for the item against the open (in stock) records in the Serial Master file.  If the Serial record exists and can be sold, the system accepts the serial number and updates the Serial record with information about the transaction being processed.  If the serial number cannot be found or has already been sold, an error message is output to inform the operator that the serial number is not valid.

More:

Inventory Normalization