Warehouse Management Features

Inventory control is the cornerstone of any distribution business and it is essential to profitable operations.  Critical in managing inventory levels to control your company’s budget and resources, is the ability to analyze data quickly and efficiently.  To do this, the StreamV Warehouse Management System (WMS) maintains the most accurate, easy to access, real-time inventory available today.

With the ability to track inventory in multiple locations, either local or remote, the Warehouse Management System supports retail, distribution, and manufacturing environments.  Inventory information in multiple locations can be updated by multiple operators simultaneously.  Transferring inventory among warehouses takes place on-line to assure immediate availability at the destination warehouse.  Companies shipping to remote warehouses can easily implement one or more "in-transit" warehouses to more accurately reflect inventory availability.  A unique "normalizing" procedure synchronizes data (user definable) at multiple locations whenever an item record is modified in one location.

The StreamV Warehouse Management System is an on-line, real-time, transactional system with activity pertaining to inventory recorded in an inventory transaction file.  This provides management with the audit trail necessary to ensure correct product flow.  Extensive reports can be produced from the inventory activity file for in-depth management analysis of stocking levels and usage requirements.  Tracking of on-hand, reserved (orders in house from customers), on order (orders placed with vendors), and work in process (WIP) is a simple and straightforward process.  Quantities on order from customers are tracked both as "total reserved" and the quantity reserved for shipment in the current "scheduling window".

Extensive information is stored about each inventory item to provide the maximum amount of flexibility and integration with other Stream V modules.  This information includes an alternate item number, color, size, version, extensive item notes, an unlimited length extended item description, numerous bits of shipping information, cycle count information and more.  Over one hundred and thirty pieces of information are stored for each inventory item.

Extensive on-line look-up screens and reporting facilities provide easy and fast access to your inventory data.  Inventory reports include multiple inventory valuation reports, multiple price lists, and transaction reports.  A "Mass Price Updater" allows you to set or change prices across a wide range of items based on various criteria.  Flexible enough to support your organization's unique needs, the Stream V Product Management Module tracks average weighed cost, last cost, and standard cost as well as retail and 10 price levels.  Additional pricing flexibility is also available using the features provided in the Special Pricing System.

•      Seamless Integration with the rest of the StreamV Enterprise System.

•      Online, Real Time Database Updates.

•      Inventory Management System

•      Allows you to quickly create Inventory or warehouse records from Catalog information.  Records can be created automatically in a specified list of locations as each new catalog record is saved, or as required.

•      Automatic Normalization.  Changes to catalog records are automatically copied down to the warehouse records for the item as appropriate.  A Normalization file allows you to specify which fields are maintained at the Catalog level and which fields are maintained at the Inventory level (when the field can be maintained at either level).

•      Automatic loading of user-definable default information into new inventory records.  This option speeds up data entry for new items.  The default information from the Catalog file is copied down to any fields in the new inventory record that are named the same, then the inventory default information is applied (allowing you to add additional default info for fields that are not maintained at the catalog level).

•      Field Level security can be used to control access to specific fields in each Catalog, Inventory or Warehouse record.  Fields that are maintained in the Catalog file are automatically blocked in the Inventory Manager and fields maintained in the Inventory Manager are blocked in the Catalog Manager.

•      PO/ Inventory Receiving Program

•      The PO/Inventory Receiving program allows you to quickly receive against an existing open purchase order, or to receive inventory without using a purchase order.

•      The PO Receiving program requires the operator to enter the serial numbers for any serialized items being received, and it verifies that the correct number of serial numbers are specified for each item, and that the serial numbers being entered are not duplicates.

•      As each transaction is processed, the system automatically updates the inventory quantities for the item, it posts each receipt to the general ledger, and it allocates the items received to any sales or shop orders that are waiting for the product.

•      Supplemental costs such as freight, duty and customs fees can be added to the cost of the items being received.  Options allow pre-defined freight adder amounts to be automatically added to the item cost during receiving, or the system can be configured to allow the user to specify supplemental costs manually during the receiving process. 

•      The cost of the items received is used along with the current on hand quantities for the item to calculate a new average cost for the item.  This average cost is normalized across any inventory locations that are in the same division being processed.

•      Inventory Activity records are automatically created by the system to record the changes to the cost and quantity of each item from the receiving transaction, and to allow matching of the receiving detail to the vendor invoices for the items (this option is referred to as Three Way Matching and it is discussed in detail in the documentation for the Accounts Payable System).

•      Bin Management System

•      Multiple bins can be created and maintained for a single item in a single warehouse.

•      Bin records can be created on the fly as required when processing bin transfers, inventory transfers, or inventory adjustments.

•      A default bin can be defined for each inventory item in each warehouse location, and the system can be configured to automatically use this default bin during operations. 

•      If the system is being run in “default bin mode” the default bin is automatically suggested if it does not already exist when you create a bin for the item.  The default bin for the item can also be created automatically if required (without operator intervention during receiving and other operations).

•      A Bin “Committed” quantity ensures that the bin on hand quantity cannot be reduced below the amount committed to printed documents such as sales order pick tickets and shop order pull tickets.  

•      Bin Reconciliation programs identify items with on hand quantities that do not agree with the bin quantities, or items which have a committed quantity not equal to the printed and unprocessed documents for the bin.  These reconciliation programs can be run manually or automatically in the Job Processor.

•      Inventory Adjustment Program

•      Controls prevent users from reducing item quantities that are allocated to open sales or shop orders.  If an item quantity needs to be reduced below the un-allocated quantity for the item, the sales orders or shop orders must be de-allocated from first.

•      Controls prevent users from reducing a bin quantity below the quantity already committed to printed but un-processed sales order pick tickets or shop order pull tickets. 

•      A User–defined Inventory Adjustment Code Table allows you to specify the valid adjustment codes that can be used on the system and where these adjustments should be posted in the General Ledger. This allows warehouse personnel to correct quantity errors and the accounting department to control where the adjustments will be posted.

•      An Inventory Activity record is created by the program to document the quantity change to each item.  This inventory transaction record contains detailed information from the inventory item at the time the adjustment was made, as well as the adjustment code and journal entry used for the transaction.

•      A Warehouse Transaction record is created by the program to document the change to the bin being adjusted.

•      As each adjustment is processed, the operator is required to identify the bin in which the adjustment should be made, and the adjustment code that should be used for the transaction.  The adjustment code is used to identify the type of adjustment being made and the general ledger account that the adjustment should be posted to.  The Inventory Adjustment program only allows the quantity of an item to be adjusted if the quantity is available.  The adjustment program will not allow you to adjust an item quantity that is allocated to a sales order or shop order.  The adjustment program will also not allow you to adjust a bin quantity that is committed to a pick or a pull ticket.  The adjustment program can be used for situations in which an item has become obsolete and is being scrapped, or is damaged and needs to be written off.  The adjustment program can also be used to adjust items for physical inventory count variances, but the Inventory Counting System is normally used to process these adjustments.

•      Inventory Transfer Program

•      Immediately transfers inventory quantities from one inventory location to another.  The Transfer program allows you to select the warehouse and bin from which the transfer quantity will be pulled and the destination warehouse and location that the item will be transferred to.   As each item quantity is selected, the system prompts for the bin that the transferred inventory is being pulled from and transferred to.  Bin records can be created on the fly in the transfer program as required. 

•      Detailed Inventory Activity records are created to record each inventory transfer transaction.

•      The Inventory Transfer program blocks the transfer of allocated or committed quantities.  You may not transfer inventory quantities that have been allocated to sales or shop orders.  You may also not transfer any quantities that have been committed by the Bin Management system.  If you wish to transfer allocated or committed quantities, the system forces you to de-allocate the appropriate quantity and or reset any printed documents before processing the transfer.

•      Note:  The StreamV System also allows you to process Inter-Facility Transfers or IFT’s.  Inter-facility transfers are transfers between warehouse facilities that are not in the same physical location and IFT transfers allow you to track shipments while they are in transit between warehouses.  The IFT system is described in more detail in the documentation for the Purchasing or PO System.

•      Inventory Count System

•      Supports complete or partial (“cycle”) counts of the inventory in one or multiple inventory locations.  Multiple operators can participate in a single count.

•      RF (hand-held radio frequency) device support, and highly efficient data entry programs allow accurate count data to be collected and input into the system with a minimum amount of work.

•      Pre-count Inventory and Bin quantities are stored at the beginning of the count process to minimize disruption to other warehouse operations such as invoicing and receiving. 

•      Count adjustment transactions are written to both the Inventory Activity and the Warehouse Transaction files to document the changes made to each item and bin.  Count transactions are included in the comprehensive history that is maintained for each item in your inventory.

•      Completely integrated with General Ledger and other Stream V applications.  Count adjustments are posted to the general ledger automatically as they are processed.

More:

Warehouse Management Overview