Issuing and Reserving Material

Issuing inventory refers to the act of removing inventory from a location and assigning it to a Job or Master Lot, which will then be consumed/finished, sold, or stored for future use, respectively. Reserving inventory refers to the act of assigning inventory (including specific Lots) to a Sales Order.

Users have the option to stage or reserve inventory to Jobs prior to finishing, and to Sales Orders prior to shipping. Users may also simply ship the Sales Order without any prior action. If staging is how the company handles inventory, the Pre-Staging and Final Staging forms will be used to "mark" the material as designated for the chosen orders. If the company prefers to reserve inventory against orders, the Issue/Reserve Inventory form will be used, which is used to issue lots directly to a single Job, or to reserve lots directly to one Sales Order so they can then be shipped against that order.

DEACOM offers a variety of security settings specific to Issuing and Reserving inventory. Users can be authorized/restricted to issue/reserve all inventory, inventory in quarantine, substitutions, and move reserved inventory between Facilities. There are also security settings specific to the Warehouse Management System (WMS). For more information, refer to the Managing Users and User Security page.

If using serialization for inventory lots, see the Utilizing Serialization page for additional information

Configuration

The following configuration covers the requirements for issuing and reserving material:

In Sales Options
- Set the "Default Reserve Type" based on company operations.
- Optional - Check the "Reserve Any Allowed Lot" field. If checked, this field (available beginning in version 17.04.008.0000) will allow users to select any allowed lots (on the Apply Inventory form) that are in inventory; regardless of inventory status, QC status, shelf life criteria, and user security. This only applies when using the sales order reserve process.
In Inventory Options and Production Options
- Check the appropriate flags regarding issuing, de-issuing, and enforcing over and under issue limits.
- Set the "Issue Type" and "Default Issue Quantity" fields based on company operations.
- Determine the various Lot Chooser form defaults using the "Show Lot Chooser", "Filter Lot Chooser", "Sort Lot Chooser By", "Lot Chooser Type", "Lot Chooser QC", and "Lot Chooser Select" fields.
- Determine how inventory and specific Lots should be suggested using the "Suggest Lots", "Suggest By", and "WMS Lot Priority" fields.
- If using Containers, determine if the system should set all lots in a Container to issue using the "Auto Issue Container Contents" field.
Optional. On the "Production" tab on the Facility record, the "Default Issue Quantity", for jobs in the specified Facility. (Field added in version 16.07.58)
On the Item Master for each Part
- On the Properties tab, check the appropriate flags regarding including the Part in issuing transactions and allowing substitutions.
- On the Substitutes tab, assign the permitted substitute Parts and associated substitution factors.
On each Facility in which issuing and/or reserving will take place, determine if incremental and over reserving is allowed (on the Sales tab) and if incremental and over/under issuing is allowed (on the Production tab).
Optional. On BOM Lines for items that will be issued to jobs
- On the General tab, enter a QC Test in the "QC To Continue" field that must be performed before items on subsequent BOM lines will be displayed for issuing to jobs.

In addition to the above settings, for users to be able to issue and/or reserve material, the following must be true:

One or more Sales Orders must be open and not yet shipped. Refer to Entering Sales Orders for information on the various methods used to enter Sales Orders.
One or more Jobs must be open. Refer to Entering Production Jobs for information on the various methods used to enter Jobs.
There must be inventory on hand. The number of available Lots and quantity in each can be verified using an Inventory "Lots" report with a "View" of "On Hand". Refer to Inventory Flow and Reporting for more information on reporting options.
WMS scanners that will be used to perform transactions must be properly set up and have the DEACOM software installed. Refer to WMS Installation for complete information.

Any additional configuration is included in the Process section below.

Process

Issuing and reserving material using the main application

Inventory can be issued or reserved in several locations throughout the system. The steps below detail the process when using the Inventory > Issue/Reserve transaction. See the System Navigation section on the Issue/Reserve page for a list of locations where inventory can be reserved or issued in DEACOM.

Navigate to Inventory > Issue/Reserve Inventory.
The Inventory - Issue / Reserve form will load. Reference the link in the previous sentence for a description of all the fields available to this form.
Select the "Type" and the order number to which items will be issued/reserved. Once an order is selected, the associated Parts will load. If issuing to a Master Lot, reference the steps on the Creating and Using Master Lots page. If using the "QC To Continue" field on BOM Lines, reference the Edit BOM Line form section to see how this field may impact the list of materials displayed for issuing.
In the list of associated parts, review the "Lot Number" column to see if any items indicate "Lot Required". If yes, select these items, click on the "Modify" button then the "Select Lots" button to determine the appropriate lots that will be issued/reserved. If items have a lot number value of "System" this indicates that the system will automatically apply the oldest lots in inventory when issuing/reserving this item. DEACOM offers users the ability to use the "Modify" and "Select Lots" buttons in these cases as well but this step is usually unnecessary.
1. Note: Users can choose to optimize how lots are issued or reserved by using the "Optimize" button available on this form. This option works for items indicating "Lot Required" or "System."
For Sales Orders, once all the appropriate lots have been selected click the "New Location" field and select the appropriate location using the search box.
Determine whether order Labels, Picklists, or a list of previously issued/reserved items will be printed by placing a check mark in the appropriate check box on the Issue/Reserve Inventory form.
Click the "Save" button to reserve the materials and complete the process.

Reserving quarantine inventory

The process to reserve quarantine lots is listed below. Once quarantine inventory lots are reserved to a Sales Order, the Sales Order may be shipped as usual. The security setting "Inventory - issue/reserve from quarantine" is used to allow users to reserve quarantine lots. There is no security to prevent the shipment of quarantined lots, only security to prevent who may reserve quarantined lots. This security should be used sparingly; otherwise, the process control involved with moving lots to quarantine becomes less significant. Information on how lots are moved to quarantine and how they are managed internally in DEACOM is available via the Managing Quarantined Inventory Best Practice page.

Ensure the user has the security setting "Inventory - issue/reserve from quarantine" set to yes.
Initiate the sales order reserving process as usual.
Select an item on the Issue/Reserve Inventory form and click the "Modify" button.
The Edit Part form will be displayed.
Click the "Select Lots" button to display the Apply Inventory form.
Change the "Inventory Status" option to "Quarantine."
Select the appropriate lots and make any modifications as necessary.
Click the "Apply" button to return to the Edit Part form.
If additional changes are necessary on the Edit Part form, they made be performed now. Otherwise, exit the form.
If additional quarantine lots need to be reserved, repeat steps 3-8
Once finished, complete the reserving process as usual, making sure to click the "Save" button when all changes have been made.

Using automatic and bulk selection options

DEACOM allows users to have lots selected automatically based on predetermined criteria or in bulk based on how the lots lists are filtered or sorted. Automatic selection is based on the "Use Oldest/Use Newest" or "Use First Exp./Use Last Exp." buttons. See the Apply Inventory form for additional information on these options.

Bulk selection is used in conjunction with the "Filter/Sort" button located on the Apply Inventory toolbar. This feature is advantageous in situations where the Apply Inventory form contains hundreds of item lines, and users can filter on a specific series of lots or serialized items to match the necessary "To Apply" amount. The steps below provided additional detail.

Navigate to Inventory > Issue/Reserve Inventory.
Select the "Type" and the order number to which items will be issued/reserved. Once an order is selected, the associated Parts will load.
Click the "Modify" button to display the Edit Part form.
Click the "Select Lots" button to display the Apply Inventory form.
Click the "Filter/Sort" button on the Apply Inventory toolbar to display the Filter/Sort form.
Click the "Add" button to display the Edit Advanced Filter form.
From here users can use the "Field Name" field to filter the desired column on the Apply Inventory form.
Once selections have been made, click the "Save" button and exit the form.
The system will return the user to the Filter/Sort form.
Click the "Save" button and exit the form.
The Apply Inventory form will now be filtered correctly.
At this point users can click the "Use All" button and complete the issuing/reserving process as described in the Issuing and reserving material using the main application section on this page.

Reserving to sales orders via purchase order allocation

Sales order lines can be linked to purchase order lines for the purpose of ensuring purchased quantities are automatically reserved to sales orders upon purchase order receipt. The feature is useful in situations where items have not been purchased, but companies want to ensure once items are received they are allocated/reserved to the correct customers and sales order lines. See the Reserving to Sales Orders via Purchase Order Allocation page for complete details.

Issuing material using WMS

In addition to the methods described above, on hand inventory may also be issued to Jobs using the DEACOM Warehouse Management System (WMS) application. Material may be issued to individual orders or to a group. Additional information on the form and fields is available on the WMS > Issue Job Encyclopedia page. DEACOM also allows issuing to Master Lots. For information on this process, refer to the Creating and Using Master Lots page.

Issuing material

Navigate to Issue Job. (Reference the link in the previous sentence for information on the default settings and other features on the Issue Job transaction form)
Scan or manually enter the Job number then hit "Enter" on the scanner.
The scanner will populate the "Part Number" field with the first item to be issued, but a different item on the Job may be selected from the pick list, if necessary. If using the "QC To Continue" field on BOM Lines, reference the Edit BOM Line form section to see how this field may impact the list of materials displayed for issuing.
Scan or manually enter the Location Type and Location.
Verify all other information, such as quantity, is correct then click "Save", which will open the Issue Parameters form.
On the Issue Parameters form, either check off the "Retain Location" flag or choose a New Location Type and New Location.
Confirm all details then save.

Understanding the issuing parameters and options

If all of the job(s) requirements have not been issued the system will display a warning message after the "Save" button has been selected asking if the user wishes to continue.
When scanning 3 of 9 barcodes, the cursor on the scanner must first be placed in the field corresponding to the barcoded information. For example, if scanning a DEACOM Part Number, the cursor must first be placed in the "Part Number" field on the scanner.
The system will filter the lots that may be selected in the "Customer Specific" option based on the parent QC specifications when a Make to Order job (header or line job) is created and the user is issuing material to the job and the part for the order has a customer part with QC. In the WMS application, the system will filter lots by the child item customer part QC when selecting or suggesting lots to issue. Refer to Managing Customer Specific Quality Specifications for more information.
The "Pre-fill Job Type" field, available on the User Groups master record, is used to determine the Job Types that will be auto filled when selecting Jobs using the WMS > Issue Job transaction. Options are "Maintenance", "Production", or "All."
Users can issue to non-WIP jobs in WMS. This is useful in situations where materials like supplies and safety equipment do not need to go into WIP for maintenance jobs.
Users can also barcode a valid printer name. Once done, users can scan this printer in the "Printer" field on transactions throughout the WMS application to have the printer selection populate the field.
Users can see items with zero quantity to reserve by checking the "Show Lines With Zero Left to Reserve" flag in Sales Options. The user can then add additional quantity to reserve.
On the lot chooser form, the system is able to read location based off of the location name (lo_name) or location id (lo_id) using GS1128 AI 95. On the lot label the GS1-128 barcode setup would appear as follows:
- GS1128 System Lot With location id: <<F_BARCODE("GS1128",12,"(96)"+UPPER(ALLT(STR(m.fi_lotnum)))+"(95)"+(ALLT(STR(m.fi_loid))))>>
- GS1128 System Lot with location name: <<F_BARCODE("GS1128",12,"(96)"+UPPER(ALLT(STR(m.fi_lotnum)))+"(95)"+(ALLT(lo_name)))>>

Using the mass Issue option

The WMS application offers the ability to mass issue lots to multiple Jobs, using the following steps:

Navigate to Pre-Stage Job. Select the desired Jobs and click the "Continue" button.
The system will display a form with a "Type" combobox. The default value will be set to "Staging". Change the value to "Issue".
Select the appropriate lots and quantities.
Click "Save". The system will issue the selected lots to all Jobs.

Reserving material using WMS

In addition to the methods described in the main application section, on hand inventory may also be reserved to Sales Orders using the DEACOM Warehouse Management System (WMS) application. Material may be reserved to individual orders or to a group. Additional information on the form and fields is available on the WMS > Reserve SO Encyclopedia page. DEACOM also allows issuing to Master Lots. For information on this process, refer to the Creating and Using to Master Lots Best Practice page.

Reserving material

Navigate to Reserve SO.
Scan or manually enter the Sales Order number then hit "Enter" on the scanner.
The scanner will populate the "Part Number" field with the first item to be reserved, but a different item on the order may be selected from the pick list, if necessary.
Scan or manually enter the Location Type and Location.
Enter a Master Lot number, if this feature will be used.
Select Lots as necessary.
1. Note: If the user has security setting "WMS -- suppress quantity prompt" set, a prompt will not be displayed if the user is reserving less than the minimum quantity.
Check off the desired flags, such as "Retain Location" or "Make Master Lot".
Verify all other information, such as quantity, is correct then click "Save", which will complete the reserving process.
1. Note: If multiple users are attempting to reserve the same line on the same sales order, a prompt will appear for any subsequent user that the line is already fully reserved. By selecting "Yes", the system will over-reserve the line.

Note: Beginning in version 16.05.023, a Default Reserve Location may be specified on the General 1 tab of the Item Master and the Item Master Facility tab. In this case, the system will use this Location as the default when reserving to sales orders, for items that have the "Total Catch Weight by Master Lot" property flag checked in the WMS application. Default Reserve Locations may be may be specified on Facility parts. In this case, the Facility specific Default Reserve Location will be used when reserving items marked with the "Total Catch Weight by Master Lot" property flag in the selected Facility.

Using the mass Reserve option

The WMS application offers the ability to mass reserve lots to multiple Sales Orders, using the following steps:

Navigate to Pre-Stage Sales. In the "Ship Via" field, select "All" to display all Sales Orders or select a specific Ship Via to display only Sales Orders with the specified Ship Via.
Once a selection is made, click "Continue".
The system will display a form with a "Type" combobox. The default value will be set to "Staging". Change the value to reserve.
Select the appropriate lots and quantities.
Click "Save". The system will reserve the selected lots to all Sales Orders.

Issuing and reserving material in Containers

In DEACOM, Containers represent storage units that hold inventory. Inventory lots in Containers can be issued to Jobs or reserved to Sales Orders. Containers themselves cannot be directly issued to a job or sales order, rather, a lot of inventory within a Container may be issued to a job or sales order. Additional information is available via the Utilizing Containers page.

De-issuing and Un-reserving material using the main application

Reserving and staging are used so that the inventory is assigned to a list of orders or a specific order until the company is ready to ship the product. The lots will remain staged/reserved against the selected order(s) until they are either shipped or un-reserved. Users have the ability to bulk un-reserve sales orders via the Inventory > Pre-Staging form. The De-Issue/Un-Reserve form is used to un-reserve lots or remove lots from the Staging status so that they may be used for a different order. This function can be used if the wrong lots were reserved or if the order was cancelled.

Navigate to Inventory > De-Issue/Un-Reserve, change the Type field to read "Sale" and select the sales order number from which materials will be de-issued.
If all items/lots are to be de-issued users may click the "De-issue All" button. If only certain items or lots are to be de-issued, select the appropriate lines, click the "Modify" button and indicate the amount to be de-issued. When finished click "Save" and "Exit". Repeat the process for any other lines that will be de-issued.
Once all the appropriate lots and quantities have been set to de-issue, verify the "Location Type" and "New Location" fields are filled in correctly. The "Location Type" and "New Location" field values should be defaulted with the values that were used when the materials and lots were originally issued. Users may changes these values if necessary.
Click the "Save" button to de-issue the materials and complete the process. Note: Items un-reserved from Sales Orders will be returned to regular inventory.

Note: The "Inventory Type" field, introduced in version 16.05.048, allows users to specify if lots will be returned to "Inventory" or "Quarantine". The security setting, "Inventory - move to quarantine" must be set to yes in order to use this field. This field is useful in situations where materials being de-issued may not be acceptable as good inventory and must be evaluated either by inventory control personnel or QC personnel before being available as good inventory.

De-issuing and Un-reserving material using WMS

Navigate to De-issue Inventory (for Jobs) or Un-Reserve Inventory (for Sales Orders).
Scan or manually enter the order number then hit "Enter" on the scanner.
The scanner will populate the "Part Number" field with the first item that has a quantity in WIP/Reserved to be de-issued/un-reserved, but a different item on the order may be selected from the pick list, if necessary.
Scan or manually enter the Location Type and Location.
Verify all other information, such as lots and quantity, is correct then click "Save", which will open the De-Issue Parameters or Un-Reserve Parameters form.
On the Parameters form, either check off the "Retain Location" flag or choose a New Location Type and New Location.
Confirm all details then save.

The "De-issue" and "Un-Reserve" forms in the WMS Application contain a "Type" field which allows users to verify and select the type of inventory lots that will be de-issued or un-reserved. When de-issuing, the options are Job, Master Lot, Staging, or Staging-Job. When un-reserving, the options are Sale, Master Lot, Staging, or Staging-Sale. Additional information on Inventory Types is available via Inventory > Inventory Reporting.

Excluding lots for production use and shipment for specific customers

Beginning in version 16.07.001, users have the option to exclude specific User Lots or System Lots from use or shipment to specific Bill-To Customers, Ship-To Customers, or Billing Groups. The feature was added for situations where a company's customers reject a system or user lot for their own subjective reasons (not something measured by the company QC or customer-specific QC) and do not want to have the same items sold/shipped to them again which may impact the customer relationship and future sales opportunities. For example, a customer may request a sample of a product that has a passed all QC checks but decided to reject the sample/lot based on odor or color characteristics. The rejection of the lot can be triggered by a complaint or product return.

The feature works by using the Exclusion Lots form, which is only available when running the "Eligible Customers" or "Lots" reports from inventory management, to identify and exclude lots. Users must have the security "Inventory - edit lot exclusions" set to yes.

The feature can be used for raw materials, sub-assemblies, and finished goods, both during the production and shipping processes, via the following scenarios:

The system or user lot(s) for the finished good will not be available for reserving to sales orders for the specified customer or Billing Group.
The system or user lot(s) for the raw material or sub-assembly, as specified on the Bill of Materials, for the finished good will not be available for issuing to jobs that have a sales order for the customer or Billing Group specified in the Sales Order (lj_ordnum) field on the Edit Job Part form when sales orders are specified on job lines.
The system or user lot(s) for the raw material or sub-assembly, as specified on the Bill of Materials, for the finished good will not be available for issuing to jobs linked to a sales order for the customer or Billing Group specified when using the make to order (header or line) jobs process.
When using the Input Production or Close/Relive transaction to finish material, the system checks to see if there are any exclusions for the lots relived during this process to ensure they are not used when applicable.

The process for excluding lots is listed below.

Navigate to Inventory > Inventory Reporting.
Select a Report Type of Lots or Eligible Customers.
Fill out the pre-filter as required and click the "View" button.
Select the appropriate lot and click the "Exclusions" button at the top of the report.
On the Exclusion Lots form select the "Add" button to display the Edit Exclusion Lot form.
Select either Bill To Company, Ship To Company, or Billing Group in the "Disposition Type" field.
Next, make the appropriate selection in the "Disposition" field.
Select either System Lot or User Lot in the "Type" field. Note that if selecting User Lot, all the system lots in that User Lot will be excluded.
Click the "Save" button to complete the process.
Note: Exclude lots can be viewed via the "Lot Exclusions" report via Sales > Order Reporting.

In the case of items on Bills of Materials, the system will not choose the excluded lots when backflushing, and the excluded lots will not be available when selecting lots for issuing, in situations where jobs are linked to sales orders for the specified Bill To Customer, Ship To Customer or Billing Group. In the case of excluded lots for finished goods, users will not be able to reserve these lots for sales orders or the specified Bill To Customer, Ship To Customer or Billing Group. Note: lots can be deleted from the excluded list via the "Delete" button on the Exclusion Lots form.

FAQ & Diagnostic Tips

When trying issue/reserve, it is showing "insufficient inventory" message even though I run a lots report and it shows I have plenty of inventory. What is the problem?

Confirm the inventory is in the proper facility, that the lots are not expired, the lots are not issued to a Master Lot, and there are no future dated transactions on the lots.

When trying issue/reserve, it is showing "You must specify a location for inventory transactions." prompt, even though I have the "Retain current location" flag checked. What am I missing?

You are getting the “You must specify a location for inventory transactions.” prompt because you may be trying to issue raw materials from a negative on hand quantity without a default location and location type specified on the item master while “Retaining the current location.” DEACOM is looking for where to issue the material from and finding there is nothing (Actually less than nothing) in inventory so it can’t issue from a location there. Then it is checking the item master for a default location type and location and finding none there as a last resort. This being the case, the system has no choice but to ask “Where do you want me to issue this to?” The solution, if you want to continue to allow negative inventory, is to set a default location and location type on the item master.

Can I add items to a Master Lot after it has been created?

No, you must de-issue the items in the Master Lot and then create a new Master Lot.

Is there a way to prevent users from issuing a master lot which contains items that are not on the order?

Yes, the security settings "Sales Orders - Reserve master lots with items not required" and "Production - Issue master lots with items not required" can be used to enforce this.

How can I stop users from substituting parts?

Use the "No substitutes allowed" flag on the Part's Item Master Properties tab. If enabled, this prevents the use of the "Substitute Part" button for this part. In addition, a user can be prevented form substituting parts in sales or production via the "Inventory -- Issue Substitutions" and "Inventory -- Reserve Substitutions" security settings.

When attempting to use the Reserve SO function on the scanner, why do I receive a "There is nothing set to reserve" notification after clicking "Save"?

Even if there is a number populated in the Quantity field, the user must click on the field and press the Enter button on the scanner to commit the change to record. The user may also scan a Lot Label for the item being reserved.

Can I lock down a location to prevent different items from being placed into that location ?

Yes, the "Restrict Locations To Same Item" flag on the Item Master Properties tab can be used to accomplish this.

Can I choose lots in "Staging" when issuing material in the WMS application?

Yes, beginning in version 17.00.016, users will be choose/scan inventory that is in the "Staging" inventory segment, similar to the main Deacom application, when using a "Type" of "Staging-Job" in the WMS application.

What is the standard or default cursor behavior on the scanner?

When using the Reserve SO, the cursor will be focused in the part number field if the other fields are blank or have default values (such as System or Lot Required for the user lot) so that the quantity field is still selected for users using lot suggestions and the part number is selected for ones that don't.

Tips:

The "Restrict picking to same user lot" flag is available for Customer Part Cross References. If checked, and when reserving or shipping sales orders that contain this Customer Cross Reference Part, the system checks the lots being reserved or shipped. If there are any duplicate user lots for the same part the system will prevent the transaction if this flag is set. This options was added for companies who have customers who will only take one lot of product and don't want mixed lots on a shipment.
Job Categories in DEACOM contain an option to require e-signatures when issuing or staging items to jobs assigned to the selected category. If an e-signature is required, the system will present a form for the e-signature authentication. Authentication does not have to be done by the user currently logged in but does require the authenticator to have a valid DEACOM login. Postings occur as the signing user and not the logged in user. This option applies to the main application and WMS application.
Insufficient inventory messages may be turned off when issuing or reserving in the WMS application via the "Suppress Insufficient Inventory Prompt on WMS" flag in Inventory Options.
If the Picking Unit of Measure is set on a sales order line, all quantities on the Issue/Reserve and Apply Inventory forms will be displayed in the picking unit for the corresponding line.
Beginning in version 16.02 users have the option of converting quantities to different units of measure via the "Units" field on the Select Quantity form. The Select Quantity form is available when clicking the "Modify" button on the Apply Inventory form. Once users select another unit of measure in the "Units" field the system will convert the quantities in the "Available," "Remaining," and "Quantity" fields to that unit of measure. The feature is useful when issuing needs to be done in a unit of measure that is different than the stock unit.
Beginning in version 16.06.028, in situations where inventory is partially issued to a job, only the amount that has already been issued will be displayed in the +Issued row in the current bucket. The additional requirement that the job calls for of the item will remain in the +issued row within the bucket when it is needed to be issued to the job.
Beginning in version 16.07.048, the "Allow Multiple Users to Reserve Simultaneously On WMS" field is available in Sales > Options. This field, if checked, allows multiple users can reserve to the same sales order via the Reserve SO transactions in the WMS system and is useful in situations where multiple pickers will be reserving to the same sales order in different Zones or Locations, particulary for comapnies that use the Zone picking options in Deacom.
Beginning in version 16.07.072, a new field, "bomnotes", can be added to the Issue form grid. This field represents the b2_notes field from the Custom BOM.