Managing Quarantined Inventory
Quarantined inventory is questionable inventory that is not a result of formal QC testing. One reason customers may wish to use this inventory segment is for material received via customer returns. Additionally, it can be used for material that looked fine upon receipt, but now something looks or behaves wrong. Quarantine inventory is the result of a move from regular inventory; it is unavailable for normal issuing, reserving, or shipping. It is important to effectively manage quarantined inventory so that the company can ensure they are receiving usable inventory from Vendors and their Customers are receiving only good quality materials.
Configuration
Inventory needs to exist in order to be moved to the Quarantine segment. This can occur by receiving material against a Purchase Order, producing material for a Job, or accepting a customer return via a Sales Order with a Type of Credit Memo.
Process
Determining which Lots are in Quarantine
Users can run a Lots report by navigating to Inventory > Inventory Reporting, setting a Report Type of "Lots" and a View of "Quarantine", then clicking "View". The resulting report will display a list of all Lots currently assigned to the Quarantine bucket, along with the details for those Lots. Users can then use the "Move Inventory" button to move one or more Lots from Quarantine to regular Inventory, QC Pending, or Staging, depending on how the material will be handled.
Adjusting Out Lots in Quarantine
The "Adjust On Hand" button on the "Lots" report can be used to adjust out quarantined lots that will not be returned to regular inventory. In addition,
Sending failed QC material to Quarantine
Users have the option to automatically send Lots that fail QC to Quarantine. This functionality, done on the QC Group level, can allow managers to determine which parts can be used and which parts should be scrapped, instead of automatically scrapping all parts that fail QC. To utilize this functionality:
- Navigate to Inventory > Maintenance > Quality Control Groups.
- Select the desired QC Group then click "Modify".
- In the Edit Quality Control Group form, check off the "Fail to Quarantine" box then save.
- Once a test within the QC Group is marked as failing, the material will be sent to Quarantine, regardless of if all other QC Tests in the group passed or not. It is then the responsibility of a QC Manager to determine whether the material can be used or if it should be scrapped.
Moving inventory returned via Credit Memos
If material is being returned, users have the option to move the returned Part to Quarantine once the Credit Memo (negative Sales Order) has been shipped. Credit Memos contain a "Change Reason" field, and Change Reasons contain a "Move Inventory To" field. To set up a new Change Reason:
- Navigate to Sales > Maintenance > Change Reasons.
- Click "New", type a Name for the Change Reason, and select "Quarantine" from the "Move Inventory To" pick list. Save and exit to complete setup.
- Once the new Change Reason has been added, it may be selected during the entry of the Credit Memo. For more information on setting up a Credit Memo, refer to Entering Sales Orders. When it comes time to add a new Part to the order, enter the quantity as a negative amount, select a Change Reason, then save and exit. Once the order header is saved, the order can be shipped. Once the order is shipped, the inventory will automatically move to the Quarantine inventory segment.
Manually moving inventory to Quarantine
If it is decided that inventory should be sent to Quarantine after it has already been received/produced/returned in the system, a user has the option to manually perform the inventory move using the Move Inventory form. For more information on how to do this, refer to the Moving Inventory page.
Reserving and shipping Quarantine lots
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. Complete information is available via the Issuing and Reserving Material Page.
De-Issuing/Un-Reserving inventory to Quarantine
Receiving items and moving them to Quarantine manually
Introduced in version 17.04.007
The "Move To" field on the Edit Quantity from (during PO receipt) and the Edit Receipts form (when verifying receipts) can be moved to Quarantine if they have the "Inventory – move to quarantine" security setting set.
The use of this field removes the need to first receive, then move inventory to quarantine, particularly when performing large amounts of receipts or using receipt verification.
This field is set to "Inventory" by default and users can, as needed, select the option to receive and move lots directly to Quarantine. Additional details are available via the "Make To" field description on the Receive page.
FAQ & Diagnostic Tips
I know there is inventory on hand, but it is not showing up.
Verify you are working in the correct Facility and filtering for the correct inventory bucket (Inventory, Quarantine, Reserved, etc.).