3.9.1. Enter Item Site

An Item Site identifies and defines the methods and controls used when maintaining a given Item within a given Warehouse. To enter a new Item Site into your system, select the "Enter Item Site" option. The following screen will appear:

Create New Item Site

When creating a new Item Site, you are presented with the following options:

Item Number: Enter the Item Number of the Item you want to create an Item Site for.
UOM: Inventory Unit of Measure.
Active: Select to indicate the Item Site is active. Not selecting means the Item Site will be considered inactive. If inactive, the Item Site will not appear on lists of active Item Sites. To re-activate an Item Site, simply select this option.
Warehouse: Specify Warehouse where Item Site is located. Use this selection in conjunction with the additional Warehouse settings found on the Item Site screen.

Supplied at this Warehouse: Select if Item is supplied at specified Warehouse. If selected, "Supplied at" means that Purchase Orders may be issued for this Item in this Warehouse if the Item is a purchased Item, and Work Orders may be issued for this Item in this Warehouse if the Item is a manufactured Item. These rules apply also to Planned Orders generated when Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is run. Planned Orders may only be released to "Supplied at" Item Sites.
Create P/Rs to Meet Demands: Select to create Purchase Requests whenever Sales Orders or Work Orders demand quantities from the Item Site. This option pertains to purchased and outside-process Items. If you select this option, you are indicating that you want Purchase Requests to be generated for the Item in question whenever quantities are demanded by either Sales Orders or Work Orders. For Sales Orders, the "Create Purchase Request" flag on the Sales Order Item screen will automatically be selected. For Work Orders using a purchased or outside process Item, Purchase Requests will be generated automatically.

Note

Purchase Requests created, as specified above, to meet Sales Order and Work Order demands will be created regardless of an Item's Availability—and also regardless of whether Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is being run in parallel.

Create W/Os to Meet Demand: Select to create Work Orders whenever Sales Orders demand quantities from the Item Site. This option pertains to manufactured Items. If you select this option, you are indicating that you want Work Orders to be generated for the Item in question whenever quantities are demanded by a Sales Order. Selecting this option will cause the "Create Work Order" flag to be checked whenever you enter Sales Order Line Items for the Item Site.

Note

Work Orders created, as specified above, to meet Sales Order demand will be created regardless of an Item's Availability—and also regardless of whether Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is being run in parallel.

Sold from this Warehouse

Select if Item is sold from specified Warehouse. If selected, "Sold from" means that Sales Orders Line Items may request to Ship from the Warehouse. When adding Sales Order Line Items to a Sales Order, a "Sold from" Warehouse appears as the "Supplying Warehouse."

Ranking

Select a number using the arrow buttons, or manually enter a value up to a maximum of 10. Value entered specifies the order in which Item Sites will be chosen during Sales Order and Sales Quote creation. If an Item is located in more than one "Sold from" Warehouse, the Item Site with the highest ranking will be chosen first. If two Item Sites happen to share the same ranking, selection will be based on alphabetical order. The highest ranking an Item Site can have is one (1).

Control Method

Specify the Item Site control method by selecting one of the available options:

None: Select if you don"t care to see Inventory history transactions for the Item Site.
Regular: Select to monitor Inventory history transactions for the Item Site using a Regular method. Regular means without Lot Number or Serial Number control.
Lot #: Select to impose Lot Number control methods on the Item Site. Item Sites using Lot Number control are subject to unique processing requirements whenever Inventory is received or distributed. For additional information on some of the unique methods required to handle Lot-controlled Items, see Section 3.5.6, “Topic: Receiving Lot/Serial Items into Inventory”.
Serial #: Select to impose Serial Number control methods on the Item Site. Item Sites using Serial Number control are subject to unique processing requirements whenever Inventory is received or distributed. For additional information on some of the unique methods required to handle Serial-controlled Items, see Section 3.5.6, “Topic: Receiving Lot/Serial Items into Inventory”.

Perishable

Select if the Item is perishable. For Item Sites whose control method is either Lot Number or Serial Number, you have the option of also designating the Item Site as Perishable. Materials received into a Perishable Item Site are required to specify an expiration date, thereby increasing your ability to monitor the status of the goods.

Planner Code

Specify the Planner Code you want to assign the Item Site to. Assigning a Planner Code to an Item Site makes it possible to group Item Sites by Planner Code for the purposes of Planning.

Cost Category

Specify the Cost Category you want to associate with the Item Site. Item Sites must be assigned a Cost Category. This requirement helps ensure that all Inventory transactions involving an Item Site will be properly tracked and recorded in the General Ledger.

Multiple Location Control: Select if the specified Item is to be stored in multiple Locations within a single Warehouse. Items designated as Multiple Location Control (MLC) Items require special processing whenever Item quantities are distributed. For more information on distributing MLC Item quantities, see Section 3.5.2, “ Topic: Distributing Multiple Location Control (MLC) Items”.

Tip

Exercise caution when adjusting the Multiple Location Control (MLC) setting for an Item Site. If you turn off MLC for an Item Site which was previously MLC, you will lose detailed Inventory records for that Item Site. All quantity will be merged into one Quantity on Hand value for the Item Site.

Use Default Location: Default Location: Select to designate one Location within a Warehouse as the default Location for the specified Item. This option may be used for single Location and Multiple Location Control (MLC) Items alike. You may find that Inventory distributions for MLC Items are greatly simplified if you designate a default Location.
Location: Specify the Warehouse Location to be used as the default Location.
User-Defined: This is a free-form field for describing storage areas with a Warehouse not specifically designated as Warehouse Locations.
Location Comment: Enter any free-form Comment related to the Warehouse Location. This is additional information which may be placed on a Pick List or a Pack List.
Disallow Blank WIP Locations: Select to require the use of work-in-process (WIP) Locations when posting Work Order Operations for Multiple Location Control (MLC) finished goods. WIP Locations are an optional feature which may be defined on the Bill of Operations (BOO) for manufactured MLC Items. The feature enables you to track finished goods Inventory as it moves through the manufacturing process. If your site does not combine Multiple Location Control with Operations posting, then this option should be left unchecked.
Stocked: Select if the Item is stocked at the specified Warehouse. This setting is used to drive the constraint management system. As a result, to avoid inaccurate results when running that system, an Item Site must also have a Reorder Level defined to use this option.

ABC Class

Specify the ABC classification for the specified Item.

Allow Automatic Updates: Select to allow the ABC Class setting for the Item Site to be updated whenever the ABC Class update utility is run. Not selecting indicates the ABC Class for the Item Site should not be updated whenever the ABC Class update utility is run.

Cycl. Cnt. Freq.

Cnt. Freq.: Select a number using the arrow buttons, or manually enter a value up to a maximum of 999. A Cycle Count is a periodic issue of a Count Tag to count Inventory quantity within an Item Site. The Cycle Count frequency defines the length of that period, measured in days.

Tip

To monitor the frequency of Item Site Cycle Counts, view the "Last Counted" column in any of the Item Site Reports: by Item, by Class Code, etc. The Last Counted date represents the date a Count Tag was last posted (not simply issued) for the Item Site.

Event Fence: Select a number using the arrow buttons, or manually enter a value up to a maximum of 99. Specify the period of time, measured in days, within which relevant Event notifications should be issued. If an Event affecting the Item Site occurs within the Event Fence, then the system will issue a notification. Consider the case of a manufactured Item whose Event Fence is set to five (5) days. Assume that a Work Order exists for this Item and that the scheduled start date for that Work Order is three (3) days from the current date. If someone were to change the quantity of that Work Order, the Event "WoQtyChanged" would be triggered. And because the Work Order start date falls within the Event Fence for the Item Site, an Event notification would be issued.

To the far right of the screen, the following buttons are available:

CANCEL: Closes the screen without creating an Item Site, returning you to the application desktop.
SAVE: Creates the Item Site and adds it to the master list of Item Sites.

To set the Item Site planning parameters, select the "Planning" tab. The following screen will appear:

Item Site Planning

When setting the Item Site planning parameters, you are presented with the following options:

Enforce Order Parameters

Order Parameters: Select to enforce Order Parameters.

If this option is selected, then Material Requirements Planning (MRP) will follow the Order Parameters defined below when generating Planned Replenishment Orders. Parameters you define will be saved if this option is turned ON/OFF. If you want to enforce Order Parameters on manual Orders as well, select the "on Manual Orders" option. For more information on how Order Parameters interact with MRP, see Section 3.9.3, “Topic: Order Parameters and MRP”.

Note

Running Material Requirements Planning (MRP) on your system consists entirely of running the Create Planned Replenishment Orders screens—either by Item or by Planner Code. As MRP runs, the Planned Replenishment Orders are generated automatically.

Reorder Level: The Reorder Level specifies when a Planned Replenishment Order should be created for an Item Site. If Planned Availability minus Safety Stock falls below the Reorder Level, then a Replenishment Order will be created when Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is run. The Replenishment Order quantity will be equal to the quantity required to return Planned Availability to either the Reorder Level or the Order Up To quantity—whichever is greater. For more information, see Section 3.9.3, “Topic: Order Parameters and MRP”.

Note

Planned Availability differs from Quantity on Hand (QOH). The difference is that Planned Availability considers both QOH and also the time-phased demands placed on Inventory by Sales Orders and Work Orders. MRP uses Planned Availability when calculating which Item Sites require Planned Replenishment Orders.

Order Up To: The Order Up To (OUT) Level indicates the level of Planned Availability an Item Site should be replenished up to when Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is run. In cases where the Reorder Level for an Item Site exceeds the Order Up To Level, MRP will replenish the Item Site up to the Reorder Level. For more information, see Section 3.9.3, “Topic: Order Parameters and MRP”.

Tip

Setting the Order Up To Level to "0" removes any restrictions on maximum Order quantities. Removing quantity restrictions can be an effective strategy to help ensure that all Order demands are satisfied when MRP is run. Order demands may not be met if Order Up To Levels are set below the demand threshold.

Minimum Order: Value entered indicates the minimum quantity that may be entered for a Planned Replenishment Order when MRP is run. If the "on Manual Orders" option is selected above, manually-created Work Orders will recognize the Minimum Order value.
Maximum Order: This is a special setting which regulates the maximum quantity for Planned Replenishment Orders when MRP is run. The setting does not apply to manual Orders, but to Planned Orders only. When a maximum Order quantity is specified, MRP will ignore Order multiples and minimum Order specifications—focusing instead solely on the maximum Order setting. For example, if the maximum Order quantity is set to 10 and there is demand for 17, then Planned Orders of 10 and 7 would be generated when MRP is run.

Tip

Setting the maximum order quantity too low has been shown to slow performance when MRP is run. Unless you have special needs (i.e., crate packaging limits) which require you to set a low maximum order quantity, you should consider setting the maximum order value to "0".

Order Multiple

Value entered indicates the quantity multiple that should be used for Planned Replenishment Orders when MRP is run. If the "on Manual Orders" option is selected above, manually-created Work Orders will recognize the Order Multiple value.

Enforce on Manual Orders

Select to enforce Order Parameters on manually-created Work Orders. If this option is selected, Order Parameters will also be enforced whenever Work Orders are manually created. This option applies only to the following two parameters: Minimum Order and Order Multiple. The other Order Parameters listed below do not apply to manually-created Work Orders. For manual Purchase Orders, the Minimum Order and Order Multiple parameters are determined on a Vendor-by-Vendor basis, using Item Source masters.

Group MPS/MRP Orders Every

Specify the length of a period—measured in days—within which MPS or MRP Planned Orders will be grouped together (i.e, consolidated) to meet scheduled demand for the period. This functionality serves to limit the total number of Planned Orders, thereby simplifying order processing. For example, to consolidate demand for an Item Site into 30-day buckets, set the value to "30." When MRP is run, the system will automatically consolidate all demand falling within the 30-day horizon into a single Planned Purchase Order or Planned Work Order. The grouping of Planned Orders moves forward in time, meaning the system will create as many buckets as will fit within the cutoff date specified when MRP is run.

The initial grouping of Planned Orders is handled differently than subsequent buckets. The following formula specifies how the date range for the initial period is determined:

Start Date = Today's Date

End Date = Today's Date + Lead Time

All subsequent periods are determined using the following calculations:

Start Date = End Date of Previous Period + 1

End Date = Start Date of Current Period + Group Value

Tip

To enforce Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery methods, set the MRP group value to "0." This will ensure that Planned Order due dates are the same as the demand due dates to which they correspond. If the MRP Order grouping value is set to "0", the initial period will be determined in the same way as for all Planned Order groups:

Start Date = Today's Date

End Date = Today's Date + Lead Time

However, the date range for all subsequent JIT Planned Orders will be based on the following calculations:

Start Date = Demand Due Date - Lead Time

End Date = Demand Due Date

MPS Time Fence: Specify the length of the Demand Time Fence by using the arrow buttons or manually entering a value up to a maximum of 999. The Demand Time Fence (also known as the demand fence) is used by the Master Production Scheduling (MPS) system to evaluate when forecasted demand (i.e., from Production Plans) should be used in place of actual demand (i.e., from Sales Orders)--and vice versa. Measured in days, the Demand Time Fence is the period of time extending from the current day to the number of days into the future as specified in this field. The Demand Time Fence option applies only to those Items which currently appear on a released Production Plan. If demand for these Items falls within the Demand Time Fence period, then the Forecast will be ignored. If demand falls outside the Demand Time Fence, then the larger of actual or forecasted demand will be used. MPS responds to the demand it locates by creating firm Planned Orders for the required quantities.
Lead Time: Select a number using the arrow buttons, or manually enter a value up to a maximum of 999. Specifies the Lead Time for the specified Item, measured in days. If the Item is a manufactured Item, then the Lead Time refers to the production Lead Time. If the Item is a purchased Item, then the Lead Time refers to the planning Lead Time. The procurement Lead Time for purchased Items is determined on a Vendor-by-Vendor basis, using Item Source masters. Material Requirements Planning (MRP) will consider Lead Times when calculating Planned Order start dates when MRP is run.
Safety Stock: Specify the quantity of Stock for the Item you want to keep in Inventory to protect against unplanned, unforeseeable trends in your Order forecasts. When Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is run, the system considers the Safety Stock value when determining whether to create Planned Replenishment Orders. If Planned Availability minus Safety Stock is below the Reorder Level, then Planned Orders will be created. If not below the Reorder Level, then no Planned Orders will be created. The system's calculation effectively creates a buffer Inventory (if needed) to handle unexpected fluctuations in demand. If you do not want to use the Safety Stock functionality, set the Safety Stock value to "0".

To add miscellaneous Notes to an Item Site, select the "Notes" tab. The following screen will appear:

Add Item Site Notes

Notes: This is a scrolling text field with word-wrapping for entering free-form Notes related to the Item Site. Notes differ from Comments in that Comments are time/date and user stamped.

To associate Comments with an Item Site, select the "Comments" tab. The following screen will appear:

Add Item Site Comments

Comments: Display lists the date Comment entered, Comment Type, user who entered Comment, and a content preview.

To the far right of the screen, the following buttons are available:

NEW: Opens screen for creating a new Comment.
VIEW: Highlight a Comment and then select this button to reach a read-only view of the Comment.

To create a new Comment, select the NEW button. The following screen will appear:

Create New Comment

Comment Type: Specify one of the following Comment Types from the drop-down list: ChangeLog or General. Comment Types are used to categorize Comments. Once you have specified a Comment Type, you may type your Comment in the main text area. The text area features word-wrapping and scroll-bar support for longer Comments.

To the far right of the screen, the following buttons are available:

CANCEL: Closes the screen without creating the Comment, returning you to the previous screen.
SAVE: Creates the Comment and adds it to the list of Comments.

Warehouse Locations may be restricted to allow for storage of certain Items. To view restricted Locations within an Item Site's Warehouse, select the "Restricted Locations" tab. The following screen will appear:

Restricted Locations for Item Site

The Restricted Locations list will show restricted Locations associated with the Warehouse the Item Site is located in.

To the far right of the screen, the following buttons are available:

TOGGLE: Highlight a Warehouse Location and then select this button to change the allowed status for the Item. Any changes made on the Item Site master related to an Item's allowed status will also be saved to the Warehouse Location master record.