Inventory Controls

Oracle Inventory provides inventory controls to track individual items or group of items when transactions are performed in an organizations.

Inventory controls are four types.

1.   Serial Number Control

2.   Lot Control

3.   Locator Control

4.   Revision Control

We can implement any combination of the four controls (locator, revision, lot, and serial number) for each item.

Inventory controls are optional for all items. You can choose to implement inventory controls for specific items. 
Serial Number Control
A serial number is an alphanumeric piece of information we assign to an individual unit of an item. We can use serial numbers to track items over which you want to maintain very tight control and warranty purpose. One serial number is assigned to per unit of an item.

Serial Number Control can be done mainly at two levels

·         At Organization Level

·         At Item Level

At Organization level: We will use the prefix and starting serial number given at organization level.

At Item level: We will use the prefix and starting serial number given at Item level.

Serial Number Generation can be done at four levels

No Control: The system does not enforce the Serial Number Control.

Predefined: We must predefine Serial Numbers for that item.

Inventory Receipt: We can generate our own serial numbers or we can also use predefined serial number.
Sales Order Issue: We can generate serial numbers while issuing the material to the customer in shipping module.  
Serial Uniqueness

We will use the organization parameter window to choose a type of serial number uniqueness of our organization. Serial number uniqueness is at Four Levels.

Within Inventory Module and item: Here we will maintain serial number uniqueness at Master Inventory and its member inventory organizations. 
Within Inventory Items: Once we assign a serial number to a particular item we cannot assign the same serial number to the same item regardless of an inventory organization. Per Example, if we assign SN001 to item X, we cannot assign the serial number SN001 to any other instance of item X in any organization. We can, however, receive item Y with the serial number SN001 in any other organization.

Within Inventory Organization: In addition to Within Inventory Items restrictions, the same serial number cannot exist twice with the same inventory organization. Per Example, if we assign SN001 to item X, we cannot receive item Y with the serial number SN001 in the same organization. We can, however, receive item Y with the serial number SN001 in any other organization.
Across Organization: Here we will maintain serial number uniqueness at instance level. In addition to Within an Organization restrictions, we cannot assign the same serial number to any other item regardless of the inventory organization. Per Example, if we assign SN100 to item A, we cannot receive item B with the serial number SN100 in any organization. In this example SN100 and SN101 belongs to different organizations. If we assign Across Organizations Uniqueness to any organization it restricts the serial number generation in all other organizations. If one organization dictates across organizations all other organizations must do so.
Characteristics of Serial Controls:

Serial Controls are digit sensitive. 
Ex: If we enter 1 it will accept up to 9.

      If we enter 10 it will accept up to 99. 
      If we enter 01 it will accept up to 99 as separate serial number control.
Serial Controls are break sensitive and not round robin.
Ex: If we enter 80 to 95.

      If we enter 70 it will accept up to 79.

For Characters there are no increments.

Ex: If we enter ABC it will be like ABC only. 
Character end with Number then it has incrimination based digit.
Ex: If we enter ABC1 it will accept up to ABC9. 
     If we enter ABC10 it will accept up to ABC99.

Character start with Number then there is no incrimination.

Ex: If we enter 0ABC it will be like 1ABC only. 
     If we enter 10ABC it will be like 10ABC only. 
Define Serial Controls at Inventory Organization Level: 
Navigation: MCR INV > Setup > Organizations > Parameter > Go to Revision, Lot, Serial and LPN Tab. Enter the values as per the below screen at Serial Controls and save the transaction.
 
Define the item in the item master and enable Serial Control:

Navigation: MCR INV > Items > Master Items. Enter the values as per the below screen shot and make the serial generation as At Receipt. i.e. We will generate the serial numbers at the time of receipts.

Generating and Maintaining Predefined Serial Numbers:

Navigation: MCR INV > On-Hand Availability > Generate Serial Numbers. Enter the Item Number as MI-SNO and Quantity as 100 and click on submit.
 
To see the predefined serial numbers

Navigation: MCR INV > On-Hand Availability > Serial Numbers. Enter the item and click on Find button.

 
Do the miscellaneous receipt transactions against item MI-SNO.

 
Navigation: MCR INV > Transactions > Miscellaneous Transactions > select type as Miscellaneous Receipts and click on Transaction Lines.Enter the below values as per the screen and click on Lot/Serial button.

 
Enter the all possible ranges as per the below and click on Done button.