<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  »No topics above this level« Warehouse Management

Warehouse functional overview

The warehouse functionality in IMS has the following capabilities.

 

•Stock management

•Purchase Orders, material ordering process

•Material Templates

•Fast moving material management, e.g. cables, etc.

•Full relation of warehouse assets and network assets, should both processes be managed

from within IMS

 

The IMS warehouse functionality is designed with a certain flow in mind as displayed in the below flow

diagram, which is good to keep as reference for the remainder of this chapter

 

 

Warehouse functionality

 

Accessing the Warehouse forms

The warehouse forms are in IMS under the Warehouse button on left-hand button bar.

The menu bar above the warehouse forms contains the following buttons:

From left to right:

 

 

Warehouse dashboard

On the Warehouse Stock form, it is possible to get an overview of the materials per stock.

 

IMS Warehouse menu button and click Stock in the list.

Use the top-left field to search and select the stock of which you want to have an overview of the materials

held within that stock.

 

The following fields are shown on the StockLevels tab:

 

Ordering new material

1.There are two ways of adding material items to a stock. The first and advised way is by following

the ordering process by creating a new Purchase Order, as indicated in step 1 of the diagram of

chapter 2.

 

2.The second method is by directly adding material items to the stock, thus skipping the ordering and

delivery process steps, as indicated in step 2 of the diagram of chapter 2 (see also chapter 3.4)

 

The menu bar above the PO forms contain the following buttons:

From left to right:

 

 

 

Purchase Order

Ad 1.        A purchase order must be created to order new material. It allows for tracking the ordering and

delivery process and can be used to control the budget.

 

Step 1: Create a new PO

Warehouse menu button and click Purchase Orders in the list.

 

On the Purchase Order form click the button “New PO” to create a new purchase order for ordering new material

The New PO form contains the following fields:

 

 

Step 2: Add material for ordering to the new PO

1.With the new PO created navigate to the Add tab on the Purchase Order form. The Add tab list all

    the available material types for ordering.

2.Select one or more material types from the list and click the “Add material to PO” button.

3.On the pop-up window fill in the quantity of the material you want to order and click the save button

    to add the material(s) to the PO.

 

Step 3: Review and commit order list

Once all the materials have been added to the PO you can navigate to the Order list tab to review the list of

materials. You can adjust the amount of materials or remove materials from the list.

 

Click the “Commit order list” button when the order list is complete.

This will create the material items in the database which allows them to be reserved even before they have

been delivered.

 

IN Number

An investment number (IN) must be created to allow for budget allocation to a PO for ordering material.

An IN is usually created for a whole project or order to control the complete budget and PO’s related.

Multiple PO’s can be related to one IN.

 

Warehouse menu button and click IN Number in the list.

 

The menu bar for IN Number registration contains the following buttons:

From left to right:

 

 

 

The New InNumber form contains the following fields:

 

 

 

Delivery of new material

As indicated in step 2 of the diagram in chapter 2, material items will be delivered after they have been ordered.

This can be done on the Stock form by clicking the “Stock item Action” button.

This opens the stock item action window which allows you to perform actions on the various material items

related to the current stock. For delivery of material items, the “Book In” option is used.

 

1.On the stock item action window select the option “Book In” to list the material items

which can be booked

into the current stock. The list contains material items with the status ordered, out stock, not in stock,

defect and returned to supplier.

 

2.Use the filter row function on the grid to search for the material items which have been delivered,

for example the purchase order or material name.

 

3.Material items for which the serial number is required will have to be updated with the actual serial

number first, this can be done by using the following steps.

 

-Locate the material item in the list and double-click in the SerialNumber field and fill in the

serial number of the material item and press the “V” at the left most side of the row to accept

the change.

 

4.Select the material items that have been delivered and click the update button to update

    the status of these material items to “in stock”.

Add material to stock

 

Ad 2.        As mentioned in chapter 3.2, the second method is by directly adding material items to the stock,

thus skipping the ordering and delivery process steps, as indicated in step 2 of the diagram of

chapter 2.

 

 

 

 

Reserve material

The next step in the process flow of the material items is to reserve materials as shown in the diagram of

chapter 2 at step 3. Material reservations can be made regardless of whether they are in stock,

in order or not in stock at all.

 

The following priority is used in selecting material items for reservation.

1.In stock

2.In order

3.Out stock (negative stock)

 

Reservations are made based on the material type name and not so much the actual material item in the

database. This is useful when for example reservations are made on high volume material items, like SFP’s,

that contain a serial number. The serial number is assigned at a later step in the process.

 

On the stock form click the button “Reserve Materials” to create a new material reservation.

 

The reserve material form contains the following fields:

 

 

 

Material to layout

This step in the process is to set (reserved) material items to layout, which means that they are ready to

be picked up for installation. This is shown in the diagram of chapter 2 at step 4.

 

For high volume material items containing serial numbers, like SFP’s, it is advised to skip the layout step

and to directly book out these material items as explained in the next chapter.

 

4.On the stock form click the button “Stock item action” to open the stock item action window and

    select the “To layout” option. This lists only material items ‘in stock’.

 

5.Two additional fields appear:

a.Material ticket name

b.Reserved material

 

6.These fields allow the list of material items to be limited to a certain material reservation and/or

    a specific reserved material type.

 

7.Select the required material items from the list and click the update button to update the status

    of the material item(s) to layout.

 

Book out material

When material items have been taken from the stock, either through the reservation/layout steps or

directly from stock, the status must be updated to “out stock” by booking out the material item(s).

This is shown in step 5 of the diagram in chapter 2.

 

1.On the stock form click the button “Stock item action” to open the stock item action window and

select the “book out” option. This will list all material items with the status “in stock” and “lay out”.

 

2.Select the material item(s) from the list and select the “update” button to change the status to

“out stock”.

 

Defect material

Material items returned to stock can be set on status “Defect” if they are defect or malfunctioning.

This allows the material items to be send to a vendor for repair or can be removed from stock should this

be desired. (if the IMS inventory is also related, cards can be set to defect already in the inventory node screen)

 

1.Changing the status of a material item to “Defect” can be done on the stock form by navigating to the

ItemsInStock tab. This tab lists all the individual material items related to the current selected stock.

 

2.Locate the material item in the list and double-click the StatusId field and change the status to

“Defect” and press the “V” at the left most side of the row to accept the change.

 

Repair material

Material items with the status “Defect” can be sent to a vendor for repair. This updates the status of the

material item(s) to “returned to supplier”.

 

1.On the stock form click the button “Stock item action” to open the stock item action window and

select the “To Repair” option to list all the material items with the status “Defect”.

 

2.Select the material item(s) in the list and the vendor on the additional field that has appeared when

selecting the “To Repair” option at the top of the window and press the “update” button to change

the status of the material item(s) to “returned to supplier”.

 

When the material items have been repaired and received back from the supplier then the material items

can be booked back in stock by following the steps explained in chapter 3.3.

 

Move to stock

Material items with the status “In Stock” or “Out Stock” can be moved to another stock or from the inventory

back to the stock. This updates the status of the material item(s) to “in transfer” in case the stock is moved

from one stock to another and to “to be returned” if the item is moved from the inventory (out stock) back to

a stock.

 

1.On the stock form click the button “Stock item action” to open the stock item action window and

select the “Move to Stock” option to list all the material items with the status “In Stock” or “Out Stock”.

 

2.Select the material item(s) in the list and the stock and order in the additional fields that  appeared

when selecting the “Move to Stock” option at the top of the window and press the “update” button

to change the status of the material item(s) to “in transfer” or “to be returned”.

 

The items in status “to be returned” and “in transfer” can be booked into the stock by following the steps

explained in chapter 3.3

 

Move to site

Material items with the status “In Stock” or “Out Stock” can be moved to a site. This updates the status

of the material item(s) to “in transfer”.

 

1.On the stock form click the button “Stock item action” to open the stock item action window

and select the “Move to Site” option to list all the material items with the status “In Stock” or “Out Stock”.

 

2.Select the material item(s) in the list and the site and order in the additional fields that  appeared

when selecting the “Move to Site” option at the top of the window and press the “update” button

to change the status of the material item(s) to “in transfer”.

 

The items in status “in transfer” can be booked out the stock by following the steps explained in chapter 3.7.

Material ready for sale

Material items can leave the stock by assigning to a bin, for example to sell them to a third party or to dispose

of them. This can be done by registering the appropriate bin and assigning the material items to the bin.

 

Step 1: Create a new material bin

Warehouse menu button and select Material Bin from the list. This opens the MaterialBin form.

 

Click the “New” button to create a new material bin.

The new MaterialBin form contains the following fields:

 

 

 

Step 2: Assign material items to a bin

On the stock form click the button “Stock item action” to open the stock item action window and

select the “Ready for Sale” option. This will list material items with the status in stock.

 

Select the material item(s) from the list and select the appropriate bin in the additional field that appeared

when selecting the option “Ready for Sale” and select the “update” button.

 

 

Cables

 

The management of cables is different in the IMS warehouse module, due to the nature of cables and the

way of ordering/delivering cables.

Cables are not included in the stock level form, but in a separate tab: ‘Cables in Stock’

 

To book in or book out cables use the button on the warehouse menu bar ‘Book in/out Cables’ and select ‘IN’ or ‘OUT’

The action type field and the stock field are already filled-in, but these can be modified if necessary.

 

Fill in:

Cable type                -        the type of cable, defining if ordered by qty or length

The available quantity in stock is displayed for your convenience

 

Fill in:

 

Warehouse administration

Register Material Types

Warehouse holds a separate library of equipment types and as such material types must be defined.

Material types can be setup independent of the inventory types depending on how the warehouse

functionality is intended to be used.

 

Access the Warehouse Material Types form

Warehouse menu button and click Material Type in the list.

Create new material type

On the Material Type form click the button “Create new MaterialType” to open the form to create a new material type.

The Details tab of the form contains the following fields:

 

 

 

Should the material be related to an object in the IMS inventory, then the tab Inventory Item can be used,

which contains the following fields:

 

 

 

 

 

Create new material template

In IMS Warehouse it is possible to create material templates, these are used to order items that belong to a

certain configuration and should be ordered as a package, f.i. a switch that always has a certain card and

certain SFP’s or a BTS that has a huge list of material items varying from antenna pole’s to generators and

batteries etc.

By creating a material template, all items in such a configuration (or package) can be ordered at once

just by creating the list one time.

 

Access the Warehouse Material Types form

Warehouse menu button and click Material Template in the list.

On the Material Type form click the button “Create new MaterialTemplate” to open the form to create a

new material template.

 

The form contains the following fields:

 

 

 

After creating the template, the materials can be added to the template by clicking on the

“Add new material” button, or by adding te materials that are already defined in another template by

clicking the button: “Add materials from template” in which case a list of existing templates is displayed.

The form contains the following fields:

 

 

 

Create new Warehouse Stock Location

Locations containing one or more material items are called stocks in IMS Warehouse.

One or more of these stocks must be created to manage the ordering, delivery,

reservation and lay out process steps.

 

Creating a new stock can be done in IMS by going to the Warehouse button and click Stock in the list.

In the stock form click the New button to create a new stock.

Explanation of the fields: