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[Jeff Roe]

Just curious what are the advantages or dis-advantages of setting a default location on items in the item master.

I have a new company setup where I have two locations (Seattle and Portland) and currently all items are set with the Seattle location.

There are some users that can create purchase orders for either location and what is happening if they don’t pay attention to the location, a Portland PO my end up with items on the PO with Seattle location.  This then causes domino effects with receiving and PO generator.

If I remove the default locations from the items then the PO’s will default to the first location entered but don’t want to create other issues if I do this.

Looking for some guidance and best practices.

Thanks

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Jeff Roe
Kele Inc
Bartlett TN
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[Carrie Henderson]

Good morning Jeff, we have in excess of 50 inventory locations – 4 of these are brick and mortar branch locations. We manage this by the site ID, when the site is selected on the PO it will go to that location. Currently we use one bin ‘RECEIVING’ that is the default on all site ids for bringing items into inventory. From receiving a bin transfer can be done to move to the home if storing or can be sold out of the receiving bin. Hope this helps.

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Carrie Henderson
Kenco Group, Inc
Chattanooga TN
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[Jeff Roe]

And you don’t set a default site in the Item Master, correct?

Thanks

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Jeff Roe
Kele Inc
Bartlett TN
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[Carrie Henderson]

Correct no default set up then it will pull from the site id selected on the PO.

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Carrie Henderson
Kenco Group, Inc
Chattanooga TN
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[Jeff Roe]

Thanks

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Jeff Roe
Kele Inc
Bartlett TN
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[Keith Paul]

We also have multiple site and multiple physical locations in addition to virtual ones. We also do not set the default location on an item and let the Site selection on the PO determine the site. 

An alternative that we have used in the past involves items unique to a particular site. In that case, we only set up that site for the item.  I would caution that this alternative has drawbacks. if a different site starts using the item, then it will need to be added to the items. If you are using manufacturing and running MRP, and a decision is made to produce the same item in the different site. Items that were set up as unique to a particular site ill not plan in the different site that will now product the product.

As a policy, we have established release of all inventory item types to each of primary physical location supporting manufacturing. This eliminates the issue of needing to add the site later. It eliminated the missing site in planning plus had minimal impacting on system responsiveness – primarily a sightly longer processing time for MRP.

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Keith Paul
VP Business Management Systems
UNICOM Engineering, Inc.
Plano TX
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[Blair Christensen]

Ultimately, this really is a business process issue.  Certain common business rules are commonly implemented in software while others you have to implement via customization or process controls.

We use process controls similar to what another person replied with: inventory goes into a QA basket and then whomever releases the items from QA is responsible for transferring them to the correct site for consumption.  That it is usually paired with an actual transport Bill of Lading reinforces this process.

Another option would be to customize the order entry screen to require the user to designate the site rather than leave it empty.  There are certain third-party products which make this very easy or you can modify the form itself (or ask your partner to assist).

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Blair Christensen
Database Administrator
Oppenheimer Companies, Inc.
Boise Idaho GPUG Chapter Leader
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