As part of Maximo’s capabilities to be configured and tailored to different business processes, there are options in the Organizations application. This is all part of the Maximo Data Structure, allowing certain data to be separated as well as allowing different sets of rules to be applied to the different data. We will continue this series with Inventory options and cover several that are commonly utilized and call out the level at which they are applied.
The vast majority of these ‘options’ are in the list of actions in the Organizations application. However, for Items, there are some additional ones that are required to make your organization active.
Default Item Status is needed to specify the status when the item is first created. If you have a process to go through to approve the item, then you will most likely choose ‘Planning’ or ‘Pending’ as your initial status. Status changes throughout the item’s history will be recorded for org and site(s) as you move through the process. ‘Active’ is also an initial status that is available if your process is external to Maximo and you only create the item when that process is complete. Like all of these, this is a business decision.
Default Stock Category is typically set to STK for Stocked, but other categories are possible and, the list of values is governed by a synonym domain so you can create additional values if needed.
Although inventory data is essentially at site level the defaults are set for the organization, and all sites within the organization will follow them. This is an important distinction that is not always noticed in the implementation.
“Automatically create usage documents for new reservations”. With the addition of the Inventory Usage application to replace the Issues and Transfers application, a toggle was added to optionally automate the creation of usage records. As an example, for work orders moving to / through APPR status, with this option turned on, the planned items referencing a storeroom would then create a usage record to simplify issuing the parts.
ABC Breakpoints are also set here, but depending on your version, the automatic update capability to reset the ABC designation on your inventory records, may have been removed. Review your version to confirm, and plan accordingly. At this particular time, there is no known place where the functionality is being moved to. For more information, click here for the RFE and vote if you can.
The Negative Balance (current and available) are driven by business decisions, and you should confer internally and agree before setting them and then communicate so the behavior is known and understood.
Inventory reorder is straightforward, and may appear a bit innocuous at first, but pay close attention to the ‘External Request Creation’ which defaults to Unapproved PR’s. “External” will refer to procurement records for your vendors.
Each time you run ‘Reorder’, this setting is reviewed, whether you run from the Inventory application or via a Cron Task. You don’t want the automation to go too far.
If you do not use purchase requisitions (PR’s) then the recommendation would be to go to Unapproved POs.
It will be imperative to discuss any decision to go to ‘Approved’ PR or PO, especially if there is further automation and/or integration in place.
The ‘Issue Cost’ referenced is the cost to be charged for the inventory on issue. This will typically be charged to a work order and the rules for each site can be different, so it will be important to select your site when reviewing and updating.
