Lot/Serial Control - Overview

• Controls Lot/Serial numbers on a Product by Product basis.

• Lot numbers are captured at time of receipt or as required through the stock adjustment routine.

• Serial numbers are optionally captured at time of receipt or at time of Invoicing (set by a flag in Maintain Inventory Master (IM13)) and as required through the stock adjustment routine.

• Tracks inventory movement of each Lot/Serial number.

• Provides facility to modify, re-code and adjust existing Lot/Serial numbers.

• Allows assignment of Lot/Serial holds.

• Allows entry of a comment on a Lot/Serial header record, for memo purposes only.

• Allows entry of an Expiry Date to assist in tracking the shelf life of a Product. This is memo information only.

• Produces Physical Inventory count sheets or tags to facilitate counting and reconciling inventory by Lot/Serial number.

• May optionally flag order lines for "ship complete Lots only".

• Tracks warranty period for a Serial number in the Contract system.

Special Notes:

• A Product can be either Lot controlled or Serial number controlled, but not both.

• Lot/Serial control may be used in combination with Multi-Bin Control with certain considerations; for more information, see the "What Happens in Order Entry" section below).

• System flags are set via the Company Control Initialization (CC00/Inventory Control) that indicate whether or not Lot and/or Serial numbers are to be tracked. Once activated, you cannot deactivate either feature if Lot or Serial controlled transactions exist.

• If a Product is not flagged for Lot/Serial control, you may not turn the Lot/Serial flags ON in IM13 if there is Quantity On Hand, or vice versa. Procedurally, you first need to adjust Quantity On Hand to zero, change the flags in IM13 and then adjust the Quantity On Hand back.

• Duplicate Serial numbers are allowed as long as they are attached to different Products.

• Back Order Control Method must be set to "Internal" in CC00/Order Entry.

Flags set at the Product level:

Serial number tracking is flagged by Product in IM13. Valid responses are:

• N - No Serial number required
• R - Track Serial number from point of stock Receipt
• I - Track Serial number from point of Invoicing

The movement of each Serial number is tracked as it moves in and out of your Warehouse. A Serial number's current whereabouts will be used to validate Serial number entries. You cannot enter a Serial number in the invoicing program that is already registered as sold nor can you reference a Serial number in receiving that is already registered as in your Warehouse (if you track from point of receipt).

Lot control tracking is flagged by Product in IM13. Valid responses are:

• M - Manufacturer's Lot (Lot number assigned by manufacturer)
• P - Production Lot (Lot number assigned by your production department)
• B - Both Manufacturer's and Production Lot
• N - No Lot Control for this product

Both Serial and Lot control Products are assigned a flag that indicates when the Serial/Lot number is to be committed. Valid responses are:

• O - Commit Serial (if tracked from point of receipt)/Lot numbers at time of Order Entry
• I - Commit Serial/Lot numbers at time of Invoicing
• N - None (if Product is not Serial/Lot controlled)

If committing at time of Order Entry, the order desk controls which Serial numbers or Lots are to be picked/shipped. If committing at time of Invoicing, the warehouse pickers control which Serial numbers or Lots are picked and then they note this information on the picking slip so it is captured in IN41 when the shipment is Invoiced.

What happens when stock is received:

• For Lots or Serial numbers tracked from the point of stock receipt, the operator will be required to enter Serial numbers or Lots equal to the receipt quantity. For Serial controlled products, if 20 units are received, 20 new Serial numbers must be entered. For Lot controlled Products, a single Lot or multiple Lot numbers may be entered as long as the total quantity in those Lots equals the total quantity received.

• New Lot/Serial records are created as a by-product of receiving. The Lot/Serial numbers will be reported on the Receiving Register.

What happens in Order Entry:

• For Lots or Serial numbers that are being tracked from receipt and are flagged to commit at Order Entry, the operator will be required to enter Lot/Serial numbers equal to the quantity to be shipped. The Lot/Serial numbers assigned must be on file. For Serial controlled products, if 20 units are shipped, 20 new Serial numbers must be entered. For Lot controlled products, a single Lot or multiple Lot numbers may be entered as long as the total quantity in those Lots equals the total quantity to be shipped. The assigned Lot/Serial numbers will be printed on the shipping document. If the operator is unable to successfully enter the required number of Serial numbers or select enough stock from Lots, then the remainder must be put on backorder.

• In a single bin environment, for Lots or Serial numbers that are being tracked from receipt and committed at Invoicing or are tracked from Invoicing, no Lot or Serial numbers are assigned in Schedule Order for Printing (OE32). Blank lines will be printed on the picking slip produced by OE34 for the pickers to note the Lot or Serial numbers that were picked.

• In a multi-bin environment, for Lots that are committed at invoicing and for Serial numbers being tracked from receipt and committed at Invoicing, OE32 commits the bin, Lot or Serial numbers. The bin, Lot or Serial numbers are printed on the picking slip produced by OE34 for the pickers.

• Note for Back orders and e-Commerce Orders: For Lots or Serial numbers that are tracked from Receipt and are flagged to commit at Order Entry, no Lot or Serial numbers are entered for the back ordered quantity. After stock is received, the next time back orders are released, OE61 will detect that the backorder line can be filled and will prompt for assignment of the Lot/Serial number. When an incoming e-Comm order is auto-generated, it is put on backorder, even if there is stock available. At this point, the fact that the order came in via e-Comm is irrelevant. It is now a backorder and will follow the same path as any other back order. OE61 asks for the Lot/Serial number assignment because the next step for that Order is scheduling/printing.

What happens in Invoicing:

• If Serial numbers are tracked from Invoicing, recording of Serial numbers was skipped at the Receiving stage. Blank lines will be printed on the shipping document to be used for logging of the Serial numbers as they are picked by the Warehouse. In the Invoicing program, the operator will be required to enter new Serial numbers equal to the quantity shipped. (IE, if 20 units were shipped, then 20 Serial numbers must be entered). A new Serial number control record will be created and a movement record will be written recording the Invoice and customer that the Serial number was sold to.

• If a Lot or Serial controlled Product is tracked from Receipt and Lot/Serial numbers were committed at Order Entry time, then in the Invoicing program the operator will have the opportunity to modify those assignments if the numbers picked/shipped were not the numbers assigned at Order Entry. The Lot/Serial numbers assigned at Order Entry will be printed on the shipping document. Only changes will be noted by the picker for subsequent modification when the Order is Invoiced. A Lot/Serial movement record will be written.

• If a Lot or Serial controlled Product is tracked from Receipt and Lot/Serial numbers are committed at Invoicing time, blank lines will be printed on the shipping document to be used for logging of the numbers as they are picked by the Warehouse. The operator will be required to enter Lot/Serial numbers equal to the quantity to be shipped. The Lot/Serial numbers assigned must be on file. For Serial controlled Products, if 20 units are shipped, 20 new Serial numbers must be entered. For Lot controlled Products, a single Lot or multiple Lot numbers may be entered as long as the total quantity in those Lots equals the total quantity to be shipped.

• If the operator is unable to successfully enter the required number of Serial numbers or select enough stock from Lots, then the Invoicing function must be stopped for this Order detail line until the problem is corrected. Either the wrong Lot/Serial numbers were passed to the Invoicing operator or there is a problem with the Lot/Serial number file that may require adjustment via the Inventory Adjustment program.

• Note: If a Serial number was sold and then returned (ie, movement records would already exist for that Serial number) and then it is resold, then a "used" Serial number would be accepted as long as it was credited in the selling Warehouse. When a return is processed for a Serial number controlled Product, then the Serial number will be logged back "in" to that Warehouse (if the TAT code was flagged to do so when the credit is processed).

• Stock transfers between Warehouses will automatically carry the Lot information with them as stock is moved from one Warehouse to another. Serial number items controlled from time of Receipt would require the operator to input the Serial numbers being transferred between Warehouses.

• If an inventory "model" or any of its components are Lot or Serial number controlled, then Lot/Serial numbers are requested at all levels.

• If a Serial number controlled Product is shipped to a consigned location, the Serial number is logged "out" of the sending Warehouse and "in" to the consigned Customer. When consigned stock is sold from a consigned location (TAT = SOC), it is expected that the Serial number entered would be "out" (to the consignee). The LAST movement record must have been TAT = SHC and the Customer code for that transaction must match the "consignee" code entered when the "SOC" invoice is processed.

Adjusting the Lot/Serial Number File:

Special adjustment type codes allow the user to process non-quantity adjustments to Lot/Serial records via the Inventory Adjustment program:

• Code "H" allows setting or clearing of Lot/Serial holds.

• Code "L" allows maintenance to Lot/Serial comments and expiry dates.

• Code "N" allows recoding of Lot/Serial numbers that were entered in error (i.e., received Serial No. "123" and should have been "1234").

If an adjustment code is used that does update quantity on hand, then the operator is expected to enter new Lot/Serial numbers (if the adjustment quantity is positive) or existing Lot/Serial numbers (if the adjustment quantity is negative).

Lot/Serial numbers are reported on the Adjustment Register.

Lot and Serial Number Holds:

A table of hold type codes and descriptions can be maintained to determine how a Lot or Serial number flagged "on hold" will affect stock availability for new orders and stock repurchase calculations. Certain holds will affect these calculations in different ways. Typical hold types to define are:

• You can define as many hold type codes and descriptions as is appropriate to your business, however, the combination of Yes and No responses are limited to those outlined above.

• Holds can be assigned at the time the Purchase Order is created, at Receiving or through an Inventory adjustment. For example, if a Product must always be quality control checked prior to becoming available for new Orders then it would be appropriate to set the hold type at time of Receiving.

Displaying Lot/Serial Number Movement:

• Display Product Availability (IC45/V2-Bin/Lot/Serial) displays the current on hand balance, movement history and stock commitment for a Lot or Serial number.

Reconciling Lot/Serial Numbers:

• Both the Inventory Evaluation and the Stock Status reports include a restriction that allows you to optionally list the Lot and Serial numbers currently on file by Product.

• As well, these programs may be further restricted to only report Lot or Serial number controlled Products where there is an imbalance between the on hand quantity and the detail quantity of Serial numbers or Lots. Those products must be counted and the Serial numbers or Lots manually reconciled. Any imbalances must be reported to and fixed by the Tecsys Support department. This analysis may be done at any time but would definitely be done prior to a physical count to ensure that the available Lots and Serial numbers are in balance with the total On Hand quantity. This diagnostic is performed automatically when a count is initialized in PI01.

Purging Lot/Serial Number History:

• The purge procedure deletes all Lot/Serial records with no movement since an operator specified date and an on-hand balance of zero. The date entered must be at least 60 days PRIOR to the system date, which allows a reasonable time for Product returns for this Lot/Serial number).