Inventory Locations vs Par Locations

We have both several inventory locations (main storeroom, sterile processing, operating room) and many par locations (cath lab items from storeroom, medical floors, etc).

We've discussed having a perpetual inventory for cath lab and decided not to do it. They have constant item changes, want to track lot number and serial number and in general are a pain in the butt.

Our finance department gets a report from Cath on an annual basis of what their on the shelf value is and posts that to the GL but it is not a true perpetual inventory in Lawson. We have Par locations setup for Cath that are expensed directly to them for their stock items only. Their nonstock items could also be on there, but they happen to be managed by someone else who tracks the lot and serial number into their own system and does the ordering of those items.

A par can be setup with items from warehouses and vendors. On each line, you determine where the items are sourced. We have some items for example that although they are kept in the storeroom, are on the par cart in such quantities that we source them directly to the vendor.

The IC281 can be run that will show the items on the par cart and the set par point for each. You can make a fairly accurate assumption that if the cart is full . . .this quantity of supplies would be there. You can't, however, record for certain what is actually there unless you track it as an inventory.

Hope this helps~

Michelle

Thank you, Michelle. The "inventory" process in cath lab sounds like what we do now.
I have been thinking about setting up the par location with stock and non-stock, but the issue also involves the thousands of items that they have that aren't in the item master. We don't want to clutter our item master with items that are only ordered once a year or every two years.
How do you handle that?

Jeremy,

In order to put the item on a par cart and have it be counted and ordered, you would need to set it up as a nonstock in Lawson on at least the IC11.

For the moment, the coordinator of the Cath Lab orders everything she needs in RQC that aren't on the par carts. Most of her items we have setup as nonstocks to make the ordering process easier.

We are in the process of investigating an interface between their system and Lawson that would allow for more automated requisitioing so that she wouldn't have to retype each item that needs to be ordered. However, all of those would still need to be setup in Lawson with a vendor and cost so that the process would work.

In short . . .we clutter.

Michelle

Thanks again, Michelle. Sounds like you are fighting the same battles we (and several from what I can tell) are. 1.) What goes in the item master? 2.) Setup multiple inventory locations or just one?

If you figure anything out, I'd love to hear about it!

Do either of you have consignment on the par for the cath lab?  Trying to determine the best way to manage the consignment. We are testing a few options but since I saw this posting thought I would see what others are doing.  

For those consignment items that you have to order by the box but issue by the each...if the par is 5 EA and there are 5EA/BX and you have to order by the BX, we don't want to reorder one box if there are 4 or even 3 EA due to the cost and turns of the item.  Would rather wait until, say 1 EA is in the bin.  Besides manually creating a replenishment order for these types of items, have you come up with an automated or atleast generally automated way to manage consignment...especially with this type of uom scenario?  Also since its consignment, are you specify the item to be consignment or how to you handle the replenishment and billing process?

Thanks in advance if you have any thoughts!

Have you looked into managing consignment with Lawson? We are not at this time but I've been looking at it and although it may not be perfect it looks like it would work. Attached is the factsheet form the Infor KB. It states that it's for Lawson 8.0 but I don't think the functionality has changed much in v.9.

Amanda - as I understand the way the par works, you would need to put in a reorder point of 1 box. On our par carts where the clerk counting needs to know when to order, we've added labels that tell them 10/box etc. Par is still 1 box but they then know to ignore if there is more than 1/2 a box still there or order more if there is less.

Jon - we do manage consignment within the OR. The inventory there is perpetual and we have both owned and consigned inventory in lawson. Our biggest issue with consignment inventory is that even though it is flagged as consignment, it still hits the books on the general ledger. It can be carved out but there is still an impact that gets explained every year.

Unless you wanted to add your cath lab items to "inventory", I'm not sure if tracking the consignment would work. You can setup IC12 for noninventory tracked items but you'd have to test if the consignment process would work then or not.

Our Cath lab manages their own consignment within their system (Spacetrax) and only goes through us for Purchase Orders.

Michelle

Sorry, but we don't have consignment in our one and only inventory. Also, our pars ONLY contain stock items at the moment.

My comment was primarily for Amanda.

Michelle - that's what I figured from the fact sheet. It says that a journal entry has to be made periodically, before each end of month I'm assuming, to credit the inventory account so that the consignment inventory has a zero balance.