Offsite Warehouse and From Location

Hi clint
The from location on the req MUST be changed to match the ic12 location. This is the only way for the system to flag the req line as a storeroom (inventory) request.

This can be changed within rqc or rq10 at the header level before lines are added to a req and the from loc will default to the lines. Or, if the lines are already on the req you must change this on each line. You cannot change this once the req has been released.

You may want to set up a template for inventory items so that users can shop for inventory items using the template. The template could be set up to default the proper from location on the req.

I am happy to discuss with you if you want.

Mike,

That's what I was afraid I'd have to do. I'm curious if you don't setup a template how users would know to change the From Location for items that are stock. I'm surprised Infor hasn't(if possible) built in that technology.

Thank you for your reponse Mike!

Regards,

Clint

Does the ReqLocation RQ01 point to the warehouse as the From Location? Seems like that should point it to the warehouse regardless of how the item source IC12.2 is setup.

Bill,

The from location in the RQ01 is pointed to their loading dock. The warehouse is at an offsite location. I have to have the loading dock as the from location in order to keep the shipping address as their location.

This has been the dilema for us since implementation. How to set the From Location when inventory is located at a seperate location from where we want nonstock to be delivered. At first I thought by changing the source to the inventory location in IC12.2 would redirect the order to that location but that didn't work. We try to teach our requesters to use their templates first and if an item isn't on the template to call us to have it added. When they buyer sees a nonstock or special with the wrong From Location they will catch this most of the time and change it. And if it get's delivered to the wrong facility we'll send it with our couriers to the right place. There is just no easy fix that I can see.

Clint,
Templates are your most straightforward answer. This addresses your question of the end-user knowing where the item comes from (they do not need to know) and also preselects the From Location, on an item-by-item basis, before the end-user requests the items.

Now for some less straightforward answers...most of these assume that items transferring through the "Loading Dock" are always "direct" (from the vendor) or always "stocked" in the offisite facility.

Pass-Through Item Locations at the "Loading Dock". In this situation, you set your loading dock as "Inventory Tracked" but with zero SOH. You sent the replenishment of these items to point to the offsite warehouse.
The functional process is that the Requester places an order, it goes into a Backorder state at the loading dock. You run the replenishment for the loading dock, which consolidates those backorders into one document to the offsite warehouse. When the offsite warehouse fulfills the order, those items go back into the SOH of the loading dock. Lastly, you reallocate the backorders out of the loading dock to fulfill the original requests. Fun? No? That is a little high level, but I can attest that it works (depending on your definition of "works").

Manage Everything Through One IC Location. This is part experiential and part theoretical, so consider this a thought exercise. If you manage all of the items in one IC Locations, the pick tickets could print to the offsite warehouse for delivery to the loading dock. Now, where this gets dicey is that the replenishment of the inventory items is going to natively show the "IC Location" of the loading dock. It is probably not going to work to have the replenishment orders shipped to the loading dock to then get bussed across town to the offsite location, so... Replenish your inventory via Requisiton (IC141 or IC142, it has been a while). Now, set your replenishment requisitions to "drop ship" (with receiving required, I would suggest). You can either have your warehouse staff manually update each Requisition or get your local ProcessFlow guru to build a flow that automatically updates the Requisitions for the Requesting Location of the warehouse upon release. The key is that the Drop Ship status will now print the Requesting Location on the printed PO (and via the EDI 850), which, of course, you have set to the address of your offsite warehouse and NOT the loading dock.
The experiential part of this plan is that we have created flows that automatically set some of our ambulatory sites to drop ship (to facilitate desk top delivery). The theoretical part is that I have never applied this approach to replenishment orders. So, how brave do you feel?

Let me know if you have any questions, but I do still believe that Templates are your easiest option. Occam's Razor and all that.
Good luck,
Red