[OFBiz] Users - Cycle counting & other OFBiz inventory curiosities

[Christopher Farley]

Do any OFBiz users do have a cycle counting program? If so, how do you
manage count frequencies, adjustments, etc.? Do you use an external program
to track "last counted" dates, or does OFBiz handle this somewhere?

Regarding inventory adjustments: Let's say you have a product at a
facility with the following inventory items:

Item ID ATP/QOH
10001 2/2
10002 2/2
10003 3/3

Now let's say you did a physical count of the item and you discovered you
had only 1 on hand (the variance is -6). For whatever reason, it is impossible
to determine the root cause of the error. Do you:

a) Enter a variance of -6 on only one randomly selected inventory item?
b) Create a new inventory item, and enter a variance of -6 there?
c) Enter a variance of -2 on Inventory Item 10001, -2 on Item 10002, and
   -2 on Item 10003?

Now let's say you counted 10, and you have a variance of +3. Where do you
enter the variance? Does it matter?

I have also noticed that new Inventory Items are created each time a
product is received or manufactured. When the product is sold, quantities
are subtracted from existing Inventory Items. However, when a product
sale results in a negative quantity, the negative Inventory Item will
never 'clear' out of the system without manual intervention. Is this  
by design?

Thanks OFBiz gurus!

--
Christopher Farley
www.northernbrewer.com
 
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[Ray Barlow]

Because, as you pointed out, any negative qoh is likely to require
manual intervention at the moment, I would recommend splitting the
variance across the items as per "c". On increments I don't think it
matters, just pick one and add it.

I've already logged an issue about the new inventory items creation,
although I've yet to understand whether it is really by design:
http://jira.undersunconsulting.com/browse/OFBIZ-521
New inventory items are also create for purchase order receiving as well.

Unfortunately the new inventory items "issue/design" just compounds
these two issues:
http://jira.undersunconsulting.com/browse/OFBIZ-562
http://jira.undersunconsulting.com/browse/OFBIZ-563

Indeed jira 563 really makes a mess of the inventory levels as far as I
can tell and leaves the ATP values to be completely unreliable. Once the
ATP reservation is partially lost against an order line you can't
complete to the originally ordered levels so the QOH also gets thrown out.

Ray


Christopher Farley wrote:

>Do any OFBiz users do have a cycle counting program? If so, how do you
>manage count frequencies, adjustments, etc.? Do you use an external program
>to track "last counted" dates, or does OFBiz handle this somewhere?
>
>Regarding inventory adjustments: Let's say you have a product at a
>facility with the following inventory items:
>
>Item ID ATP/QOH
>10001 2/2
>10002 2/2
>10003 3/3
>
>Now let's say you did a physical count of the item and you discovered you
>had only 1 on hand (the variance is -6). For whatever reason, it is impossible
>to determine the root cause of the error. Do you:
>
>a) Enter a variance of -6 on only one randomly selected inventory item?
>b) Create a new inventory item, and enter a variance of -6 there?
>c) Enter a variance of -2 on Inventory Item 10001, -2 on Item 10002, and
>   -2 on Item 10003?
>
>Now let's say you counted 10, and you have a variance of +3. Where do you
>enter the variance? Does it matter?
>
>I have also noticed that new Inventory Items are created each time a
>product is received or manufactured. When the product is sold, quantities
>are subtracted from existing Inventory Items. However, when a product
>sale results in a negative quantity, the negative Inventory Item will
>never 'clear' out of the system without manual intervention. Is this  
>by design?
>
>Thanks OFBiz gurus!
>
>  
>

 
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[Christopher Farley]

Ray ([hidden email]) wrote:

> I've already logged an issue about the new inventory items creation,
> although I've yet to understand whether it is really by design:
> http://jira.undersunconsulting.com/browse/OFBIZ-521
> New inventory items are also create for purchase order receiving as well.

I don't fully understand why the primary key for inventory items is not
facility/location/product. I've purchased a few inventory/supply chain
books in an attempt to understand inventory accounting a little bit better,
but it still seems as if facility/location/product uniquely identifies
a inventory item. The use of a separate primary key allows for multiple
inventory items to be created for the same exact product/location.

The weird thing is that I played with Neogia, which claimed to complete
refactor the whole OFBiz inventory system. However, Neogia still does
the same thing with inventory items. So I've been assuming there was a
good reason for the existing design.

--
Christopher Farley
www.northernbrewer.com
 
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[David E. Jones]

This is a very basic part of data modeling, ie to use a sequenced key  
like this for flexibility. With inventory items we don't just want a  
single item by facility/location/product. We want to support single  
records for serialized inventory (ie with serial number) and we want  
to keep track of the date received and expiration date of every set  
of product received for the automatic allocation routines and such.  
So, all of those would have to be part of the primary key as well.  
Other fields would qualify for this too, so we'd end with at least  
half a dozen and generally quite a few more fields in the PK and  
that's a mess, and what is worse is that adding a new one requires  
redoing the PK def when updating OFBiz.

When bugs like this come up the only way to get around them is to  
find the problem and fix them. Unfortunately some people submit a lot  
of untested, crappy code and then take off and don't monitor the  
mailing lists or Jira to make sure they didn't screw anything up, so  
everyone has to wait until someone else has sufficient time and  
knowledge to take care of it....

-David


On Nov 11, 2005, at 9:18 AM, Christopher Farley wrote:

> Ray ([hidden email]) wrote:
>
>> I've already logged an issue about the new inventory items creation,
>> although I've yet to understand whether it is really by design:
>> http://jira.undersunconsulting.com/browse/OFBIZ-521
>> New inventory items are also create for purchase order receiving  
>> as well.
>
> I don't fully understand why the primary key for inventory items is  
> not
> facility/location/product. I've purchased a few inventory/supply chain
> books in an attempt to understand inventory accounting a little bit  
> better,
> but it still seems as if facility/location/product uniquely identifies
> a inventory item. The use of a separate primary key allows for  
> multiple
> inventory items to be created for the same exact product/location.
>
> The weird thing is that I played with Neogia, which claimed to  
> complete
> refactor the whole OFBiz inventory system. However, Neogia still does
> the same thing with inventory items. So I've been assuming there was a
> good reason for the existing design.
>
> --
> Christopher Farley
> www.northernbrewer.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Users mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.ofbiz.org/mailman/listinfo/users

 
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