Infor LX & BPCS Tip: Inventory Stocking Levels – Warehouses, Locations and Lots…Oh My!
The Infor LX system supports 4 levels of inventory. You can view summaries of stock at each level through the Material Status Inquiry program or through reports. Below are the 4 levels:
- Item
- Item + warehouse
- Item + warehouse + location
- Item + warehouse + location + lot
The lot number level and/or container of inventory can cross multiple warehouses and locations, for example, item + lot or item + lot + container. Locations exist within warehouses. There is no limit on the number of warehouses, locations, or lots that you can assign to an item.
Multiple Warehouses
You can assign as many warehouses as needed for any item. You can designate each warehouse as allocatable, allowed for order processing, or non-MRP, not used in the MRP netting logic. This allows your business to set up staging areas and quarantined warehouses. The warehouses can be physical or logical warehouses.
Multiple Locations
You can assign as many inventory locations as needed for any item. The location number is six characters long. This allows you to define sub-locations within a location, which can be an aisle, bin, or row.
The system stores item-warehouse combination inventory and allocation data. Optionally, sales history is available by item and warehouse in sales by units for the past twelve months. Total monetary amounts of sales by warehouse are also available in year-to-date, the last twelve months individually, and previous year-to-date.
Lot Inventory
On an item-by-item basis, the system requires the input of and performs tracking of lot numbers by inventory transaction. The system supports forward and backward lot traceability. The system provides inquiries and reports for the stock, allocation, and movement of inventory by lot. The system also automatically supports shelf life, expiration date, and reject data for each lot. The system automatically uses the expiration date in this allocation logic and MRP logic.