I am being asked if I can make a solution to where we can set a minimum qty on a bin that acts like resetting the 0 to that value. The business case is that there are tanks that hold a liquid and it is assumed that some quantity at the bottom of the tanks is not usable as it is “sludge”. Through tribal knowledge, we will try not to deplete the tank below that value. But there is nothing stopping the system as it appears that that volume is available. Is there something like this already in Epicor Kinetic? If not, has anyone else tried to do something like this and/or have suggestions?
@LarsonSolutions’s solution is probably the best. only tell the system the USABLE amount that is inside the bin, not the total amount.
I was thinking about Bin’s, and the fact that we do have a minimum value associated with them for Kanban Replenishment. Sorry to say, this is a reactive value… in other words, the system doesnt tell you to act on it until after you are below the minimum.. but there is also a “safety” value… that can be above your minimum value. If you have someone monitoring the kanban board, this will show a warning when you are below that threshold.
@timshuwy - I did originally think I could power some kind of alert with the minimum setting on the bin as you have shown. But Bruce’s statement got me thinking - wouldn’t it be nice if we just didn’t show it at all?
I will post an update when we decide how we will try to proceed and how it works.
I kind of feel like this should be some sort of non-conformance/scrap transaction that happens to remove the inventory, which matches reality. If you order 50 gallons, but only receive in 45 that’s a problem on the PO side, you’ll have variances and/or invoicing issues. You’ll need to receive it all, but them dispose of the part that you can’t use.
If you don’t back flush, then you could put an estimated scrap rate on the jobs to get your requirements closer to matching reality. Unfortunately, the timing of the scrapping may not match… unless you scrap out the material at the time you deem the barrel “empty”. Since you mentioned tribal knowledge, I’m assuming that the waste amount isn’t consistent. If it was, then you literally use the scrap percentage and be good.
Anyways, enough rambling. Use scrap is my take away. Then the system matches reality.
edit: or is this a “never go below” scenario? Are you refilling some tank and as long as you stay above a certain level you’re good? That’s different and I would think safety stock, or an occasional scrapping of material to get the level of “no-go” to zero would do the trick.
That’s kind of how I’m leaning. I am trying to understand if the rate of “sludge” is consistent like a scrap % or if it’s more time bound and therefore need some kind of intermittent scrapping procedure. But I prefer the idea of keeping the qty on hand as actual good qty. Seems silly looking back at my original post to try to keep non-usable inventory in the system. For a multitude of reasons.
To automate this set up a UOM for the supplier which has a part specific conversion
The supplier gallon (sgal) would be equal to 1.1 gallons so when you have a demand for 50 gallons you would buy 55 sgal’s from the supplier
Since you mentioned tribal knowledge, I’m assuming that the waste amount isn’t consistent. If it was, then you literally use the scrap percentage and be good.