ERP11 Inventory Management

Experts' Corner
1

ERP11 User

I have quite a few questions and I’m looking for some guidance before we begin the process of putting our physical inventory into Epicor to utilize the inventory and production scheduling features available. Currently, we do all of this outside of Epicor and I want our company to move forward and utilize Epicor more. I’m looking for some help to prep and make the process smooth. If there is already a post about this that would be a great start for me. I believe the standard ERP11 system can do all of these things but if not I’d like to figure out if it’s something we can add.

Does Epicor Track Inventory Status: Raw - WIP - Finished Goods?

Can Epicor Manage/Track all of this for our parts? Raw - Part Subcomponents - Sub Assemblies - Purchased Components - etc.

Upload of current parts - I’m thinking this is done with a basic csv file that gets uploaded in Epicor correct?
Is this a long/tedious process? We only have around 200-300 active finished parts for a reference.

Once everything is uploaded - how are changes in inventory count and status recorded? Are changes "keyed’ into Epicor - is it live real-time access into the main database - can we restrict access by user/field/station etc.?

Would bar coding be worth it for just couple hundred finished parts?
If bar coding is used can changes be made and recorded on the floor?
What equipment would we need if any is needed? Tablet/Computer
What safeguards exist in the system to prevent or flag erroneous entries? EG: 600 instead of 60?

Does Epicor contain a lot locator function?

Can Epicor generate a pick list by SO or Customer PO? Or a group of SO’s/Customer PO’s to the same location?
Can the pick list have subroutines that suggest pack order to make packing easier?

This is just a start, I’m looking for any help I can get.

Thank you in advance!

Scott

2

Yes. Raw / Finished Goods can be tracked by bin location.
WIP “locations” can be tracked but I think it requires the “Advanced Material Management” license.

Not exactly sure what you’re looking to track here? Inventory is tracked on all part numbers, can also track by lot numbers and other factors. Job structure keeps everything well organized.

Yes, uploading parts can easily be done with DMT tool (.csv or excel spreadsheet). We uploaded over 100k parts with minimal issues. UOM is the big “gotcha” when going from one system to another. Make sure you’re consistent. Once a part is transacted against, it cannot be changed.

Inventory transactions are recorded on various tables. There are many types of inventory transactions. STK-MFG, STK-CUS, PUR-STK, etc. These “transactions” are created in the system any time you issue materials to jobs, receive materials from purchase orders, customer shipments, etc.

There are also Inventory Adjustment transactions where you can adjust on-hand quantities of any part at any time.

Each transaction gets a transaction number, so, yes, they are keyed.

Yes, it is live, real-time. If you issue material to a job (for example), it removes it from the inventory on-hand quantity.

You can limit access via menu security (for example, only give certain people access to Customer Shipment Entry, Issue Material, Quantity Adjustment, etc.).

This is totally up to you. We use barcoding successfully, primarily when picking parts. Customizations can be created to “flag erroneous entries”, but you’ll have to define those. For example, you could write a BPM that pops up an error if someone tries to “pick parts” where pick quantity exceeds the job required quantity, etc.

Yes, you can track lot on-hand quantity by bin location.

Epicor has a Job Pick List and a Sales Order Pick List (out of the box). These can be customized to serve your purpose.

Not sure on this one. We don’t do this type of functionality. Perhaps other may have input here.

1 Like
3

Thank you for the responses, David. This is a great starting point for me.

Very much appreciated.

Scott

4

@dcamlin, this is a FABULOUS post!

@moderators, is there a way this can be flagged so that others asking a similar question can find it more quickly? @sfoley is not the first to want this information, and will most certainly not be the last.

5

Just as an FYI, most of these tables are completely in sync. The tran types match 1:1 there’s a matching time stamp, etc.

I say “most” because of the serial number tables. They use different tran types (e.g. “ADJUST” vs “ADJ-QTY”) and sometimes the time stamp on the transaction is a second later than the corresponding Part Tran record. The requisite join between PartTran and SNTran is sloppy and inefficient. PartTranSNTran (which is supposed to be the intermediate table) doesn’t include all transactions and is kinda useless.

6

Moved to expert’s corner.