I just read your message because...we were busy doing a physical at the end of last week. This is our second physical in Vantage (8.03.405) and it went much more smoothly than the first.
Background: Our company is a contract manufacturer so there are many, many parts that we receive and use immediately without stocking. This creates lots and lots of zero counts.
Physical #1: We tried to use Epicor's tags. Hundreds of tags were printed with parts that couldn't be found (zero counts mentioned above). These got put into a "zero" pile. Lots of parts were in multiple bins in the same location (main bin and smaller workstation bins). Since only one tag was printed for that part in that location, blank tags got used when the tag layers couldn't find a tag with the part number on it. We ended up having to sort all those together and manually add them before entering the counts and void the blanks. This took FOREVER and we had several people here very, very late.
Physical #2: We used blank two-part tags that we purchased from a printer. Counters filled out the part numbers. We entered the tags into Excel with some error trapping formulas. At the end we merged the Excel sheet with the Epicor tags. Any parts in the Epicor tag file not in the Excel sheet were given a zero count. Any tags in the Excel sheet not in the Epicor tag file were assigned to an Epicor blank tag. The tag numbers on the physical tags were entered into the "Note" field. Then we very, very carefully did a Paste - Update in the Count Tag Entry list view (with all tags selected). We did a second pass (moving the Voided field over) and marked the unused blank tags as "Voided". Zero counts do not automatically get marked as "Returned", so we did a final pass, selected only the Unreturned tags, moved the Returned field over, and manually marked those as returned. The file merging and paste-updating took one person a few hours. Caveat: There is some strange bug in our version that changes the part number on the first tag (highlighted by the cursor) as each part gets updated when the counts are zero. At the end of each paste-update, we had to go back to that first tag and verify/change the values back. Even with that, this method worked much better for us. If we did a lot of physicals we might create an app instead of using spreadsheets, but it seemed to work well (with limited, experienced tag entry people).
HTH, Kirstin
Background: Our company is a contract manufacturer so there are many, many parts that we receive and use immediately without stocking. This creates lots and lots of zero counts.
Physical #1: We tried to use Epicor's tags. Hundreds of tags were printed with parts that couldn't be found (zero counts mentioned above). These got put into a "zero" pile. Lots of parts were in multiple bins in the same location (main bin and smaller workstation bins). Since only one tag was printed for that part in that location, blank tags got used when the tag layers couldn't find a tag with the part number on it. We ended up having to sort all those together and manually add them before entering the counts and void the blanks. This took FOREVER and we had several people here very, very late.
Physical #2: We used blank two-part tags that we purchased from a printer. Counters filled out the part numbers. We entered the tags into Excel with some error trapping formulas. At the end we merged the Excel sheet with the Epicor tags. Any parts in the Epicor tag file not in the Excel sheet were given a zero count. Any tags in the Excel sheet not in the Epicor tag file were assigned to an Epicor blank tag. The tag numbers on the physical tags were entered into the "Note" field. Then we very, very carefully did a Paste - Update in the Count Tag Entry list view (with all tags selected). We did a second pass (moving the Voided field over) and marked the unused blank tags as "Voided". Zero counts do not automatically get marked as "Returned", so we did a final pass, selected only the Unreturned tags, moved the Returned field over, and manually marked those as returned. The file merging and paste-updating took one person a few hours. Caveat: There is some strange bug in our version that changes the part number on the first tag (highlighted by the cursor) as each part gets updated when the counts are zero. At the end of each paste-update, we had to go back to that first tag and verify/change the values back. Even with that, this method worked much better for us. If we did a lot of physicals we might create an app instead of using spreadsheets, but it seemed to work well (with limited, experienced tag entry people).
HTH, Kirstin
--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Keith Walter <keithfwalter@...> wrote:
>
> We run cycle counts, and have since going live. we just merged operations with another division, and along with that came their inventory. We now need to do a physical (yeah).
> Â
> Accounting is insisting on 2-part tags; our cycle counts are paperless, so we have never printed tags before. we are having a very hard time finding 2-pc tags we can print to - 2-layer tags cannot go through a printer, and we cannot find any perforated tags. What kind of tags did you use?Â
> Â
> If you have completed a physical with Vantage, could you share any insights please? any pitfalls to avoid? general advice? horror stories?
>
> Keith Walter
> Vantage Coordinator
> Norgren Automation Solutions, Saline Division
> keith.walter@...
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>