Topic overview

Inventory order types are used for identification of inventory orders. They also contain settings for the inventory orders of this type.

This article describes how inventory order types are mapped in the system and how the application of the same name is structured. Find out what relationship an inventory order type can have to other applications and business entities and how it is integrated into the business processes.

Instructions for handling inventory order types, e.g. how to enter or edit inventory order types, can be found in the article Procedures: Inventory order types.

Definition of terms

Filling restriction
A fill restriction is the characteristic used to limit the put-away of items to a storage location or a slot on which items are already stored. This characteristic can be, for example, the item (filling segregated by item), the batch or the lot (filling segregated by identifier), or the best-before of a batch/the generation date of a lot.

Withdrawal restrictions
Withdrawal restrictions describe and specify conditions for the withdrawal of items in storage locations. A withdrawal restriction can, for example, specify the sequence in which the individual warehouse zones are considered for withdrawal. Inclusion and exclusion of specific inventory units can also be set in withdrawal restrictions.

Withdrawal sort order
A withdrawal sort order specifies the sequence in which aisles, rows, levels, and storage locations of a warehouse zone are considered for withdrawal. A withdrawal sort order has an effect only when the withdrawal strategy determines several inventories of the same age.

Withdrawal strategy
A withdrawal strategy comprises various characteristics which are used to determine the behavior of withdrawals from structured warehouses. The age of the item inventory is taken into account and the inventory is withdrawn according to a defined consumption sequence, e.g. according to the FIFO principle (First In, First Out). The age is kept to the day for each item inventory and indicates the first put-away. For items managed by lots or by serial numbers, the identifier creation date is used as a basis for determining the age; for items managed by batches, the expiration date is used.

Put-away restrictions
Put-away restrictions describe and specify conditions for putting away items stored in storage locations. A put-away restriction can, for instance, specify the sequence in which the individual warehouse zones and rows are considered when putting away inventory.

Put-away sort order
A put-away sort order specifies the sequence in which aisles, rows, levels, and storage locations of a warehouse zone are considered when putting away inventory. The put-away sort order can achieve, for example, transverse or row-oriented put-away.

Put-away strategy
The put-away strategy is used to determine the criteria by which suitable put-away locations are identified for item inventory to be stored. For this, several properties stored in the system are considered, e.g., characteristics of the item inventory and the attributes of the put-away location. Possible put-away strategies are bulk additions to existing stock and empty location strategy.

Inventory order
An inventory order determines the transport of items inside a warehouse. Inventory orders are automatically generated for the withdrawal and put-away storage locations determined by the storage strategies. A manual inventory order is formulated in the form of an inventory requisition.

Storage strategies
The storage strategy is an essential component of storage location control. It consists of several individual strategies that control the behavior of put-away and withdrawal for structured warehouses. These strategies include the picking strategy and the replenishment strategy.

Application description

The Inventory order types application is used to create and edit inventory order types. Together with the inventory order number, these are used to identify inventory orders. Inventory order types contain specifications and default values for inventory orders. Among other things, you can use an inventory order type to define the number range to be used for inventory orders.

The application consists of an identification pane and a work pane.

Identification pane

The identification pane contains the fields that uniquely identify the inventory order type as well as other generally applicable data.

The field contents are described in detail below.

Type – this field displays the unique identification of the inventory order type. The identification of the inventory order type provides for uniqueness within a database.
Enter an identification in this field. It can consist of a maximum of three numbers, letters or a number-letter combination and can be chosen upon first creation.
If a number range is saved for creating inventory order types in the Customizing application, an identification is proposed.
After saving the inventory order type for the first time, the identification cannot be changed anymore.

Description – the description is an additional identification feature. It can consist of freely selectable text. Meaningful descriptions facilitate user searches.

Number range – in this field, enter a number range of the Inventory orders category, which the system uses to automatically generate a number for new inventory orders according to a defined pattern.
See the article Number ranges.

Allow for exceeding quantities when reporting – using this function, you can specify whether it is allowed to report a quantity exceeding the total quantity of inventory orders of this type. If the check box is activated, it is basically allowed to report a quantity exceeding the total quantity in an inventory order line item. In addition, it is verified with other settings if the quantity can be reported. For example, it depends on the available inventory, on the voucher category of the upstream order or on the over delivery percentage specified in the item master data.

Employee responsible – select whether and from where a responsible employee should be determined for an inventory order of this type. Selectables values are:

• None – the Employee responsible field in the inventory order remains empty.

• According to warehouse – the Employee responsible field is determined from the main warehouse. If no employee is saved there, the field remains empty.

• According to warehouse area – the Employee responsible field is determined from the warehouse area. If no warehouse area exists or no employee is saved there, the field remains empty.

Automatically assign employee – specify whether the employee who is processing an inventory order should be used as the employee responsible for the inventory order. The following selection options are possible:

• Do not assign – the previous entry for the employee responsible is retained.

• Always assign – the employee who is processing an inventory order is used as the employee responsible.

• Assign if empty – The employee who is processing an inventory order is only used as the responsible employee if this information is missing.

Work pane

In the work pane, you can specify definitions for grouping and sorting as well as storage strategies and storage restrictions for inventory orders. They are used for generating inventory orders.

The field contents are described in detail below.

Grouping and sorting grouping

Grouping setting – define whether the line items of the inventory orders of this type will be grouped upon generating. The following selection options are possible:

• No automatic reporting – the inventory order line items are not grouped. One inventory order is generated per warehouse.

• According to warehouse – the grouping setting defined for the warehouse is taken into account.

• According to criteria – the inventory order line items are grouped according to the criteria that were selected in this application. One inventory order is generated per group.

Grouping criteria – select the criteria according to which the grouping should take place when generating inventory orders. The following selection options are possible:

• Warehouse area
• Warehouse zone
• Aisle
• Row
• Level
• Location
• Storage location type
• Storage location category
• Cross-docking
• Loading unit
• Material category
• Item
• Inventory item classification 1 to 5

Sorting setting – define whether the line items of the inventory orders of this type will should be finally sorted upon generating. The following selection options are possible

• No automatic reporting – the inventory order line items are not finally sorted upon generating at all.
• According to warehouse – the sorting that was defined for the warehouse is taken into consideration.
• According to put-away/withdrawal sequence – the sorting takes place according to the put-away and withdrawal sequence that is defined by the storage restriction, storage zone priority and storage strategy.
• According to criteria – the storage order items are sorted according to the criteria that were selected for an inventory order type.

Sorting criteria – select the criteria according to which sorting should take place when generating inventory orders. To do this, click on the diamond button by the field, which opens a dialog box for selecting the sorting criteria. The following selection options are possible:

• Aisle
• Cross-docking
• Inventory item classification 1 to 5
• Item
• Level
• Loading unit
• Location
• Material category
• Row
• Storage location category
• Storage location type
• Warehouse are
• Warehouse zone

Storage strategies grouping

Setting sttorage strategies – specify which storage strategies are used for the inventory orders of this type. This allows you to define your own storage strategies for certain processes that differ from the settings in the master data, such as warehouse and item. The following selection options are possible:

• According to warehouse zone – the storage strategy settings defined for the warehouse zone are used for the items in the inventory orders of this type.

• According to classification – the storage strategy settings defined for inventory item classification 1 are used for the items in the inventory orders of this type.

• According to item – if item warehouse data is available, the storage strategy settings defined for the combination of item and warehouse are used for the items in the inventory orders of this type. Otherwise, the storage strategy settings defined for the item are used.

• Manual – the fields in the Storage strategies grouping are editable. You can define the storage strategies specifically for the inventory orders of this type.

Put-away strategy – this field is editable if you have selected the Manual value in the Setting storage strategies field. In this case, you can select an existing storage strategy in this field. If you have selected a storage strategy, select the [Validate] button so that the system can transfer the settings of the selected storage strategy to the corresponding fields.
If you change one of the criteria of the selected storage strategy, the system clears the Storage strategy field. In this case, you define the storage strategy settings individually for the inventory order type. Please note that the changed settings are only used for the inventory order type. You can generally define the storage strategy settings for each inventory order type without selecting a storage strategy.

Storage restrictions grouping

Setting storage restrictions – define which storage restrictions are used for the inventory orders of this type. This allows you to define your own storage restrictions for certain processes that differ from the settings in the master data, e.g. those defined for warehouses and items. The following selection options are possible:

• According to warehouse – the storage restriction settings defined for the warehouse are used for the items in the inventory orders of this type.

• According to classification – the storage restriction settings defined for inventory item classification 1 are used for the items in the inventory orders of this type.

• According to item – the storage restriction settings defined for the item are used for the items in the inventory orders of this type.

• Manual – the fields in the Storage restrictions grouping are editable. You can define the storage restrictions specifically for the inventory orders of this type.

Storage restriction – this field is editable if you have selected Manual in the Setting storage restrictions field. In this case, you can select an existing storage restriction in this field. If you have selected a storage restriction, select the [Validate] button so that the system can transfer the settings of the selected storage restriction to the corresponding fields.
If you change one of the criteria of the selected storage restriction, the system clears the Storage restriction field. In this case, you define the storage restriction settings individually for the inventory order type. Please note that the changed settings are only used for the inventory order type. You can generally define the storage restriction settings for each inventory order type without selecting a storage restriction.

Customizing

The following settings in the Inventory management function are relevant for the Inventory order types application under Customizing.

Storage location control – if this function is deactivated for the client, the following applies:

• Only the grouping criteria Inventory item classification 1-5 are available
• Only the sorting criteria Inventory item classification 1-5 are available
• The option According to put-away/withdrawal sequence is not available for selection in the Sorting setting field
• The fields Setting storage strategies and Setting storage restrictions have no value, the fields Storage strategies and Storage restrictions are deactivated.

Number ranges/Order type number range – when entering a new inventory order type, the system proposes an identification based on the number range saved.

Business entities

The following business entity is relevant for the Inventory order types application, which you use, for example, to

• assign authorizations
• set up activity definitions or
• import or export data

Inventory order type: com.cisag.app.inventory.obj.TransportOrderType

The business entity is part of the following business entity group:

Warehouse voucher data: com.cisag.app.inventory.OrderData

Authorizations

Authorizations can be assigned by means of authorization roles as well as by assigning an organization. The authorization concept is described in the technical article Authorizations.

Special capabilities

There are no special capabilities for the Inventory order types application.

Organization assignments

If the Content-based authorizations function is activated in the Customizing application, a person can only use the Inventory order types application if an organization that is linked to at least one of the following structures has been assigned to him or her in the partner master data:

Inventory logistics

The Inventory order types application includes the Authorizations table. In order for a person to be able to use an inventory order type, he or she must be assigned in the partner master data to at least one organization entered in the Authorizations table of the inventory order type.

For more information on the Authorizations table and a comprehensive overview of content-based authorizations, see the Content-based authorizations article.

Special features

There are no special features for the Inventory order types application.

Authorizations for business partners

The Inventory order types application is not released for business partners.