Topic overview

With the value assistant you can search for identifiers. To support the search for usable identifiers, some selection fields are pre-assigned depending on the context. You can use these default values to start the search directly.

Definitions of terms

Identifiers
An identifier enables the identification of specific items or item variants. As identifiers, batch, lot, and serial number are supported.

Identifier reservation
A fixed identifier (batch, lot, or serial number with inventory management) is reserved with an identifier reservation. If, for example, a particular batch is specified in a sales order, then with an identifier reservation the corresponding item quantities are reserved so that these are no longer available for other issues. An identifier reservation is then always used if the function Reservations is disabled or, if it is activated, if in isolated cases other settings impede a reservation. Included among this, for example, is the reservation setting for the utilized warehouse.

Quality status (QA status)
A quality status or quality assurance status (QA status) can be defined for the warehouse and warehouse zone levels, and in parallel also for the identifier level. Inventory can be analyzed and utilized specifically according to QA status. If QA status is defined for certain inventory both at the warehouse level and for the identifier level, the inventory has the lower QA status.

Reservation
A reservation is a guarantee that a certain good will be deliverable at a specific date. Reservations represent the link of a demand origin (element) to a demand coverage (element). A reservation is only possible if both items and warehouses match between demand origin (element) and demand coverage (element).

Description of the value assistant

The selection and display fields are described in more detail below. Inventories are always determined in the inventory management unit of the respective item.

Query fields

Below is a detailed description of individual fields:

Identifiers – enter an identifier or a search template that matches the identifier to be displayed in the search result.

QA status – select the quality assurance status in which the identifiers you are looking for are available. The following options are available:

• All
• Released
• In quarantine
• Blocked

Item – enter the item whose identifiers you are searching for. If an item is specified in the application from which the search is called up, this item is used as the default value in the search.
In some applications, only one item can be specified, e.g. in the Material reservation line item editor of the Production orders application. In this case, the item is adopted and cannot be changed in the value assistant.

Inventory status – select the inventory status in which the identifiers you are searching for are available. The following options are available:

• Ignore – the inventory status as well as the warehouse and inventory owner details are ignored
• Existing – identifiers for which inventory exists are displayed (excluding negative inventories)
• Does not exist – identifiers for which no inventory exists are displayed (including negative inventories)
• Available – identifiers for which non-reserved inventory (free inventory) exists are displayed
• Not available – identifiers for which no or no free inventory exists are displayed
• Can be put away – identifiers for which no inventory exists are displayed (including negative inventory). Serial numbers must also not have a receipt reservation.

The default value is determined depending on the context. If the value assistant is called from an application that results in an inventory issue (e.g. sales orders), the default value Available is used. For receipts (e.g. receipts of goods), the default value Put-away is used. In all other cases, Ignore is used.

Warehouse – enter the warehouse for which you want to find identifiers. The warehouse is accepted from some applications as the default value.

Inventory owner – enter the warehouse for which you want to find identifiers. The warehouse is accepted from some applications as a default value.

Supplier identifier – enter the number of the identifier assigned by the supplier as the search criterion. If several supplier identifiers are specified for an identifier, a separate line is displayed in the result list for each supplier identifier, i.e. the other data is displayed multiple times.

Result list

Below is a detailed description of the columns:

Item – the item number is displayed in this column.

Identifier category – the identifier category of the identifier is displayed in this column. Possible values are:

• Batch ()
• Lot ()
• Serial number with inventory management ()
• Serial number without inventory management

Identifier – the number of the identifier is displayed in this column.

Supplier identifier – the identifier number assigned by the supplier is displayed in this column.

Inventory owner – the inventory owner of the identifier is displayed in this column. This is only displayed for serial numbers with inventory management.

Warehouse – this column shows the warehouse where the identifier is stored. This is only displayed for serial numbers with inventory management.

Inventory status – this column displays inventory status information. Possible statuses are:

• Identifier inventory is available ()
• Identifier inventory exist but is not available ()
• Identifier inventory is not available ()
• “Batch in retaining term”, retaining date, minimum batch lifetime, exp. date ()
• “Batch in remaining shelf life”, retaining date, minimum batch lifetime, exp. date ()
• “Batch expired”, retaining date, minimum batch lifetime, exp. date ()

Inventory – this column shows the inventory of the identifier.

Reserved quantity – the reserved quantity of the identifier is displayed in this column.

Expiry date – the expiry of a batch is displayed in this column. Other identifier categories are not taken into account as they do not have an expiry date.

Retaining date – the retaining date of a batch is displayed in this column. Other identifier categories are not taken into account as they do not have a retaining date.