Solution Approach to allocate MRO inventory based on Asset’s Location

Functional Requirement : Assets move between different sub inventories within an organization and depending on its current location, material allocations for an EAM work order should be performed from the asset number’s sub inventory.

Solution : This requirement can be addressed by configuring WMS rules engine appropriately to pick MRO items from the same sub inventory where the asset currently resides. The following are the steps required to setup and execute this requirement using 12.0 onwards.

1. Configure an inventory organization to be both EAM and WMS enabled. For the purpose of this demo pick up seeded org ‘W2’.

2. Whse Mgmt Super User, Vision Operations responsibility Setup Warehouse Configuration Rules Warehouse Execution Rules. Define a Pick type WMS rule as below having an SQL expression:

select cii.inv_subinventory_name from wip_discrete_jobs wdj,wip_entities we,csi_item_instances cii, WMS_TRX_DETAILS_TMP_V mtrl where wdj.wip_entity_id = mtrl.txn_source_id and wdj.organization_id = mtrl.from_organization_id

and we.wip_entity_id = wdj.wip_entity_id and we.entity_type in (6,7) and cii.instance_id = wdj.maintenance_object_id

This SQL query will fetch the sub inventory of the asset number on the Work order. The pick rule will restrict picking to the source sub inventory based on this sub inventory.

3. Whse Mgmt Super User, Vision Operations responsibility Setup Warehouse Configuration Rules Warehouse Execution Strategies. Define a strategy and associate the picking rule defined in step 2.

4. Whse Mgmt Super User, Vision Operations responsibility Setup Warehouse Configuration Rules Warehouse Execution Rules Workbench. Using Rule workbench provide the sequence order for strategies along with any strategy assignments if desired.

In our test case, we have associated the Picking Strategy for EAM to items SP00001 and SP00002. In actual implementation you can associate to various objects like category, organization, subinventory, etc.

5. EAM resp Assets Asset Number.Define an Asset Number ‘Asset99’ and perform miscellaneous receipt so that the Asset’s location is ‘SPARES’ sub inventory.

6. Query up MRO items SP00001 and SP00002 in Material Work bench. Notice that on hand balances for both these items are available in two sub inventories, EACH and SPARES.

7. Maintenance Super User Work Orders Create Work OrdersCreate an EAM work Order and release the same.

8. Maintenance Super User Stores Material IssueVerify the allocations. The same were correctly allocated from ‘SPARES’ sub inventory, which is the Asset Number’s current sub inventory.

9. Sub Inventory TransferTransfer the Asset ‘Asset99’ from ‘SPARES’ sub inventory to ‘EACH’ sub inventory.

10. Asset Number formVerify the current location of the Asset Number ‘Asset99’. The same is shown as ‘EACH’ sub inventory.

11. Work Order page Create another work order with the same material requirements and release it.

12. Stores page Verify the allocations. This time the allocations are done from ‘EACH’ sub inventory, since the Asset Number ‘Asset99’ also resides there.

Open Issues :1. The above flow will not work if the supply source sub inventory (R12.1 feature) is specified in the Work order material requirements.2. Alternate picking method based on asset’s location (HR Location) can be explored by making a join with the sub inventory’s HR location. This will cater to similar functional requirements for assets which are non transactable. Further exploration is required on this front.