Concept: Part Status for Work Request Estimations

When it is re-evaluating part statuses in response to changes in inventory, the system assigns the 'In Stock, Not Reserved' status to an estimate. An estimate's Part Status becomes “In Stock, Not Reserved” when a quantity of that part comes in that could fulfill that part reservation completely, but not enough quantity of that part comes in to fulfill all reservations for the part for all outstanding work requests. The 'In Stock, Not Reserved' status informs you that you need to review estimates for this part, and reserve the estimates for the work requests you want to prioritize. You review and reserve parts for estimates having this status using the Reserve New Parts Inventory Task.

Example:

The following example shows when the system assigns the 'In Stock, Not Reserved' Part Status for estimates in response to inventory changes.

• Part ABC is out of stock; its Quantity Available is 0.
• Work Request 101 has a part estimate for 20 units of Part ABC. The Part Status for this estimate is 'Not In Stock.' (There are not enough parts for this estimate.)
• 20 units of Part ABC come in which causes Work Request 101 's part estimate to change from 'Not In Stock' to 'Reserved.' (There are now enough parts available for this estimate.)
• Work request 101 closes, and has not used more parts than estimated., so the Quantity Available for ABC is 0.
• Work request 102 has a part estimate that calls for 10 units of part ABC. This part estimate status is set to “Not In Stock”.
• Work request 103 has a part estimate that calls for 15 units of part ABC. This part reservation status is also set to “Not In Stock”.
• 20 units of Part ABC come in. When these parts are entered into the system, the system automatically changes work requests 102 and 103 part reservation statuses from "Not In Stock" to “In Stock, Not Reserved”. This is because there’s enough to fulfill each individually, but not both together. (Together they would total 25 parts.) Therefore the supervisor must choose which request gets the newly received parts and which goes back to “Not In Stock.” The system sets these statuses for you when you reserve the parts.

The system runs a workflow rule, updateWRPTStatus, that re-evaluates the Part Status for an estimate whenever there is a change in the Quantity Available. This ensures that the parts inventory remains up-to-date when changes occur, and provides you with the information needed when managing estimates for parts with insufficient inventory.

This update might remove the Reserved status from part estimates when the changes in inventory make the Reserved status no longer valid. This can occur when:

• you increase an existing part estimate that has the status of Reserved, so that the estimate now exceeds the Quantity Available
• a work order is closed that used more parts than were estimated and than are available. This means that there is no longer sufficient quantity of the part for other estimates that were given the Reserved status based on the closed work request using the smaller quantity that was originally estimated.
• a physical count shows that there are fewer parts than are reserved.

For example, when a craftsperson uses more parts than were originally estimated, and these parts were actually intended for Reserved estimates for other work requests, the system re-evaluates all open estimates for the part by:

• removing the 'Reserved' status from all estimates which moves the quantity for these estimates from the Quantity Reserved to the Quantity Available. This increases the Quantity Available.
• comparing the Quantity Estimated for each estimate to the new Quantity Available.
  • If the estimated number is less than or equal to the Quantity Available, the status gets updated to 'In Stock, Not Reserved.'
  • If the estimated number is greater than the Quantity Available, the status gets updated to 'Not In Stock.'

Note that the Reserved status is removed from all estimates, so that you can decide which estimates should be given the parts.

The following table describes the Part Status changes that can occur when the UpdateWRPTStatus workflow rule runs in response to changes in the Quantity Available. The system updates the statuses automatically, and alerts you when estimates need your attention.

When the Quantity Available for the Part ...	... the workflow rules checks for these status changes	This occurs when...	Workflow rule evaluation
Increases	Should Not In Stock estimates be updated to In Stock, Not Reserved?	The Quantity Available increases when new inventory is acquired, or you cancel, reject, or reduce part estimates. Another situation that increases available inventory is when you increase a Reserved estimate so that the Quantity Estimated now exceeds the Quantity Available. In this case, the system changes the Part Status for the estimate from 'Reserved' to 'Not In Stock', and all the parts that were previously reserved for this estimate are freed up and moved to Quantity Available.	When an increase in inventory occurs, the workflow rule looks for estimates with the status of "Not In Stock" for the part that has had an increase in inventory. The system then checks to see if the Quantity Estimated for any estimates for this part that have a status of "Not In Stock' might now be changed to 'In Stock, Not Reserved.' This change occurs if the Quantity Estimated is less than or equal to the new Quantity Available.
Increases	Should Reserved status be updated to Not In Stock or In Stock, Not Reserved?	When a craftsperson closes a work request that used more parts than were estimated, this increase can result in there not being enough parts available for estimates having the status "Reserved." If this is the case, all estimates for the part are re-evaluated, so their Reserved status is removed, and their Quantity Reserved is moved to the Quantity Available. This results in an increase in the Quantity Available for the part. Similarly, if you do a physical count that reveals that there are fewer parts than are reserved, the Reserved estimates are no longer valid. In this situation, the Quantity on Reserve will get set to 0, and the Quantity Available will be set to match the physical inventory.	In both these situations, the workflow rule searches for estimates for the part that has had an increase in inventory. The system compares the Quantity Estimated for each part estimate to the new Quantity Available. If the estimated number is less than or equal to the Quantity Available, the status gets updated to 'In Stock, Not Reserved'. If the estimated number is greater than the Quantity Available, the status gets updated to 'Not In Stock'.
Decreases	Should In Stock, Not Reservedestimates be updated to Not In Stock?	When a part inventory decreases, as new estimates are added for the part, or when an existing estimate is increased, estimates for this part that have a status of 'In Stock, Not Reserved.' might now be reset to 'Not In Stock.'	If the estimated quantity is greater than the part's new Quantity Available, then the workflow rule changes the status to 'Not In Stock.'

You can receive alerts on the Home Page that let you know when you need to:

• Reserve parts for estimates that are "In Stock, Not Reserved." Estimates with the status of 'In Stock, Not Reserved' should be evaluated to determine how you want to use the limited number of parts. Clicking this alert brings you to the Reserve New Part Inventory task from which you can test different scenarios for distributing the parts before committing the changes to the database. See Reserve New Parts Inventory.
• Plan ordering for understocked parts. Alerts warn you when understocked parts are contributing to estimates having the status 'Not In Stock.' Clicking on this alert brings you to the Understocked Parts Report that you can use to determine the quantity of the part that you need to order.