Inventory Consumption
From Aligni Wiki
When you use Aligni to manage your inventory, you derive significant benefit from utilizing certain transactions to keep track of inventory locations and counts. Manual adjustment of inventory levels is still possible, but using the various Aligni tools to transact these changes is more efficient. Purchases are used to increase inventory in response to a vendor's shipment of raw materials to your inventory locations. Inventory transfers are used to transfer inventory in bulk from one location to another. Both of these can operate on multiple inventory units at a time and a record is maintained for logging purposes.
Similarly, inventory counts may be reduced when raw materials are assembled into a finished good. This physical operation is represented in Aligni by an inventory consumption order (sometimes referred to as a "build"). In addition to simply keeping track of inventory counts, consumption orders can greatly assist in materials resource planning (MRP) by providing predicted consumption of your inventory.
Historical part usage may be graphed from the part page under the "Part Usage" radar. This graph uses information from complete inventory consumption orders to provide perspective on past part requirements.
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Inventory Consumption Phases
An inventory consumption order in Aligni has four distinct phases. These are described in detail below, but by way of summary:
- Plan - The planning phase initiates an inventory consumption order and is where you specify the part number and quantity to be build during the assembly process. At this stage, the planned build is simply a place holder. No inventory is set aside and no inventory changes are made.
- Allocate - In the allocation phase, you specify how many component parts will be used for the assembly, including attrition and other considerations. Specific inventory is not reserved at this time, but parts are marked as "allocated" for reference.
- Reserve - When the actual assembly begins, specific inventory units (quantities that are located at specific inventory locations) are reserved and set aside for the build. Once reserved, these inventory quantities are unavailable for inventory transfer or other adjustments.
- Complete - Upon completion of the build, Aligni makes all final adjustments to the component inventory and optionally adds the finished good to inventory. A permanent record of the inventory consumption order is maintained along with before/after inventory quantities.
Units
Throughout an inventory consumption order, units are always expressed in terms of the part's Use-As unit. Aligni will make appropriate unit conversions to display available inventory in terms of this unit during the reservation phase. The example below illustrates how units are managed through the consumption process.
Attrition
Attrition is user-specified for each part type in your database. You may also override this setting on a part-by-part basis. At the allocation phase, Aligni displays each part's attrition percentage below the required quantity for the build. It derives this value from the part type and override settings.
Example
As an example, we'll go through the build process for the ASSY_TESTUNITS assembly in the demo database. You can see the partlist at this link. This assembly is composed of the following:
- 3 each of a capacitor C0402C104K8PACTU
- 3.5 inches of wire
- 4 2-pin headers which a broken off from a separable strip of 40-pins or 80-pins
The example illustrates how Aligni handles units through the build process. The wire is specified in use-as units of inch but typically purchased on a 100-ft spool. The spool is held in inventory as fractional units, so 1 100-ft spool would mean 1,200 inches are available. 0.25 100-ft spool would mean 300 inches are available. Inches may also be specified as a fraction.
The 2-pin unit is a base unit and is integer-only. It is setup to convert to 40-pin strip and 80-pin strip since these headers are typically purchased as separable strips.
Phase 1: Plan
The planning phase of an inventory consumption order is simply a representation of an intent to run a build at some time in the future. Planned builds can be either one-time (non-recurring) or recurring builds. At the planning stage, the assembly part number and build quantity are specified. Some assemblies have sub-assemblies with their own components. The intent to "drill-down" into these sub-assemblies to derive the list of consumed components is also specified at the planning phase.
If the build is expected to be performed with some regularity (like 50 units every 3 months), the build can be planned as a recurring build. When Aligni performs inventory consumption predictions, it can use these recurring builds to estimate part usage over a specified time span. Planning a recurring build is done simply for prediction assistance and has no bearing on when the builds are required to occur.
Phase 2: Allocate
Once a build is planned, it is available to enter allocation. At this point, you are presented with the list of parts from the assembly (and sub-assemblies, if drill-down was selected) and you can enter quantities of each part to allocate to the build. A commitment to specific inventory units (quantities held at specific locations) is not made here. Aligni can help specify these quantities by pre-filling the entry fields with the quantities required and optionally including quantities that would be lost to attrition. You may also set an expected reserve date that indicates the intended day to start the assembly. This date is used for planning purposes only and may be changed after allocation (in the reserve stage).
You may cancel (undo) an allocation at any time. Part allocations are simply deleted and the build reverts back to the planning phase.
On the part's inventory radar, you will see allocations listed, but not associated with specific inventory units.
Phase 3: Reserve
A build typically enters the reserve phase when the contract manufacturer or assembly line are instructed to start work on the build. At this time, specific inventory units (quantity of a part at a specified location) are reserved for the build. Once reserved, these inventory units may not be transferred, reserved, or adjusted for any other purpose. At this stage you need to specify specifically which units at which locations will be used for the build.
You may cancel (undo) a reservation at any time. Reserved inventory units will be canceled and the parts will revert back to their allocated status.
Reserved inventory appears directly below the associated inventory units on the part inventory radar.
Phase 4: Complete
After final assembly has occurred, the build may be completed. At this stage, all reserved inventory units are consumed and final adjustments are made to inventory. A quantity of the finished good may optionally be added to inventory as a resulting transaction. A permanent record of the inventory consumption is maintained for record-keeping purposes.
Build completion is final and may not be undone.
Review
After completion, a permanent record of the consumption remains for review.
