We have a situation where we want to control fixture storage in Epicor. The guidelines are as follows:
Want to use specific inventory locations.
Want to identify fixtures with specific part numbers.
Want fixtures to be transparent to costing/inventory financial reporting.
Is there anyone out there who has done something similar? For reference, we are talking about ~1000 items. The idea is to understand where a fixture is located, so when we need it (could be next month, could be two years from now) we can find it. The fixtures will be stored offsite in a storage facility that is local to us.
Assuming you have material management module
Set up you main warehouse (Should already be done)
Material Management \ Inventory Management \ Setup \ warehouse
Set up a secondary warehouse (Off site storage locations) If you have multiple storage locations set them each up as their own.
Add Bins to the warehouses to place the part in.
Material Management \ Inventory Management \ Setup \ warehouse bin
You will need to then add the secondary storage warehouse to the part in order to store it there.
From Material Management \ Inventory Management \ Setup \ Part
Go to the Sites Tab, then Warehouses
Add new warehouse
Use the Inventory Transfer to move the parts from one warehouse to another.
Material Management \ Inventory Management \ General Operations \ Inventory Transfer
Chris - excellent path forward. We are seriously evaluating this now. Our finance people balked a but until I showed them how to run inventory reports and differentiate warehouses.
You could also call the fixture part out on the BOM for jobs that need it so you know when that part is needed on a job.
Do an issue material transaction to issue it when the part is sent to the assembly line. When they are done with it, do a return material transaction when you complete the job. ( could possibly even automate that with a BPM and specific part class to identify what parts are fixtures)
That is more problematic, we use BOM’s that are supplied to us by our customers. I understand the concept well, but don’t think it would be doable here.
We will be able to identify the needed fixtures by looking at planned jobs for the item. The fixtures will be numbered in a manner that allows a simple part number sort to identify the fixtures needed for a particular item.
Great idea, though, and if we had control of our BOMs, it would be worthy of serious consideration.