We have a service side and customers will send parts back for service that were Serialized and tagged when created and shipped. We want to bring the part back into the system and track it again through the repair process so we have lifetime history of that Serial. Seems logical to me to be able to bring in a Serial Again if no QOH exists in the system for that Serial.
I am looking at the RMA process and Inspection Processing, however, it does not like brining in a Serial that has been used. I entered the RMA Line and Add Serial, used the original Serial but it does not like it.
I tried QTY Adjusting the Serial and at one point got it to work, but I think was just a fluke because that Serial had never existed before in our system, but once it does, that no longer works.
Inspection Processing shows the RMA Line and Serial if I can get the darn thing into the system then could process it and issue that Serial Part to a Job Material for Repair. That is the goal.
Any ideas appreciated on bringing in a Serial that was shipped out years ago.
One idea I had is bringing in the Serial as a NEW serial by appending a Suffix to it like ā1234-Aā, ā1234-Bā each time it returns, but not ideal.
There are times when I have to resort to Serial Number Maintenance, usually when I face situations like this. Having to process a RMA every time you service a piece is awful.
I havenāt messed with that specific process flow (returning SN parts are truly RMAās for us). I have baked a call to Erp.SerialNo (the BO underlying SN Entry) into a BPM in IssueReturn because we sometimes rework serialized parts, which means weāre issuing the part as a material to a job that outputs the same part as the input, so I reset the consumed material SN to WIP on the job.
Figure out what exact steps you need to get the SN back into an issuable state, and replicate it via BPM.
Not for everybody, but I know one company created a part number called RMA< RMA Number > and assigned the same serial number to this new part number. On Serial Number tracker, it showed every time the unit was returned and sent back out, along with the original shipment.
Are you trying to return the SN of the top asm or is it a serialized sub-asm that was matched? Also, when it was sold, was it sold in a sales kit?
There should not be any issue creating an RMA for a serialized part, but something that people forget is that if it is not the part that was sold and shipped, you cannot return it, you have to return the top level.
Since we are in a new Kinetic Install here, none of the parts were in the system with Serial Numbers or corresponding orders, they may be several years old.
So entering the Part on an RMA Line and entering the Partās Serial Tag Number via ADD Serial works that first time. Then I can process it via Inspection Processing RMA and it brings it into Stock where I could then issue it to a Repair Job as a material.
The rub is that once you do that, you can never use that Serial in that way again. Even after you ship it out, adjust it to zero or whatever, Epicor does not allow referencing it again. That is how it should work on a Sell situation, but on a return and repair situation, it should allow you to bring that back into stock on the original serial number again. Other ERPās have this limitation as well from what I have heard.
So the RMA process is really not the tool to use for this, but just canāt find a way to bring it in and have decades of history available. We are looking at using an outside system for it to track them and then bring the parts in on a new Serial Number and just have linkage between the two data sources. Could also customize Epicor to do that via UD Tables too, just a bit ugly, lol
We run serialized parts through RMA Processing all the time.
When we āreceiveā the serial number, we use the retrieve option rather than āaddā since it already exists. If weāre unable to retrieve it, itās likely the serial number is under a different account than the account used for the RMA, in that case we have to go to Serial Number Customer Transfer and transfer the serial number to the correct customer.
We have history for all our serial numbers for the last 12 years weāve been using Epicor.
As @KPreda says, you do not need to go external, Epicor can handle it. I would recommend loading all of your serial numbers into Epicor so that they are available to select. As long as you are properly shipping the SN after repair, you can bring it back in again.
What we have found is that if the SN was Pre Epicor ( our SNās were not loaded on conversion) , They need to be added in SN Maint ( or DMT loaded with Sales Order, line etcā¦) Caveat there is you need the SO info at RMA Entry time. Parts can then be issued to rework jobs ANDā¦ SN reused at job completion.
Somewhere along the line, I think we may have had to change the SN Status to WIP once in Job and before job completion.
Yeah, if you issue the part to a rework job (which has the same part# as material and output) you have to switch the SNStatus from āconsumedā to WIP and the JobSeq to zero. Then you can move the completed part from job to stock/order without any further special treatment.