Version: 8.5 & Up

Q - The following item is a kit parent item. Our user would like to make the Stock Qty Avail and Scheduled Qty Avail zero because they have determined the kit structure is too complicated and they have concerns about assembling all components together.  See sample screen below:

If I manually override these values in QTYAVAILBYCOMP* attributes to make them zero, will these values stay at zero?  If not, what is my best approach to address this issue?

A - The values will NOT stay at your override amount of zero. if defer processing is used to calculate QTYAVAILBYCOMP, the process will recalculate it. Also, if you use Stock Analysis and this kit item is part of the batch, QTYAVAILBYCOMP for this item will be recalculated dynamically.

We think the best approach is to change item “9. Control Flag” to “N.” Our system does not calculate QTYAVAILBYCOMP* attributes for NON-CONTROL items. But you should also change all qty in QTYAVAILBYCOMP* attributes to zero MANUALLY. The reason we don’t remove these attributes is because the next 846 (Inventory Advise) will not include this item once you remove the attribute. We don’t know how your trading partners interpret this. Do they assume that they should use the old quantity you last sent, which can lead to confusion? Therefore, we think it is better to keep the attribute’s quantity at zero and continue to send, even though your users will continue to see the QTYAVAILBYCOMP* attributes for this non-control item. But the last modified date/time will not change. After a while (you can define the time), your users can then remove the attributes for good.

If you should receive the message “Qty Alloc Is Not Zero – Item Must Be Controlled,” then this can be somewhat tricky. It means you already have open orders for this item. What do you want to do with those open orders? Do you want to (1) cancel/close those line items, or (2) do you still want to fulfill the existing orders and only stop the future new orders from coming in?

If your answer is yes for (1), then it will be simple. Just go ahead cancel/close existing open order line items (and send 855 to your trading partners), then you can proceed to change it to non-control.

If your answer is yes for (2), then it is somewhat tricky. You can press CTL-O (override key) in the Item Master screen and force “21. Qty Allocated” to 0. Then you can change the “9. Controlled Flag” to “N.” However, since you still have open orders for this item, after processing them,your “21. Qty Allocated” may show a negative value. On the other hand, the reset allocation (which you can run through deferred processing) will fix this issue, so this is only a temporary situation.

EMK