Subinventory and Locator process in oracle apps

A subinventory is a physical or logical grouping of inventory such as raw material, finished goods, defective material, or a freezer compartment. A subinventory can be the primary place where items are physically stocked. You must specify a subinventory for every inventory transaction.

Storage Subinventory:

·         Mandatory

·         Tracking of good possible

·         Material reflects in onhand quantity

Receiving Subinventory:

·         Optional

·         Tracking fo goods possible

·         Does not reflect in onhand quantity

·         Available if receipt is made through use of Oracle Warehouse Management System and Oracle Mobile Supply Chain Application.

Note: Types of subinventories other than Storage matter only in WMS. You cannot have a receiving subinventory unless you are using MSCA or WMS. For example, you can receive material on the dock and can place it in a receiving subinventory (quantity is not reflected in on-hand) before you transfer it to a putaway location. There can be many receiving subinventories in the receiving area of a warehouse.

Defining Subinventories

You define subinventories by organization. Each subinventory must contain the following information:

•        Unique alphanumeric name

•        Status

•        Cost Group (if you have Oracle Warehouse Management installed)

•        Parameters

•        Lead times

•        Sourcing information

•        Account information

Locator Control

Locators are structures within subinventories. Locators are the third level in the enterprise structuring scheme of Oracle Inventory. Locators may represent rows, aisles, or bins in warehouses. You can transact items into and out of locators. You can restrict the life of locators, establish capacity of a specific locator in weight or units, as well as specify dimensions which define a locator’s capacity by volume.

In coordination with locator settings at the subinventory and item level, you must first specify locator controls at the Organization level:

•        None: Inventory transactions within this organization do not require locator information.

•        Prespecified only: Inventory transactions within this organization require a valid, predefined locator for each item.

•        Dynamic entry allowed: Inventory transactions within this organization require a locator for each item. You can choose a valid, predefined locator, or define a locator dynamically at the time of transaction.

•        Determined at subinventory level: Inventory transactions use locator control information you define at the subinventory level.

Dynamic and Static Locators

Dynamic Locator: Generated during a transaction as needed

Static Locator: Predetermined

Subinventory-Locator Relationship

You can structure Oracle Inventory in such a way that some of the subinventories and items have locator control while others do not. If locator control is turned on at the item level, you must specify a locator when transacting the item into or out of a subinventory. If locator control is turned on at the subinventory level, you must specify a locator when transacting any item into or out of that subinventory. Each stock locator you define must belong to a subinventory, and each subinventory can have multiple stock locators. The possible locator control types are:

•        None

•        Prespecified

•        Dynamic entry

•        Item Level

You cannot use the same locator names within any two subinventories within the same organization.

Locator Flexfield Structure

Locator flexfield structure is common across all organizations. For example if you set up Row1A Rack 1A and Bin 1A in M1 Seattle, you cannot use Aisle 1A Rack 1A and Bin1A structure in M2 Boston.