Intelligently calculating availability of Non-serial kits

Content was last updated in 06.23.08-00

Revision History

While processing an Order, one or more specific items that constitute a Kit/ Package not being available, might lead to an incomplete or delayed order.

As a transcending effect, it may even trigger the need for a purchase or transfer order.

Have you ever wished if there was a way to consider a Kit/ Package deemed as complete, even though one or more of its child items were not available?

Well, now you have it, segregating a Kits/ Package's child items as Critical and Non-critical.

Tagging a Kit's or Package's Child item as Non-Critical

A NC or Non-Critical flag on an Item tell us whether the Child Item's (Could be separate Kit in itself as well) should be considered for the calculation of Availability of entire Kit/ Package or not.

Important settings related to NC Flag:

This flag is added TO the Kit/ Package definition level.

• Default value at time of Kit definition will be False.

• When any child items are added to Kit definition, this flag will be set as False, by default.

• This flag will be always set to False and disabled in case of Serial Kits.

• There is no restriction about how many children can be tagged as NC.

• This flag will be set at Kit/ Package definition level and hence is applicable for all Sites.

• However, on a level-basis, marking a second level onwards Kit or Package as non-critical is not allowed.

• While definition a Package, R2 puts a restriction that, if the same child item exists more than once, It all of them 'MUST Have' the same NC Status.

• Misc. Charges can be added to a package defintion, and the Non-critical check box will be disabled for Misc. charges

Identifying a Non-Critical Child in a Kit/ Package at Order Level

Every Item that has NC flag enabled, will have a '^' symbol suffixed to it, in the description column of the Order Line.

As you can see in the screenshot above, though one of the child item not-available, the overall 'Availability' Status of the Non-serial kit (at header level) is shown as Reserved.

This is simply because, ITEM3, though 'Not Available' is a Non-Critical child item (as indicated by Cap(^) symbol in the description field); thus its status does not affect the Kit's overall Status.

Similar to a Reservation Order, the Transfer Orders behave identically.

The kit header shows blank, Critical child items if 'Reserved' show the same in black color. Non-critical items if not available, appear as 'Not Available' in Red.

 On Transfer assigning a non-serial Kit on a Rental Order, the child item line or non-serial Kit header status on Order is not impacted.

• Order line status will continue to depend on the status of the respective item on the Transfer Order. i.e., only if the respective line on Transfer Order is Reserved, corresponding line on Order will get T-Reserved. 

To help user understand the '^' symbol, you can click at the following screens explaining the meaning of this symbol.

1. A 'Legend Button' next to the status bar of the Rental/ Sale/ Transfer Order Screens and Availability Drill-Down Screen. See Here

2. An On-Mouse hover Tool-tip on the 'Description Column' in the Order Line Grid. See Here

Calculating Non-Serial Kit Availability

Since availability of the Non-serial Kit is calculated dynamically, then as per the Kit's definition if the same 'Child Item' is added to multiple Non-serial kits, then the overall Quantity of 'Child Item' is accessible for all Non-serial kit definitions, simultaneously.

Viewing Kit/ Package Definition Vs. Its Availability

While tagging a availability group for Non Serial kit, R2 will show only the Group Availability for Non-serial Kit avail groups.

Further, in the drill down, it will show only the Non-serial Kit header but no children.

Pooling and its effect on Package Availability

When E-pool is

• Enabled: Package availability for subregion is calculated based on the subregion wise minimum critical child availability

• Disabled: Package availability for subregion is calculated by adding the total availability in each site individually.

Sample Scenarios to understand Package Availability:

Let's assume, on 01 August 2023 the stock situation Site 'San Francisco' had Item 1A and Item 1B, both in 10 Quantity Each.

The following configurations of Packages were defined, as per which, the hypothetical package availability has been shown below.

Special Case Scenario:

  When all child items are marked as NC, then the availability of the Kit MUST ALWAYS BE ZERO

Now, let's assume that the stock quantity of both the Child Items remains unchanged for the entire month of August.

So, the hypothetical package availability on a daily basis (across all defined package configurations) can be depicted as per the following Gantt Chart.

Further now, let's see, how the Package availability would be impacted, if some (or all) of these Package definitions are Sold or Rented on some Orders.

Shown below is an Hypothetical situation of Sale/Rental dates of the Package definitions.

So, as per the above Sale/ Rental status, the modified availability becomes as follows:

You can click on each of the  Grey Boxes  to know more.

Transfer Orders and their effect on Package Availability

As there can be two type of transfer Orders (Transfer-in and Transfer-Out), so we will explore the impact of both on the Package Availability.

So, as per the above Sale/ Rental status, the modified availability becomes as follows:

You can click on each of the  Grey Boxes  to know more.

User Notifications seen while dealing with Non-Critical components of a Kit/ Package

When you try to select the availability group of Non Serial Kit

Step 1: Open a kit edit screen for serial kit Kit#1.

Step 2: Click on Availability Button.

Step 3: Click on Group button.

Step 4: Open the Availability Group search screen.

Step 5: Select the availability group of Non Serial Kit.

When there are multiple units of the same Child in package, and you try to change flag for such item

Step 1: Open a kit edit screen for serial kit Kit#1.

Step 2: Change flag for Item which has more than 1 Qty in the package.

When you try to make Child Kit/Package as Non-critical

Step 1: Open a Multi-level kit/package..

Step 2: Attempt to make a Child Kit/package as Non-critical

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