Defining Subinventories

Subinventories are unique physical or logical separations of material inventory, such as raw inventory, finished goods, or defective material. All material within an organization is held in a subinventory therefore, you must define at least one subinventory. The Subinventories window consists of the following tabs where you can define parameters for the selected subinventory:

arrow icon   To define subinventory information (Main tab):

Enter the following data on the header and Main tab of the Subinventories window.

  1. Navigate to the Subinventories window.

  2. Enter your data in the header region of the Subinventories window.

    Field Description
    Status Select the material status of this subinventory. The material status controls the enabled transactions for all material in this subinventory. The status is not overridden by the status of any locator, lot or serial, within this subinventory.
    For more information, see Setting Up Material Status. To update the status using the e-record and e-signatures (ERES) approval process:

    The following process is applicable if your organization has enabled the ERES framework to enable electronic record keeping and you are updating the subinventory status.

    1. Update the status of the subinventory and click Save.

      This triggers a ERES event which gives you the option of electronically signing the update in online or deferred mode.

    2. Select one of the following:

      • Sign: Enables the status to be updated and approved online in a single session. Typically, the approver is required to be present/available when the transaction is performed.

      • Submit: Enables you to defer the signing process in situations where the approver is not present/available. When you submit a deferred request, a notification is sent to the approver who may either approve or reject the status change.

      Additional Information: Deferring the approval process results in the following conditions:

      • If you try to update the status again for the same subinventory (while the status is pending approval), the system will not allow this transaction and displays an error.

      • If you perform a transaction against a SKU in the Miscellaneous Transactions window, the transactions that are common for both the old and new statuses can be performed until the status change is approved.

    3. The approval is completed when the approver completes the following steps:

      1. In Notifications page (Oracle Workflow), the approver selects the approval notification.

      2. Verifies the e-record.

      3. Approves the status update and closes the Notification page.

      Note: An ERES event is not triggered for the following: a locator status change from the Locator window, a serial status change from the Serial Numbers window, or a lot status change from the Lots window.

    Default Cost Group Select the default cost group for this subinventory. If the cost group assignment rules fail to identify a cost group for newly received material, this cost group will be assigned. This cost group will remain with the material, even through subinventory transfers, until you perform a cost group change transaction.

    Note: This feature is available if you have Oracle Warehouse Management installed, and you are working with a Warehouse Management enabled organization. See Defining Default Inventory Parameters.

    Type Select a subinventory type:
    • Storage: Designates the subinventory as a Storage subinventory.

    • Receiving: Designates the subinventory as a receiving subinventory, and links it to a receiving location. This subinventory type is used only for receiving material. Material in this type of subinventory cannot be on-hand, or reserved.

    • Null: No subinventory designation.

  3. Enter your data in the Parameters region and Lead Times region of the Subinventories window.

    Field Description
    Status Attributes The Status Attributes region (display-only) indicates which attributes are applicable to the material status selected for the subinventory:
    • Include in ATP: Identifies whether the material in the subinventory can be included in ATP (available to promise).

    • Allow Reservation: Identifies whether reservations are allowed for this subinventory.

    • Nettable

    Quantity Tracked Indicate whether each transaction for this subinventory updates the quantity on hand for the subinventory. If deselected, on-hand balances are not maintained and you cannot select or update the Asset Subinventory option.

    Note: You can update this value only if there is no on-hand quantity, no pending transaction, or no uncosted transaction for the subinventory.

    Asset Subinventory Select this option to maintain the value of this subinventory on the balance sheet.

    Note: You can update this value only if there is no on-hand quantity for the subinventory.

    Depreciable Select whether this subinventory is depreciable. See: Using Network Logistics, Oracle Network Logistics Concepts and Procedures.
    Enable PAR Level Planning Indicates if Periodic Automatic Replenishment (PAR) is enabled. If selected, min-max planning cannot be performed for this subinventory.
    Enable Locator Alias Indicate whether you can create locator aliases for locators within this subinventory. If you enable this parameter, you must create locator aliases for locators within this subinventory.

    Attention: The Enable Locator Alias is not supported for locators of the type Dock Door.

    Enforce Alias Uniqueness Indicate if the locator aliases are unique across the subinventory.

    Note: You can also set this parameter at the organization level. If set at the organization level, and you click Enable Locator Alias, you cannot update this parameter.

    Locator Control Select a type of locator control:
    • None: Inventory transactions within this subinventory do not require locator information.

    • Prespecified: Inventory transactions within this subinventory require you to enter a valid predefined locator for each item.

    • Dynamic entry: Inventory transactions within this subinventory require you to enter a locator for each item. You may choose a valid predefined locator, or define a locator dynamically at the time of transaction.

    • Item level: Inventory transactions use locator control information that you define at the item level.

    Attention: You can select an option only if you selected locator control as Determined at subinventory level in the Locator Control field in the Organization Parameters window. You can update this option only if there is no on-hand quantity for the subinventory.

    Default Locator Status Indicates the default locator status of the locators in this subinventory.
    Picking Order Enter a picking order value for sequencing picking tasks. (Picking order is supported by Oracle Warehouse Management and Oracle Mobile Supply Chain Applications (for non WMS implementations).
    The picking order value indicates the priority with which you pick items from this subinventory, relative to another subinventory, where a given item resides. If you have Oracle Warehouse Management installed, this field determines the picking path through the warehouse and not the order in which material is allocated for a sales order.

    Attention: A picking order of 1 means that order management pick items from that subinventory or locator before others with a higher number (such as 2).


    For an example of how picking order is applied, see Example of Picking Order.
    Dropping Order Enter a numeric dropping order value such as 1, 2 or 3. The dropping order value determines the sequence of material drops when dropping a group of tasks with different destinations (such as subinventory or locator). The dropping order is considered only at the time of the drop; so, if you load multiple LPNs that are supposed to go to different destinations then the system will suggest the subinventory / locator for drops based on the dropping order. Dropping order is evaluated in ascending order where the lowest dropping order is considered first.

    Note: Dropping order is available only for WMS-enabled organizations.

    Inactive On Optionally, enter an inactive date on which the subinventory becomes inactive. As of this date, you can no longer assign the subinventory to any function within Oracle Applications. In addition, you cannot receive items into or issue items from the subinventory. The subinventory remains inactive until you change the inactive date to a future date, or remove the inactive date.

    Attention: Before you disable a subinventory, you must make certain that no open jobs or schedules in Oracle Work in Process use it as the backflush subinventory and that no active bills in Oracle Bills of Material use it as the supply subinventory for pull requirements.

    Location Enter a location for the subinventory. If the Subinventory type is Receiving, this field is mandatory. See: Using Network Logistics, Oracle Network Logistics Concepts and Procedures. See: Oracle Spares Management in CRM, Oracle Spares Management Concepts and Procedures.
    Picking UOM Select the picking unit of measure used to store material in this subinventory. It is used by the WMS rules engine to divide picks across subinventories in the warehouse. See Overview of the WMS Rules Engine. You must also enter a valid pick UOM if you want to print labels by case or pallet. The number of labels printed will depend on the Pick UOM. See Labeling Overview These features are available if you have Oracle Warehouse Management installed, and you are working with a Oracle Warehouse Management-enabled organization. See: Defining Default Inventory Parameters.
    Default Replenishment Count Type Select the appropriate Default Replenishment Count Type. This field defaults the default count type on the Replenishment Lines window. It does not affect existing Default Count Type headers.
    Lead Times region (Pre-Processing, Processing, Post-Processing) Optionally, enter pre-processing, processing, and post-processing lead times for items in this subinventory. These lead times are used when you use min-max planning at the subinventory level.
  4. Select the sourcing criteria:

arrow icon   To define accounts (Accounts tab):

  1. Select the Accounts tab.

  2. Enter the general ledger accounts. See: Subinventory General Ledger Account Fields.

    The default accounts are those defined for the organization in the Organization Parameters window:

  3. Save your work.

arrow icon   To define warehouse parameters (Warehouse tab):

The Warehouse tab is available only if Oracle Warehouse Management (WMS) is installed and enabled for your organization. (WMS is enabled when the WMS Enabled check box is selected on the Organization Parameters window.) For more information on defining warehouse parameters in the Subinventories window, see the Oracle Warehouse Management Implementation Guide, Setting Up Subinventory Parameters.

Other Sources

Related Topics