About Multi-Site Transfer Order Serial Number Tracking

This topic provides an overview of multi-site transfer order serial number tracking.

Multi-Warehouse Functionality During Shipping And Receiving

A hypothetical multi-warehouse shipping and receiving scenario follows:

Warehouse A ships to a Transit Location (it is maintained at Warehouse B).
When Warehouse B receives the item, it is moved from the Transit Location to a Stock Location within Warehouse B.

Multi-Site Functionality During Shipping And Receiving

When you move inventory via a multi-site transfer, the transfer is a two-step process:

Inventory is moved from a permanent location to a transit location.
Inventory is then moved from the transit location to a permanent location.

The following tables illustrate this process.

Serial Number Tracking When FOB = Site B


Site A
I	Same S/N	Same S/N Transit	Different S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New
A	Same S/N	Same S/N Transit	Different S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New
J	Same S/N	Same S/N Transit	Different S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New
R	Same S/N	Same S/N Transit	Different S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New

In this example, an item is transferred from Site A to Site B, where the FOB Site is Site B. Regardless of the status of the serial number used (I, A, J, or R), the item is transferred to the transit location with the same serial number, and out of the transit location with a status of Transit. It is then moved into permanent inventory at Site B, where it is assigned a different serial number with a status of Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New.

Serial Number Tracking When FOB = Site A


Site A (FOB Site)	Site B
I	Same S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New	Same S/N Transit	Same S/N
A	Same S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New	Same S/N Transit	Same S/N
J	Same S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New	Same S/N Transit	Same S/N
R	Same S/N Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New	Same S/N Transit	Same S/N

In this example, an item is transferred from Site A to Site B, where the FOB Site is Site A. Regardless of the status of the serial number used (I, A, J, or R), the item is transferred to the transit location associated with Site B, and is assigned a serial number with a status of Out of Inventory, Not Used, or New, and out of the transit location with a status of Transit. It is then moved into permanent inventory at Site B, where it is given the same serial number.

Data Collection and Multi-Site Serial Number Tracking

Store and Forward ship and receive data collection always prompts for serial numbers.

Web-based data collection prompts for serial numbers if the item is serial tracked at either site and when the associated primary Service Management database is connected. If the primary Service Management database is not available, then serial numbers will only be prompted for based on the value of the Serial Track flag for the local activity site. In the case where a transaction is being performed that requires updates to the non-local site and the non-local site is not available, the serial numbers for the other site will be generated at the time the transfer order transaction is posted to the system. Neither the local nor the non-local primary Service Management databases needs to be available.

Error processing data collection always prompts for serial numbers if either site's item is serial tracked. Error processing data collection allows updates to data even if the non-local site is not available (i.e., only the local Service Management database is available). In this case the data will be validated again at the time the transaction is posted. If the non-local sites' primary database is available, validations will also include that site.