About the Advanced Truck Inventory Management

When integrated to Distribution SX.e, the Advanced Truck Inventory Management features simplify the tracing of inventory, from the planning stages up to the completion of the service order, particularly for components that are not available in the inventory, and therefore requiring procurement.

As a service manager, you can plan the materials required by the Service Order (SRO) without specifying from which warehouse or vendor the material must come from, and let the buyer procure the components through CloudSuite Distribution (CSD). You can also leave the Partner fields of planned SRO material transactions blank. This lets service managers plan the demand without specifying who fulfills the service.

The status of procurement in CSD is visible from within Service Management through the Parts Allocated column and Awaiting Parts check box. A read-only Parts Allocated column is available in the planned material transaction grid in the Service Order Transactions form. By default, the indicator on the Parts Allocated column for each entry on the planned material transactions grid is cleared (unchecked) until the materials are processed through the back-order fill algorithm in CSD. The Awaiting Parts algorithm is enhanced to consider the value on the Parts Allocated column of all planned transactions on the SRO, such that if at least one row has Parts Allocated set to false, the Awaiting Parts check box on the SRO will be set to true. When the Parts Allocated for all entries is set to true, or unknown because allocation is not necessary, then the SRO Awaiting Parts check box will be set to false.

Note: To automatically update the SRO Awaiting Parts check box, specify in the Mode field, on the Parts Fulfillment tab on the Service Parameters form.

With the Advanced Truck Inventory Management, SROs are planned in a service warehouse. The service warehouse is configured to a correlating distribution warehouse for authorized replenishment. This service warehouse is a virtual or staging area for the planned materials until the transaction is assigned to a partner, and that partner confirms what is physically staged and commit the move of the inventory onto the truck.

After the buyer procures the materials, and the materials are allocated to a service order, the service manager can assign, in bulk, the planned material transaction to a partner technician using the Quick Service Order Assignment form, in addition to scheduling an appointment for the service. The partner technician can then quickly pick up the materials using the Quick Service Order Pickup form, which moves the inventory from the service warehouse to the technician's truck warehouse, and then proceed to completing the service order. This inventory traceability provides inventory managers visibility to the procurement status of the components throughout the life cycle of the service order and track the materials from procurement, pick up, and order fulfillment.