Making warehouses location controlled

As the goods volumes moving in and out of the warehouse increase, the need for more advanced warehouse management in the form of location control may arise.

You can enable location control for a warehouse without inventory, that is, a newly defined warehouse, or a warehouse that has been defined but not yet been put into use, or for a warehouse for which inventory is present.

To make a warehouse without inventory location controlled, in the Warehouses (whwmd2500m000) session, select the Locations check box.

This topic describes enabling location control for warehouses with inventory. In a nutshell, to make a warehouse with inventory location controlled, in the Change Location System (whwmd3205m000) session, you copy the stockpoint and inventory structure information of the items of the warehouse to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session. In this session, you assign the items to locations that you define in this session or define in advance in the Warehouse - Locations (whwmd3500m000) session or the Fixed Locations (whwmd3502m000) session.

In the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session, after assigning the locations, you copy the adjusted information back to the inventory structure and stockpoint sessions by actualizing the locations assigned to the inventory. While actualizing the information, LN adjusts the warehousing procedures.

Prerequisites

Before copying the item information to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session, there are a few prerequisites to take into account.

The inventory data that you copy to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session must match the real inventory as closely as possible to limit inventory discrepancies after the process, when the inventory data are copied back to the warehouse.

To limit inventory discrepancies, and before copying the inventory data, complete these steps:

Verify that there are no unconfirmed receipts.

Check the line status in the Inbound Line Status Overview (whinh2119m000) session. Only statuses Open en Put Away are valid.
Verify that all shipment lines are confirmed or closed.

Check the line status in the Outbound Line Status Overview (whinh2129m000) session. Only statuses Open en Shipped are valid.
Verify that all inventory inspections are processed.
Verify that all outbound advice is removed.
Verify that all cycle counting or adjustment orders are processed.
Repeat the previous steps for partial receipts and partial shipments.
Block the warehouse for inbound and outbound movements.

To do so, in the Warehouses (whwmd2500m000) session, select the Blocked for Inbound and Blocked for Outbound check boxes.

Because there may be inventory movements just before you block the warehouse, you cannot exclude the possibility of the occurrence of inventory discrepancies.

Procedure

To make a warehouse location controlled, complete these steps:

Start the Change Location System (whwmd3205m000) session.
Select the warehouse to be made location controlled.
Select the items to be made location controlled or copied to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session.
If required, enter a receipt, inspection, reject, or staging location in the location fields.
To perform a trial run and print a report before actually copying the data or making the items location controlled, select the Print Report check box and in the Update Mode group box, select Simulate.

To actually copy the items to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session or make items location controlled, select Update. Note that at this point, the prerequisites must be met.
Click Get Stockpoints to launch the trial run or to actually copy the items to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session.
Start the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session.
Look up the warehouse for which you copied the item data in the previous steps.
For each item, in the New Location field, enter a new location as required. The location entered in this field overwrites the location present in the Proposed Location field when you actualize the location and inventory information. Actualizing the information is described in the final step of this procedure.

You cannot enter fixed locations in the New Location field. You must create fixed locations in advance in the Fixed Locations (whwmd3502m000) session. When you copy the item data to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session as described in the previous steps, the fixed locations are displayed in the Proposed Location field.
If you want to divide the inventory of a particular item over more than one location, from the appropriate menu, select Split and in the new line that appears, enter a location and the quantity to be stored in the location.

Making items location controlled

The items that you copy to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session must be location controlled. This is because you cannot assign non-location controlled items to a location. If you store a non-location controlled item in a location controlled warehouse, the items are stored without reference to a bulk or pick location, thus making the location system of the warehouse ineffective.

Sometimes, items stored in a non-location controlled warehouse, are location controlled. This is because these items are also stored in a location controlled warehouse. You can copy these items to the Assign Locations (whwmd3105m000) session without making them location controlled first.

Note: Items contained in not-owned handling units cannot be made location controlled. To make such items location controlled, remove the items from the handling unit structure first.