Allow Unknown Consumption

Allow Unknown Consumption defines how the application controls the consumption of unknown inventory that is not preexisting or not yet registered in the application. The available options include:

  • Prevent unknown consumption: Inventory cannot be consumed unless that already exists and is recorded in the application.
  • Allow unknown consumption: Inventory can be consumed if the pack information is entered before consuming.
  • Allow repeat unknown consumption: Material from the supplier is considered as a total batch, without unique identifiers for each piece of inventory.

Prevent unknown consumption

This setting limits inventory consumption to materials that already exist and are recorded in the application. Consumption is allowed only when inventory is recorded in the application through these processes:

  • Received into the factory as a receipt transaction
  • Received into the factory by being unloaded on a delivery
  • Created another production process as a semi-finished material
  • Unloaded from a machine, as material to return to stock.

Preventing unknown consumption enables additional validation, such as:

  • Validate consumption against BOM
  • Validate the state of the inventory
  • Validate the FIFO rules
  • Validate the use of after rules

Allow unknown consumption

Allow Unknown Consumption enables consumption of inventory that is not pre-registered in the application. In such scenarios, raw materials received that are not included in the application are identified only at the point of consumption. The application prompts the operator to specify required details, such as the material type and the quantity, and register the inventory packs as part of the consumption process.

This approach limits validation for the inventory pack. Maintaining visibility of inventory in the application improves validation and traceability.

Allow repeat unknown consumption

Allow repeat unknown consumption extends unknown consumption mode to support repeated use of inventory with the same identifier.

This mode addresses the scenarios in which multiple inventory units share the same supplier lot or batch number without unique labels. For example, multiple bags or boxes of material can carry the same identifier.

When repeat consumption is enabled:

  • The first pack is recorded as unknown inventory using the provided identifier.
  • Subsequent packs with the same identifier are accepted and assigned unique values using an incremental suffix. Example:
    • First pack: 560033
    • Second pack: 560033-1
    • Third pack: 560033-2
  • Quantity and supplier details for subsequent packs are derived from the original entry.

In this mode, unloading (return) a pack requires operator relabeling. The pack must be assigned a new unique number, including the suffix and the return quantity. Upon the next scan for loading onto a machine, the application identifies the pack as distinct from the original source and applies the correct quantity.