What is location management?

Companies

Surgical Instrument Management companies correspond to companies in the Mobile Supply Chain Management system.

Administrators can add companies either directly to Surgical Instrument Management or bulk-load them from the Infor Lawson Procurement database. When a user enters a new company in the Surgical Instrument Management application, its name is matched against the names in the Infor Lawson Procurement database. If there is a match, the data is imported; otherwise, a new company is created.

Locations

A location is a place in a company where inventory is stored. A location can represent a physical place, such as a city, building, or floor of a building. It can also represent a logical classification, such as spare parts, office supplies, and consignment inventory.

Administrators can add locations either directly to Surgical Instrument Management or bulk-load them from the Infor Lawson Procurement database. When a user adds a new location in the Surgical Instrument Management application, its name is matched against the names in the Infor Lawson Procurement database. If there is a match, the data is imported; otherwise, a new location is created.

The following locations are used in Surgical Instrument Management.

• Instrument Source— A location that serves the purpose of overall management of items and trays. In order for an SPD staff to use items and/or tray lists, the items and/or tray lists are associated to an instrument source location. Typically, the main SPD area is the instrument source.

• Sterilization—A location where sterilization processes occur. Sterilization equipment is associated to a location with the Sterilization Activity.

• Case Cart Pick— A location where case cart picking occurs. Locations with the Case Cart Picking Activity are available for case cart picking processes.

• Decontamination— A location where decontamination occurs. Locations with the Decontamination Activity are available for decontamination processes.

• Storage— A location where trays are stored. Locations with the Storage Activity are available for selection as a tray’s default storage location and are also available for the transfer function.

• Transfer— A location where transfer processes occur. Locations with the Transfer Activity are available for transfer processes, such as transferring trays or case carts. Examples of transfer locations are case cart staging areas, holding areas in the OR, and repair locations.

• Assembly— A location where tray assembly occurs. Locations with the Assembly Activity are available for the tray assembly process.

• Maintenance— A location where instruments are sent for maintenance activity.

• Custom Activities— A location where custom activities may be defined. Locations assigned with this activity are available for custom activity processes.

• Receive— A location where case cart/tray/instrument IDs may be received.

Sub-Locations

Various business processes require that a location be broken down into more specific categories. The term sub-location was selected as a generic term for this functionality. A bin is a common type of sub-location in the Surgical Instrument Management application.

Report Groups

A report group is a structuring method you can use to classify a group of locations. You must have at least one report group per company in order to conduct a physical inventory assessment. In addition to conducting physical inventory, you can use report groups to classify locations for reporting, inquiry, and processing purposes. When you specify a report group in inquiry or report programs, you access only the information related to the locations within that report group.