Can I manage raw materials in Idencia, and if so, how?

In this article, learn how to manage raw materials, track consumption, and determine approximate inventory levels

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Overview

Managing the quantity of raw materials you have on hand can be time consuming, and often involves a whole lot of guesswork.  The combination of processes and reports described below can help.

In this article, topics include:

Prerequisites
Capture Consumption of Raw Materials
Capture Receipt of Raw Materials
Report on Current Quantities
Reconcile Raw Material Quantities

Prerequisites

• Your Idencia Mangement Portal must include the Raw Material Inventory Levels report

If any of the above items do not exist in your system, ask your Customer Liaison for help in getting these prerequisites configured in your Idencia Management Portal.

Capture Consumption of Raw Materials

Before you can start tracking the quantity of raw materials you have on hand, you'll need a way to track how much raw material is consumed as you produce new products.  We'll accomplish this by using item type custom properties. 

For example...

Let's assume you want to track the quantity of aggregate, reinforcing steel, and rebar ties consumed with each product produced.

1. Create Numeric Item Type Custom Properties for each of the raw materials you want to track
   
   
2. Edit each of your item types (stock item types and job specific item types) and enter the quantity of each raw material consumed when an item of that type is produced.

In the example below, you can see that we have configured the 10x12 Wall Panel item type to track the quantity of aggregate, reinforcing steel, and rebar ties that are consumed each time a 10x12 Wall Panel is produced.

Capture Receipt of Raw Materials

Now that you have configured each item type with the quantity of material consumed when items are produced, you'll need a way to track the receipt of raw materials into inventory.  You'll accomplish this by creating an item and completing a Receive Raw Materials process each time a new shipment of material is received.

1. Create Numeric Item Custom Properties that match each of the Item Type custom properties you created above.  
   
   NOTE:  In order for the Raw Material Inventory Levels report to function properly, the Item and Item Type custom property names must match exactly.  For example, if you created an Item Type custom property called "Aggregate (Ton)", your Item custom property cannot just be "Aggregate".  It must also be called "Aggregate (Ton)".
   
   
2. Create a Process that captures the quantity of each raw material being received by setting the corresponding numeric custom properties you created above.
   
   Here is what the Receive Raw Materials process might look like for our example.
   
   
   
   
3. Create a Raw Materials stock item type that will be used when receiving raw materials into inventory.  Set the Default Process of the item type to the Receive Raw Materials process you created above.
   
   Here is our example stock item type.
   
   
4. Each time raw materials are received, auto-generate a serial number in the Idencia Mobile Application and select the Raw Materials item type and complete the Receive Raw Materials default process.
   
   Each time you run the Receive Raw Materials process, you may not enter a quantity for each material.  One day, you may receive only Aggregate and leave the Reinforcing Steel and Rebar Ties fields blank (or enter 0).  The next day, you may receive both Reinforcing Steel and Rebar Ties and leave the aggregate field blank (or enter 0).
   
   Here is an example of an auto-generated serial number where the Receive Raw Materials process was used to capture the receipt of Reinforcing Steel and Rebar Ties.  The Aggregate field was left blank.
   
   

Report on Current Quantities

Once raw materials have been received and consumed, the Raw Material Inventory Levels report can be used to view the received, consumed, and current inventory quantities.

1. To to Reports --> Raw Material Inventory Levels 
   
   
   
   For each raw material being tracked, this report will total up the quantities received on Items with the Raw Materials stock item type name, and subtract the quantity of material consumed across all other item types.

Reconcile Raw Material Quantities

It is good practice to periodically reconcile your raw material inventory levels and adjust the totals to account for waste, overages, etc.  This is done by regularly creating an item with a specific word or phrase as the serial number and setting the current actual inventory levels. 

You'll also need to complete this process to enter your starting Raw Material inventory levels.

1. In the Idencia Mobile Application, tap Scan Tag
   
   
2. Manually enter a serial number that contains the phrase "True Up" 
   
   We suggest using the current date followed by "True Up" (i.e., 05192020 True Up).  If your organization uses a different word or phrase to describe resetting inventory levels (i.e., reset, level set, reconcile, etc.) the Raw Material Inventory Levels report can be updated to look for this word or phrase.  The default is "True Up".
   
   
3. Run the Receive Raw Materials process
   
   
4. Enter the Current Quantity for ALL tracked materials.
   
   
5. Complete the process and Sync.
   
   It is important that all materials be given a "True Up" quantity.  If you leave one material blank, the current quantity for that material will be set to 0.  You can enter the quantity of one material, then click Finish Later so that the process remains incomplete while you count the quantity of the next material.  Reopen the incomplete process, enter the quantity for the next material, then click Finish Later again and repeat until all raw material shave been counted and quantities have been entered.  
   
   You can also complete this step by manually creating the "True Up" item directly in the management portal and manually entering quantities against each raw material.
   
   Once a "True Up" item has been created, the Raw Material Inventory Levels report will use these quantities as the new "Current Quantity" and being adding and subtracting from these numbers as material are received and consumed.
   
   We recommend performing a raw materials "True Up" at least two to four times per year.