The item statuses are PENDING, PLANNING, ACTIVE, PENDOBS (Pending Obsolescence) and OBSOLETE. These statuses are used at the item level, at the item-organization level (ITEMORGINFO), and also on the storerooms where this item is held or referenced, the inventory level. When you change status at one level you have the option to roll this status down to lower levels.

You can change status freely between PENDING, PLANNING, ACTIVE and PENDOBS, but you can only move to OBSOLETE from PENDOBS. Once at OBSOLETE status you are at the end of the road, you cannot change status, you will get the error message “BMXAA2242E – Status cannot be changed for selected record(s).”. Items and Inventory records at OBSOLETE status are also filtered out of any list view of items.

The default status will generally be PENDING but this can be changed both in the Sets and OrganizationsA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing and is often aligned to a legal entity of an organisation. More application. The Default Item Status field in the Sets application is the default for any new organizations that you define.

When you create a new item in the Item Master, Service Items or Tools applications, its status is derived from the Default Item Status that is on the item set. However, the status field on the ITEMORGINFO record created for this item is derived from the organization’s Default Item Status value. This allows the default status for one organization to be different from another.

The Default Item Status at both set level and organization level can only be PENDING, PLANNING, ACTIVE or one of their synonym values.

At PENDING status, you can insert an item into a storeroom, but little else. It will not appear in lookups, and so for example, you would not be able to add the item to a job plan. You could not change the current balance, perform a physical count, set average or standard cost, etc. In the Inventory application you can set up reorder details and define which vendors you would buy the item from, but you cannot add the item to a purchase order yet.

At PLANNING status, the item will now appear in the Item Select Value lookups, so you could add it to a job plan and make the job plan active, the job plan could be applied to a work order and on approval reservations for the item will be created, however, you cannot issue the item yet, you will get a similar error message to:

• “BMXAA5471I – This action is not allowed since the item N8971V is in PLANNING status.” 

You still cannot make any balance adjustment or set average or standard costs. You could add the item to a purchase order, but you cannot approve the purchase order you will receive the error message similar to:

• BMXAA3279E – Could not change PO 1185 status to APPR.
• BMXAA2119E – Item(s) [N8971V ] is in PLANNING or PENDOBS status.

At ACTIVE status there are no restrictions.

At PENDOBS status the objective is to use all existing stock reducing the balances eventually to zero, but to disallow stock replenishments. Items at PENDOBS exist in Select Value lookups, you can still issue, return, transfer and receive items for approved PO’s but you cannot approve a purchase order that references a PENDOBS item, you would get the error message just discussed. You cannot restock through the reorder process.

When going from PENDOBS to OBSOLETE there are several validations which are performed and so it is best to start from the inventory level and work back to the organizations level and then finally the set level. You will get the warning “BMXAA2121W – This status change will make the item(s) permanently unavailable for use. Do you wish to continue?” before the validations kick in.

I am not sure about the order of the validation checks but there are seven of them and they exist in the messages which you can find in Database Configuration from BMXAA2109E through to BMXAA2115E. 

If the item exists on the work order planned materials (WPITEM) then you get the error message:

• BMXAA2117E – Could not change item 1008 status to OBSOLETE.
• BMXAA2109E – Cannot change status. Item exists on one or more work orders at Inventory level.

If the item exists on job plan materials (JOBITEM) then you get the error message:

• BMXAA2117E – Could not change item XMP-3200/CENTRAL status to OBSOLETE.
• BMXAA2110E – Cannot change status. Item exists on one or more open job plans at Inventory level.

If the item exists on a desktop requisition (MRLINE) then you get the error message:

• BMXAA2117E – Could not change item XMP-3200/CENTRAL status to OBSOLETE.
• BMXAA2111E – Cannot change status. Item exists on one or more open MRs at Inventory level.

If the item exists on a purchase requisition (PRLINE) then you get the error message:

• BMXAA2117E – Could not change item XMP-3200/CENTRAL status to OBSOLETE.
• BMXAA2112E – Cannot change status. Item exists on one or more open PRs at Inventory level.

If the item exists on a purchase order (POLINE) then you get the error message:

• BMXAA2117E – Could not change item 1008 status to OBSOLETE.
• BMXAA2113E – Cannot change status. Item exists on one or more open POs at Item level.

If the item exists in inventory balances (INVBALANCES) then you get the error message: 

• BMXAA2117E – Could not change item 39882/GARAGE status to OBSOLETE.
• BMXAA2114E – Cannot change status. Item exists on one or more balance records at Inventory level

There is also an error message against an asset, but I could not activate it either for a rotating item (ASSET.ITEMNUM) or in the spare parts (SPAREPART.ITEMNUM), or in the Job Plan Work Assets (JPASSETSPLINK.ITEMNUM), the error message is:

• BMXAA2115E – Cannot change status. Item is attached to one or more assets at {0} level. 

You can see from the error message that Maximo is passing in the level at which the test is being made, the Inventory level, the Item/Organization level or the Item level. 

This context also effects lookups. If the Select Value is looking up against the inventory level, then it will not show an obsolete item that is obsolete at the inventory level for the chosen storeroom. If the Select Value is looking up at the item/organization level or item level, then the same item may appear in the lookup. 

A good place to experiment with this is Job Plans application but you need to first have an obsolete item in a storeroom that is not obsolete at the item or item/organization level. In the Job Plan Materials tab, you could enter an item before entering a storeroom/site, your look up is at the item level. As soon as you reference a storeroom you are now looking-up at the inventory level and you will not find your obsolete item at that storeroom. But remove the storeroom reference, and now you will find the item again because the organization field has a value and so you are now looking up against the status at the item/organization level.

When reordering items, you are working at the inventory level and only items which are at ACTIVE or PLANNING status can be re-ordered. At other statuses you will receive error messages like:

• BMXAA2120E – Item 10012 is in PENDOBS status. Reorder is not allowed.

Or

• BMXAA2120E – Item 10012 is in PENDING status. Reorder is not allowed.

For Service Items there is no inventory and so you are working at the item/organization level in determining whether the action “Reorder Direct Issue Itms/Svcs” has an effect. Reordering direct issue items and services is allowed for statuses at ACTIVE or PLANNING otherwise there will be an error message like:

• BMXAA2120E – Item TEL is in PENDOBS status. Reorder is not allowed.

Or

• BMXAA2120E – Item TEL is in PENDING status. Reorder is not allowed.

The Change Status dialog differs slightly depending on what level you are working at.

On Item Master there is a checkbox giving you the option to roll the new status to organizations (ITEMORGINFO) and inventory. If you check this the new selected status will be changed on all organizations belonging to the same item set, and all of their storerooms where the item currently exists.

On the action Item/Organization Details the change status action is opened by using the traffic light icon at the right-hand end of the organization that you wish to change status on. In this case the check box gives you the option to roll the status down to the storerooms belonging to the organization where the item exists.

The (i) information icon to the right of this will open the View Status History dialog at the Item/Organization level.

In the Inventory application the Change Status action has no check box.

In the Service Items application, the Change Status dialog only gives the ability to roll the new status down to the Item/Organization level, there are no storerooms for service items.

You can also change status on multiple items from the list tab of Item Master and Inventory applications. You get similar dialog boxes except there is no reference to the item being changed or its current status. Can you guess which application this is from?

It is from the Service Items application, it has the rolldown to Organizations and not Organizations and Inventory as would be the case for Item Master or Tools applications. 

Incidentally, I noticed that the checkbox in Item Master was checked when the status was chosen as obsolete, and this also occurs when changing the status at the Item-Organization level. It doesn’t appear to be checked by Maximo for change status to other statuses, only when the new status will become OBSOLETE. The check box when changing status at Item level or Item/Organization level is also read-only. Unless, you are sure that you want to make the item obsolete everywhere, then work up from inventory level, to item/organization level and then eventually to item level. With all the validations that are being performed you may need to do that anyway. Remember also, that OBSOLETE status is irreversible.

Another reason for working up from the inventory level when changing status to OBSOLETE is that there is no enforced rolldown for the pending obsolescence (PENDOBS) status. You could be at PENDOBS at the item level and ACTIVE at Item/Organization level and PENDING or PLANNING at some storerooms at the Inventory level. Changing to OBSOLETE at the Item level will also make OBSOLETE at all other levels assuming that it gets through the validations. 

The other point to note is that while there is a logical order of statuses, PENDING, PLANNING, ACTIVE, PENDOBS, OBSOLETE and there are multiple levels, item, item/organization, inventory, there is nothing which enforces that logical order between levels. An item can be at PENDING status on Item Master, and ACTIVE at the Item/Organization level and PLANNING at an inventory storeroom belonging to the organization at ACTIVE state for the same item.

There is freedom to change from one status to another, so it is easy to arrive at a position which might seem illogical. The answer is, control who can change status at each level, particularly in Item Master, Service Items and Tools applications. There is control in Security Groups for both Item and Item/Organization status changes for each of the five statuses, 10 signature options in all in the Item Master application, similarly for Service Items and Tools applications. Making any of these signature options inactive will mean that the associated status does not appear in the change status drop down list.

The View Status History actions are available from the Item, Item/Organization and Inventory levels. When changing status, the data is written to separate tables, ITEMSTATUS, ITEMORGSTATUS and INVSTATUS respectively.

In the Invoice application an item at OBSOLETE status can be selected but you receive the warning:

• BMXAA5700W – This item is in Obsolete status. Do you wish to proceed?

Using the Yes button will add the item to the invoice. Beware then, Standard Services cannot be hidden from use on an invoice without using some configuration.

I performed tests on changing status with Special Order (SP) items and there are no differences between these and the other item categories, stocked (STK) or non-stocked (NS). 

The last point I want to make with regard to items and inventory, there is no option for Delete Item. Changing status through to Obsolete status is how you effectively hide or make the item unusable.