A rotating item is an inventory item with a current balance where the instances of the item are tracked individually as serialised assets – a rotating asset. The term “rotating” is used because you are tracking the serialised assets from the storeroom, to an operating locationA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More, then to a repair shop and back to a storeroom ready to be issued again – rotating stock, it is issued, and eventually returned to be issued again. The balances of a rotating item are controlled by the movement of rotating assets in and out of the storeroom.

For example, PUMP100 is marked as Rotating in the Item Master application. The Rotating checkbox is found in the right-hand column under the Status field. 

If you go to the Assets application and query on PUMP100 in the Rotating Item column of the List tab, you will find several rotating assets some of which exist in the CENTRAL storeroom, others exist in operating locationsA location with a location type of OPERATING. More like BR430 and BR450, and asset 11470 will be found in the REPAIR location.

A rotating item has several characteristics which are different to that of an item which is not marked as rotating, a non-rotating item. We will be discussing these differences in this and other related articles. But we will start by examining the checkbox “Rotating?”. 

A non-rotating item can be made into a rotating item, but only if the balance is zero. In the Item Master application if the Rotating field is left unchecked it will become read-only as soon as there is a balance in a storeroom, and the item must have reached ACTIVE state in the storeroom to add the balance. If you deplete the balance to zero, the check box will be enabled again. 

For a rotating item it is a little different, as soon as an asset references the rotating item, the rotating checkbox on Item Master application becomes read-only, the rotating asset does not have to exist in the storeroom. The “Rotating?” field is enabled again if there is no asset that references the rotating item. The status of the asset plays no part in this, a decommissioned rotating asset that references a rotating item will still have a read-only “Rotating?” checkbox on the Item Master application.

Asset – Change Item Number

You can change an existing asset to a rotating asset by associating a rotating item with it. The action Change Item Number is used, it displays the existing value of the Rotating Item field in the “Old Item” field and allows you to select a rotating item in the “New Item” field. If the rotating item is condition enabled, you can select the Condition Code.

The same action can be used to:

• Change the rotating item of a rotating asset to a new item value
• Turn a rotating asset into a non-rotating asset by leaving the “New Item” field blank.

You cannot turn a rotating asset into a non-rotating asset if the asset exists in a storeroom location, you will receive the error message “BMXAA0092E – Item field is empty. Only rotating assets can be defined in an inventory location.”

Creating Storeroom Balances for Rotating Items

You add a rotating item to a storeroom in the same way you would do for consumables and non-serialised spare parts used on assets, by using the action “Add Items to Storeroom”.

The first part of this action opens a dialog which asks what storeroom and site to add the item to. A second dialog opens, but here the Current Balance field is read-only, and it is not dependent on the value of the Issue Cost Type if you were wondering. Issue Cost Type is a big enough subject to warrant its own article.

On the Inventory application if you use the New Row button on the Inventory Balances table window you can enter the bin number, but all other fields including the Current Balance are read-only.

So how do you create a balance of a rotating item? There are a few choices:

• Data Load. This is the answer I hear most, because it is the one performed at the start of a project when you are loading your assets in the first place. The assets being loaded have the rotating item reference and no location. The action Move/Modify Assets is then used to move the assets into the storeroom.
• Create a Purchase Order with Charge To Storeroom. During the receiving process of a rotating item the Inspection Status will move to WASSET – Waiting for Serialization. The action Receive Rotating Items is used to provide the asset numbers for the newly received assets. If a quantity of 5 is received, then 5 asset numbers will need to be provided. There is an Autonumber button. It is only after this action that the current balance in the storeroom is incremented with the number of assets received.
• Manual creation of rotating assets. The assets are manually created in the Assets application. The first one is created against the storeroom and references the rotating item, then the Duplicate Asset action is used to create additional assets which need to be saved, before using the Duplicate Asset action a second time. You then duplicate to the number required for the storeroom.
• Use an Asset Template. This is my personal favourite as it allows you to set up other characteristics, the spare parts, meters and Master PMs. There is a hidden field for the Rotating Item which needs to be configured onto the Asset Templates application. For an asset template at ACTIVE status you can then use the action “Generate New Assets” to generate as many new assets as you need. After generating the assets, you then use the action Move/Modify Assets from the Assets application to move the assets into the required storeroom. The Generate New Assets dialog does not allow you to select a storeroom location. If you have a prefix/suffix for asset numbers, I try to discourage this, then the Generate New Assets application allows you to create the assets with a prefix or suffix.

Inventory Adjustments for Rotating Items

You cannot change the current balance of a rotating item. When you use the Inventory Adjustments action – Current Balance – you will receive the following error message “BMXAA1799E – A current balance adjustment cannot be performed on a rotating item.”

You cannot perform a physical count adjustment on a rotating item. When you use the Inventory Adjustments action – Physical Count – you will receive the following error message “BMXAA1804E – A physical count adjustment cannot be performed on a rotating item.” 

You may physically count the number of a rotating item in a storeroom but if there is a difference between that counted and the current balance then it is a matter of understanding which rotating asset is actually missing from the storeroom and then changing the status of the asset to MISSING. At some later date if the asset is not found then you would reduce the current balance by issuing or transferring the asset, but the method used would need to financially account for this, which will involve debiting the storerooms shrinkage account by the value of the asset.

While the Reconcile Balances action will open a dialog box, using OK doesn’t actually perform anything. If there is no physical count adjustment, then there is no balance to reconcile.

A Standard Cost Adjustment or an Average Cost Adjustment can be performed if the Issue Cost Type is STANDARD or AVERAGE. If the default Issue Cost Type for non-capitalized rotating items is set to “Asset Cost” then neither of these adjustment actions will be available to be used, in this case the Issue Cost Type will be set to ASSET. The Issue Cost Type default is set by the Inventory Costs action in the 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.