Last Updated on November 19, 2022 by maximosecrets

The action to “Issue Items from Storeroom” was added to the Assets application because in some industries, particularly in the IT industry, activity is performed in the context of an asset, a PC, laptop or server. The IT technician who is installing software wants to be able to issue items from a software storeroom, while they are setting up the PC, laptop or server, rather than traversing back and forth between applications.

In the Assets application the action “Issue Items from Storeroom” allows you to add multiple items to the asset in one action. There is a Default Table Data area to save having to search for or type the Storeroom for each associated item. This is defaulted from the setting of the users “Default Storeroom for Self-Service Requisitions” that will be found in the user’s profile – Default Information. The default for the SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More field in the Default Table Data is the same site as the asset.

In this example we have selected item MS365 from the SOFTWARE storeroom and have then used the OK button to issue the item. The Asset is still in the storeroom called HARDWARE. 

The action “Issue Items from Storeroom” is not available from the List tab of the Assets application. If you want to issue software to multiple assets there is the Inventory action “Issue Current Item to Multiple Assets”.

When the item is issued it will create a material usage transaction in the MATUSETRANS object/table of issue type ISSUE. It will also create a record for the asset in the Spare Parts table window. In this case item MS365 is a non-rotating item. Notice the IssuedQty field has been incremented. This field is used with the “Maximum Quantity Issued” field on the Item Master application to stop you issuing the same item more than once. If you attempted to issue item MS365 again with the Maximum Quantity Issued for the item set to 1.00, you would receive the error “BMXAA1940E – You have exceeded the item maximum issue quantity for asset 1980.” 

Some software may be serialised and be set as “Rotating?” on the Item Master application. In this case the Rotating Asset field will become mandatory and you will need to choose the asset record. If you haven’t opened the details area for the table window you may receive the error “BMXAA1879E – Please specify a rotating asset.”

This particular example will not work immediately because you cannot issue rotating items to an asset in a storeroom, the asset must exist in a non-inventory locationA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More first. If you pressed OK now you will receive error message “BMXAA1756E – Cannot issue a rotating item VISIO to a storeroom HARDWARE.”.

I have issued the asset 1980 from the HARDWARE storeroom to location OFF402. Now I should be able to issue the VISIO item to asset 1980.

This time the rotating item VISIO was issued and the referenced asset, 1911, is added as a subassembly to the laptop asset, 1980. The MS Visio asset (1911) has been added to the same location as the parent laptop asset, i.e. OFF402. The Item VISIO has the field “Attach to Parent Asset on Issue?” checked, this makes it a subassembly. If this field is unchecked the item will not appear in the Subassemblies or Spare Parts table windows, but you will find it at the same location.  

Note, there is no check against the Maximum Quantity Issued field on Item Master for a rotating item, only for non-rotating items. There is no IssuedQty field in the Subassemblies table window.

If you move the laptop asset 1980 to a different location OFF401 then the Visio asset, 1911, will also be moved to location OFF401.

If we take a closer look at the Associated Items details area for the “Issue Items from Storeroom” dialog:

• The only items that can be selected are of type ITEM, service items and tool items cannot be selected, or entered.
• You can issue items from another storeroom that is part of the same organization by selecting the Site field first.
• The Storeroom Authorization for the user defined in Security Groups – Storerooms tab, will determine the storerooms from which the user will be able to issue.
• The Quantity that you can issue will be dependent on whether negative balances are allowed, you may receive error “BMXAA3496E – Trouble processing item 140-2948. Cause: The balance in the bin will become negative as a result of this transaction..”
• Rotating items, condition enabled items, lot items and kit items can all be selected. 
• Depending on the type of item, the Rotating Asset, Condition Code and Lot fields may become enterable.
• If the item is lotted then the lot with the earliest expiration date is defaulted, as long as the expiry date is not in the past.
• The Actual Date defaults to time now and cannot be in the future, otherwise error message “BMXAA6096E – Actual Date cannot be later than the current system date.” will be displayed.
• The GL Debit Account defaults to the Asset’s GL Account overlaid with the resource code for the commodity group of the item selected. The GL Credit Account is the item’s inventory control account.
• You can specify a work order to charge the issue to, this will change how the GL Debit Account is derived.
• You can specify the person the item is issued to, but only active persons and not those with a status of INACTIVE.
• The default transaction type is ISSUE, but you can change this to RETURN.

You can use the Issue Items from Storeroom dialog to perform a return by changing the Transaction Type field to RETURN. The IssuedQty field on the Spare Parts table window will be reduced by the quantity being returned.

The Inventory Usage application may be a better place to perform a return as this will allow a return to be made linking it to the original issue. There is a lookup which allows you to select a previous issue, to perform the return against, this would be a useful addition to this dialog.

On a side note the action Issue Items from Storeroom could be useful for Transportation assets. In the article “Meter on Items” http://maximosecrets.com/2020/08/06/meter-on-items/ we issued an item to an asset and the quantity issued increments a meter of the asset. The example given in the article was issuing UNLEADED fuel to asset 2190, a Tractor Mower, the issue was made from the Inventory application.

In the above screenshot I have used the same example but using the “Issued Items from Storeroom” action from the Assets application. The message “BMXAA2914E – Meter readings have been saved.” is received when you press the OK button.

Using the action “Manage Meter Reading History” you can see that the issue made at 18/08/20 12:00 also resulted in a delta meter reading for the same quantity as that issued. The Reading Date is the same as the Actual Date of the issue.