One small topic, 10 questions on Kit Items:

Q1 – What is the best description for a kit item?

                  A – Items used with a commodity group of PPE or CLOTHING

                  B – A kit of parts on a rotating asset

                  C – A set of items which are grouped together so that it can be issued as a whole

                  D – Any set of items assembled together in a staging bin waiting to be transported to its destination

Answer – C 

A – A kit item might be a set of clothing or PPE ready to be issued, but kit items are not associated with a particular commodity group.

B – Kit items are defined for storerooms, the term for assets is spare parts.

D – Kit items are assembled, and the kit item can be transferred using staging and shipping, but the main aspect of a kit item is that it is a boxed or bagged set of items with its own balance in a storeroom waiting to be reserved for issue to a work order or transferred to another storeroom, which is why C is a better description than D.

Q2 – What must you do before you mark an item as a kit item?

Answer – You must use the Item Assembly Structure tab to enter the items that make up the kit item. If you have not done this, you receive the error “BMXAA8961E – You must specify an item assembly structure before you indicate that the item is a kit.”.

Q3 – Which, if any, of a rotating item, condition enabled item or a lot item, can a kit item also be?

Answer – None of these – A kit item cannot be marked as rotating or condition enabled, and the lot type will be set to NOLOT, all three fields will be read-only.

Q4 – Can a kit item contain a rotating item, condition enabled item or a lot item?

Answer – No, you will receive the error “BMXAA2089E – Rotating, lotted, and condition-enabled items cannot be added to a kit structure.”

Q5 – Can a kit item contain a service item, and/or a tool item?

Answer – Only a tool item. You can add a service item in the item assembly structure tab (not that it makes any sense) but it will fail because for it to exist in a storeroom every item must have an issue unit and service items do not have issue units and cannot exist in storerooms. A tool item could be fairly useful for a kit, if it were non-rotating.

Q6 – Can a kit item contain other kit items?

Answer – Yes, this was a surprise to me as well. A kit item cannot reference itself in the Item Assembly Structure tab. 

Q7 – What is the valid set of storeroom statuses at which you can assemble a balance of a kit item?

Answer – ACTIVE and PENDOBS. At other statuses you would receive the message similar to “BMXAA5610I – This action is not allowed since the item KITTEST is in Planning, Pending or Obsolete status at inventory level.”

Q8 – If the items in the kit were not already in the storeroom, what would happen if you tried to add the kit item to the storeroom?

Answer – The kit item would be added to the storeroom and you would get the message “BMXAA2043E – Kit components that do not exist in the specified storeroom will be added to it.” Maximo adds all the items to the same storeroom that are part of the kit, if they didn’t already exist.

Q9 – When might you not be able to change the items and quantities in the kit item?

                  A – When the item has been set to ACTIVE state.

                  B – When the item has been set to ACTIVE state and added to a storeroom

                  C – When there is a storeroom balance 

                  D – When there is a storeroom balance and the storeroom status is at ACTIVE state

Answer – D – When the kit item in any storeroom has a balance you will not be able to change the item assembly structure. You would need to disassemble the kits first to get the balance for the kit item down to zero and then change the quantities or amend the included items on the Item Assembly Structure tab in the Item Master application.

A – A kit item can be modified at ACTIVE state.

B – You can change the kit make-up after it has been added to a storeroom.

C – This is true, good answer, but you cannot assemble a balance of the kit unless you are at ACTIVE state.

Q10 – Can a tool item be marked as a kit item?

Answer – No, there is no Item Assembly Structure tab in the Tools application and no “Kit?” check box. A tool item can be a component of a kit item.