Good morning and welcome to Maximo Bite Size, a podcast on the functionality of Maximo Manage. Today is the first episode in the series on Maximo Mobile and the Role Based Applications and we will be discussing Inventory Receiving. 

But first what is the difference between Maximo Mobile and the Role Based Applications? Well, there are probably plenty of differences, but I look at it simply, the role-based applications are designed to be online and work from a browser, and the Maximo Mobile applications run from an application on your mobile or tablet and are designed to work offline. A mobile user can of course use both Maximo Mobile and the equivalent Role Based Application as some features will require being online. 

On Maximo Secrets you’ll find some detailed articles on each application with plenty of screenshots. The Role Based Application articles use an iPad in landscape mode and the Maximo Mobile articles will use an iPhone in portrait mode.

The Inventory Receiving application supports two functional areas of Maximo. The first is called Inventory Receiving and in desktop Maximo this is the equivalent of the Receiving application and the Material Receipts tab, this is the focus of this podcast episode. The second part which will be another episode in this podcast series is called Shipment Receiving which occurs when an Inventory Usage record of Usage Type TRANSFER goes through to the state of SHIPPED and it is received in the application Shipment Receiving, it is used for inter-storeroom transfers.

When navigating through to the Inventory Receiving part of the application you will see a set of records which are based on a query of open purchase orders, these are at approved (APPR) state where the Receipt Status is NONE or PARTIAL. If you have a one-line PO which does not require an inspection, then it will disappear from your Open PO query as soon as you receive it, because the Receipt Status would have now been changed to COMPLETE.

Another aspect of the query, which is defined in the Object Structures application and the object structure is called MAXAPIPO, is that it queries POs where there is one PO line that references a storeroom which is defined as the user’s Default Storeroom for Self-Service Requisitions, which is a field that will be found in their Profile – Default Information. If no storeroom has been set up, then you will get an error message. This field is also used with other inventory-based Role Based Applications.

An implementation for a Maximo Mobile or Role Based Application may have multiple queries. The problem with this default query is that it would not allow you to receive purchase orders which contained only direct issue or material lines.

In the Open POs page, there is a search capability with a scanning function that uses the camera on your device, this could be used if you have instructed your vendors to send a barcode of your purchase order number with their shipping note or invoice, otherwise I doubt it will be used. The search can only be made on fields which will be found on each PO card, but it also works for the words NONE or PARTIAL, the receipt statuses.

Each PO Card has fields for the purchase order number, its description, the vendor code and their name, the ship to attention and there is information on the number of PO lines. On the right-hand side is the description of the receipt status, No Parts Received, or Some Parts Received, this is the description provided for NONE or PARTIAL respectively. There are also a series of buttons on each card which from left to right are Receive, Inspect, Create Assets, Return and Receipts and some of these will show the number of PO lines or Material Receipt transactions at this state.

When you open for the first time a newly created PO, then only the Receive button will be enabled, the other buttons become enabled depending on whether there are receipt transactions that need to be inspected, assets serialised, or items or assets to be returned. The Receipts button will be enabled as soon as the first receipt has occurred for the PO. 

At the end of each PO card is a chevron button which takes you to a screen with the same set of buttons plus an additional one for Void. When you are working to receive, inspect and then serialise assets you can do this from this screen without having to return to the Open PO query page.

The Receive screen is where you change the quantity received. There is a pencil button which will take you to an Edit screen which by default has a field for Packing Slip # and Comments. The Edit screen can change depending on the PO line being received, for example a condition enabled item will show the condition code (with a lookup), a lot item will show three fields for the Lot Number, Shelf Life (Days) and an Expiration Date. If the item being received has an image, then this will be shown at the top of the Edit screen.

The Inspect screen has two quantity fields for Accept and Reject. If you are going to reject a quantity do reduce the Accept quantity first, this has been defaulted to the quantity received, if you don’t you will receive an error message when you enter the Reject quantity as the sum of the two quantity fields cannot be greater than the received quantity. The Inspect screen also has an Edit button and its Edit screen has two fields for the Rejection Code and Comments. Note, the Comments field in both the Receive and Inspect screens is the same field, you do not see your receipt comment, and if you reject with a comment during inspection, then the receipt comment will be overwritten.

The Create Assets screen will have one record for the quantity inspected, so if you received and inspected a quantity of three there would be three lines. There are two fields for the Asset Number and Serial Number, there is no Edit button on this screen. If you use the blue Save button without entering an asset number, then the assets will still be created and the autokey will be used to provide the asset numbers.

The Return screen has two pages for the return of Materials and return of Assets. In both cases the screens open with the received items or assets that could be returned. When returning materials, you enter the quantity being returned. There are fields for the item number and description and the actual date of the original transaction from which the item is being returned. Before using the blue Save button you select the item(s) being returned.

When returning assets, the asset number and its description is shown but there is a down arrow button which opens further information, displaying the Rotating Item, Storeroom from which you are returning the asset, the asset’s Serial Number and the Transaction Date when the asset entered the Storeroom. Before using the blue Save button you select the asset(s) being returned. After you return an asset, its status will change to DECOMMISSIONED and the Returned to Vendor field on the Assets application will now be set.

The Receipts screen is a view onto the material receipt transactions made against the PO. For a PO with many lines, you will find that you will scroll vertically, but there is a search field that can be used. There are fields showing the item, description, the quantity which may be negative for a return, the receipt status (WINSP, WASSET, COMP), the transaction type (RECEIPT, RETURN, TRANSFER, etc) and the actual date when the transaction was made. The actual date is used for the ordering of the records so that the earliest receipt appears first, and the last transaction made is at the bottom of the list. What is missing from the screen is the PO Line Number which would be useful for searching, but only if it was prefixed with a hash (#).

The Void screen is the last one and is not shown on the Open PO query page, you must navigate to it using the chevron button on the right-hand side of this page. A void reverses a previous receipt and is used when you have made a mistake. When the screen opens you are presented with all the receipts for the purchase order that could be voided. There are fields for the item number, description, received quantity and actual date the receipt was made. There are no fields to indicate the lot number or condition code of the item. 

The Void screen like most of these six screens has a box on the right-hand side for you to select before using the blue Save button. The screen where you do not get this is the Create Assets screen. The Receipts screen which shows the Material Receipt transactions and is entirely read-only, also has the right-hand box on each record, although it has no function at all. When you save you get a message with a green background saying, for example ‘1 material(s) received’. You may also receive a message with a blue background if there is a follow-up action to perform, for example ‘1 material(s) are required to inspect’. The number in these messages does change to reflect the quantity of lines received, to be inspected, etc.

In the Maximo Mobile 8.11 version which I tested in October 2023 there is no functionality yet for receipt tolerances and there are some fields which I think are missing which are most likely to lead to configuration, for example the default bin where the item will be received, and where after receiving it needs to be placed. I think also when receiving the item, it would be useful to see other details of the item or PO line, for example manufacturer, model, catalog #. The requested by and the work order number would be useful for the PO lines which are direct issue, but then I think the original design concept for this application was just to support storeroom receipts.

I hope you enjoyed this podcast and I look forward to seeing you back on the next episode when we will spend time on ???. 

The music is called ??? from the talented group called TrackTribe, please check them out on TrackTribe.Com, all one word.

Until another time, goodbye.

Related Links

Inventory Receiving (RBA) Inventory Receiving