Good afternoon and welcome to Maximo Bite Size, a podcast on the functionality of Maximo Manage. Today is the sixth episode in the series on Inventory.

A Lot Item in Maximo is an item with a shelf life, paints, chemicals and gas cylinders fall into this category. Lot item functionality reaches across much of the Inventory functionality of Maximo; balances are held at the lot level in addition to the bin where the item is located. Lot functionality also exists in the receiving process. You track items against lots so that you use the items which will expire first, you may track lot items in case there is a recall from a manufacturer.

In the Item Master application there is a Lot Type field with a default of NOLOT which can be changed to LOT to indicate a lot item. In the MAXDEMO database, Item 11453, a Mechanical Seal, is the only example of a lot item. Tools also have a Lot Type, but Service Items do not, they cannot exist in a storeroom.

A lot item cannot be used in conjunction with the three check boxes Rotating, Condition Enabled, or Kit, they all must be unchecked. A lot item cannot be added as part of a kit as you will receive an error message.

The Lot Type on the Item Master application will be read-only when there is an Inventory Balance record. If you need to change the item from NOLOT to LOT, you need to reduce the inventory balance records to zero and then you should be able to delete the balance records and then change the Lot Type.

When recording a lot Item in the Item Master application, the Inspect on Receipt checkbox should be set, and you should reference the Manufacturer by creating a record on the Vendors tab.

In the Receiving application you should fill out the Manufacturer, it will be copied from the PO Line, and you should enter the Manufacturer Lot field, this is the identifier that will often be found on the manufacturers label. The To Lot field is a Maximo internal Lot Number which is normally set by an autokey. There are two other fields which should be filled as part of receiving, Shelf Life (Days) and Expiration Date. Entering a Shelf Life will calculate the Expiration Date, but entering an Expiration Date will leave the Shelf Life field blank. These two fields become read-only after the record is saved.

Behind the scenes Maximo creates a record in the INVLOT table with a primary key of ITEMNUM, LOTNUM, LOCATION (the storeroom) and SITEID, it is a SiteA structural element of a Maximo database that is used for data separation. More level record. The Lot Number is the internal lot number derived using the autokey. The Manufacturers Lot Number, Shelf Life and Expiration Date (USEBY) are all found in the INVLOT table. Incidentally, a Direct Issue purchase will not record these values, and if it is important to record this, then it is better to make this a non-stocked item and add it to a storeroom, perhaps with a zero Reorder Point, and order it using the Inventory Reorder process, when it is required.

The Inventory Balances table window will show a record with the Lot (the internal lot number), Shelf Life (Days) and Expiration Date. These two fields are modifiable. The Manufacturer’s Lot Number is not shown but it can be configured using the relationship/attribute of INVLOT.MFGLOTNUM.

The View Item Availability dialog has a tab All Lots which shows the Lot Number, Current Balance and Expiration Date taken from the Inventory Balances records. This is another place where you could also display the Manufacturer and Manufacturer’s Lot Number.

In the Inventory application when you issue a lot item, then Maximo automatically selects the Lot number with the earliest expiration date that is still in the future. If there is a Lot number with no expiration date, then this is selected before lot items with an expiration date. With a Transfer, the To Lot will be the same as the From Lot, you can change this, but it is reasonable to assume the same Lot number should be used. The Inventory application does not allow you to split the quantity required across multiple lots.

In the Inventory Usage application if the required quantity to be issued is not satisfied by a single lot number, then the Split Usage Quantity will allow you to split the quantity across multiple bins but not across multiple lots. The assumption Maximo is making is that the reservation requires the quantity to be satisfied from the same lot. You can however create multiple Inventory Usage lines to satisfy a reservation, and this would allow you to fulfil the reservation taking a quantity from more than one lot.

The Inventory Usage application supports the return of a lot item, but the Select Items for Return dialog does not show the Lot number although this could be configured. If the Returned Against Issue is selected, which is the case when you use the Select Items for Return action, then the quantity is returned for the same Bin and Lot.

In the Inventory application and in the Available Balance Summary section when the Expiration Date of a lot is now in the past the Expired Quantity in Stock field will show this quantity. The Quantity Available is reduced by the expired quantity. You cannot issue expired stock.

With a transfer of a lot item across sites of the same organization, then the default is to set the To Lot the same as the From Lot. The autokey is defined at the OrganizationA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing. More level, so this would be expected. The internal lot number will provide you a level of traceability if you allow this default to be used. The Shelf Life and Expiration Date are not copied when transferring across sites, but they are copied when transferring within the same site.

When using the Inventory Usage application to transfer a lot item across sites, the Shelf Life and Expiration Date are copied when using the shipment process, however, the Manufacturer’s Lot Number is not copied. If going straight to complete status and not via staging or shipping, then the Shelf Life and Expiration Date were not copied in the tests performed on Maximo 7.6.1.1. If you are transferring lot items, then you probably need the ability to modify the Manufacturer’s Lot Number and Expiration Date which you can configure on the Inventory Balances table window details.

Note. If you want to track individually a “serialized lot”, for example the receipt of gas canisters, then you cannot use a rotating item. You can create multiple Inventory Balance records and use the Lot number with a suffix, for example 1005-01, 1005-02, 1005-03, etc. While there is a Select Value on the Lot field there is no validation to say that it must already exist, you can overwrite the Lot value with anything you want, but it becomes read-only after save. The standard Lot number field is defined as UPPER(8).

I hope you enjoyed this podcast and I look forward to seeing you back on the next episode when we will discuss Kit Items.

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Until another time, goodbye.

Links

Lot Items – https://maximosecrets.com/2020/08/12/lot-items/