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Since different companies have different business rules governing this function, Oracle Service allows you to configure the depot repair process to suit each business' needs. For example, a company that repairs televisions and relies on individual technicians to diagnose and repair televisions can create a sales order after a repair has been diagnosed. In this situation, the company can create a WIP job for a repair after a sales order has been created. Another company that repairs automobiles may want to allow the creation of a sales order for repair work only after the repair job has been completed in WIP and the exact price to be charged to the customer is known. You can then create sales orders after the repair job has been completed. Until then, the technicians are free to change their estimate for repair costs.

Depot repair is tightly integrated with other Oracle applications. Return material authorizations (RMAs) are created in Order Entry/Shipping. Damaged products are received by Oracle Inventory and, once repaired, are shipped back to the customer from Oracle Inventory. Repair jobs are created and processed in Oracle Work in Process. Sales orders for repairs are created by Oracle Service in Order Entry/Shipping, then interfaced to Oracle Receivables for invoicing. Depot repair enables you to manage this complex process easily. It provides you with a consolidated and current view of all products returned for repair enabling you to answer your customer's queries accurately. For any repair line, you can find its latest status, the date it was received, diagnosis, status of the repair job associated with that line, support services associated with the line, estimated repair price, sales order number, and whether the product has been shipped back to the customer.

Depot repair utilizes the installed base to determine the support services covering the returned customer product. If the product is under serial number control, depot repair will automatically link the product to the corresponding record in the installed base, allowing you to view the support services covering the returned product. If not, depot repair will facilitate the definition of a link between the returned product and the corresponding customer product in the installed base. Even if the product being returned by the customer does not exist in the installed base, depot repair still allows you to process the repair line. In this case, the information stored in the installed base, such as service programs associated with customer products, is not available. Therefore, even if your installed base is not current, you can still use depot repair to streamline your repair process.

Often, the damaged product returned by the customer is not repairable or a replacement is needed immediately. Depot repair will enable you to ship a replacement for the damaged product whenever you wish. You can control the amount billed for the replacement. If you have a service request linked to the RMA that created the repair lines, you can consolidate the charges entered for the request and all the repair lines. You can then create one or more sales orders for the charge details.

Repair technicians can use Oracle Service's billing functionality in conjunction with Order Entry/Shipping and Inventory to accomplish tasks such as the following:

• Log labor, material, and expenses incurred while repairing a product in the repair depot

• Ship products once they have been repaired

• Ship replacements for products that cannot be repaired

• Update customer products in the installed base to reflect their current status