Overview of Oracle Installed Base

This chapter covers the following topics:

Summary of Oracle Installed Base

Oracle Installed Base is an item instance life cycle tracking application that facilitates enterprise-wide life cycle item management and tracking capabilities. Oracle Installed Base tracks an item from the time that it is received in inventory, in work in process, in projects, at customer sites, and throughout the return and repair process. It records a history of changes to tracked items and supports the creation and maintenance of Oracle Installed Base configurations.

Oracle Installed Base is a centralized repository of information for an item instance and its tracking details including location, status, ownership, party relationships, account relationships, contact relationships, configuration data, and the change history of customer items or corporate assets. The application includes drill-down capability to obtain details of inventory, work in process, and order management transactions affecting an item's tracking attributes.

Additionally, Oracle Installed Base provides links to detailed information from contracts, service requests, service orders initiated for an item instance, and counters associated with the item instance.

Note: Oracle Installed Base support is subject to rules, conditions, and limitations discussed in various sections of this guide. These are not exhaustive. Although most situations are covered, it is not possible to specify all rules, conditions, and limitations with regard to the functionality of the application.

Features of Oracle Installed Base

Functional Overview

Oracle Installed Base is capable of tracking serialized and non-serialized item instances including:

Oracle Installed Base leverages existing Oracle applications and is fully integrated with the Oracle E-Business Suite.

Key features and functionality include the following:

Instance Maintenance

Oracle Installed Base provides you the ability to create, update, query, and copy instances using Oracle Installed Base user interfaces and through the integration with other applications. These include Oracle applications such as:

Use Oracle Asset Tracking to create and maintain assets. Oracle Asset Tracking provides you with the ability to track the location, status, addresses, contacts, business party relationships, inter-instance relationships, extended pricing, instance attributes, and other item instance attributes.

Instance maintenance can be directly performed using robust HTML query, search, and edit capabilities.

Support for Inventory Transactions

Oracle Installed Base supports creation and update of item instances and attributes for transactions originating in Oracle Inventory. These include internal transactions such as internal order shipments and subinventory transfers, discrete manufacturing transactions such as WIP component issue and WIP component return, and external transactions such as sales order shipments to external customers. Oracle Installed Base also provides instance maintenance for transactions involving Oracle Purchasing, Contact Center, and e-Biz Center.

Note: Oracle strongly recommends that you set up the Inventory Installed Base tracking parameter at the item master level. You must select items as Trackable for all organizations.

Similarly, you must set lot, locator, revision, serial, and others at the master level.

The Oracle Installed Base User's Guide provides a comprehensive list of all transactions that Oracle Installed Base supports, including those that are triggered by Oracle Inventory.

Centralized Repository of Information

These are examples of information stored in the Oracle Installed Base centralized repository:

Customer Installed Base

Some business segments need to track customer-owned item instances only. To support this requirement, an additional option has been provided for Installed Base tracking. With this option, you can avoid the present default behavior that tracks both enterprise and customer instances.

Warning: This feature is not available for Oracle Asset Tracking and Oracle Enterprise Asset Management customers.

Use the Only Customer Owned Instances option to restrict tracking to only customer-owned instances and still perform after-sales transactions such as RMAs and Field Service returns on the Installed Base instances.

By enabling this option, the Installed Base tracking restricts itself from creating any internal instances, and the lifecycle of the Installed Base tracked item starts only on order fulfillment to external customers.

Multiple Party and Account Relationships

With Oracle Installed Base, you can relate an item instance to multiple entities called parties. The parties can be different party types. For example, an item instance may have been Sold To party A, but is now Owned By party B. It may be Shipped To party C, and so on. The entities may have type values such as Party, Vendor, Employee. For each party type, you can define relationship types such as Owner and Service Provider. Each party can have multiple accounts.

This feature supports the multiple business relationships required by business globalization and outsourcing requirements.

Configuration Support and Instance-to-Instance Relationships

Oracle Installed Base provides the ability to store configurations of item instances and to access the history of a configuration.

This functionality includes creating and maintaining configurations. It builds hierarchical configurations at WIP assembly completion by formulating Component-Of relationships between instances. It supports parent-child bill of material (BOM) structure at the point of sales order shipment.

Multiple types of relationships between instances are supported. For example, Oracle Installed Base connects two or more components in a communications network by creating Connected-To relationships between item instances. This capability reflects Oracle Installed Base integration with the Oracle Telecommunications Service Ordering solution of Oracle Configurator.

Open Interface Mass Load and Mass Update Capabilities

Oracle Installed Base provides the Open Interface feature to mass load item instances. This is useful during initial conversion and for synchronizing multiple environments. It can be used to create new instances or to update existing item instances. It can also be used to create or update relationships between item instances including replacing instances in Component-Of configurations.

Additionally, Oracle Installed Base provides Mass Update feature. With this feature you can select a group of item instances based on a set of search criteria and invoke attribute changes for all item instances in the group. For example, you can quickly and conveniently change ownership, location or contacts for a group of instances. The transactions can also be set to run on a future date.

System Grouping of Item Instances

Oracle Installed Base enables you to group item instances under a construct called a system. For example, all copier machines on the fifth floor of a building or those belonging to a specific department can be grouped under a system. You can define, view, and invoke specific changes to item instances within the system or grouping. Additionally, you can build hierarchies of systems, and link multiple systems in parent-child hierarchies or relationships.

Extended Attributes

Oracle Installed Base offers the flexibility of multi-level, user definable additional, or extended, attributes associated with an item instance to fit a variety of business requirements. The application also stores pricing attributes for an item instance and makes them available for subsequent use by Oracle E-Business Suite applications including Oracle Service Contracts. Oracle Service Contracts uses service programs or extended warranties where pricing is dependent on the attributes of an item.

Integration Points and Dependencies for Oracle Installed Base

Integration with Oracle Autonomous Database (ADB)

If you are using the Oracle Autonomous Database in your environment, you must complete the following tasks:

  1. 1. Set the csi debug log path for CSI.

  2. Set the cse debut log path for CSE.

  3. Enter the directory that points to EBS_APPLPTMP. This action will create the logs in the correct tier.

  4. Run the following concurrent program to access the debug/log files:

    Concurrent Program: CSI/CSE Debug/Log Files from DB to MT

To run the concurrent program:

  1. Navigate to Installed Base Administrator > Others > Requests, and the Installed Base Requests window appears.

  2. Select Transfer CSi/CSE Debug/Log Files from DB to MT in the Name field.

  3. Click Schedule to enter a specific timeframe during which you want to run the concurrent program. The default value is As Soon as Possible.

  4. Verify that the Save All Output Files check box is selected in the Upon Completion region.

  5. Click Submit.

    This concurrent program will transfer the files to the application tier and files will be moved.

See Using Oracle Autonomous Database on Shared Exadata Infrastructure for additional information.

Integration with the Oracle E-Business Suite

Oracle Installed Base has the following integration points within the Oracle E-Business Suite:

Note the following points with regard to integration with TCA and Oracle Quoting:

The application uses the Interface Install Base Lines concurrent program to communicate transactional updates from Oracle Inventory to Oracle Installed Base.

See Schedule the Interface Install Base Lines Concurrent Program for more information.

Inventory Receipt and Purchase Order Receipt

If an item is set up as trackable in Oracle Installed Base, then an inventory receipt such as miscellaneous receipt or PO receipt causes the creation or update of an Oracle Installed Base instance. When the inventory transaction occurs, a record is inserted into the Installed Base interface table. The Install Base lines concurrent program processes the lines in the interface table and updates or creates IB instances.

Note: If the Install Base Lines concurrent program is run manually, the User ID will represent the resource who created or modified the transaction. If the concurrent program is run automatically, then the User ID represents the resource who generated the process.

For non-serialized items, if an instance already exists at the same subinventory location, then it is added to the quantity of the instance with the same subinventory location. If an instance for the same item subinventory location does not exist, then a new instance is created.

If an item is serial controlled at receipt or is predefined, then an instance is created for it with quantity of 1 with location in the subinventory location.

If an item is serial controlled at order issue, then it is treated as a non-serialized controlled item in inventory. The item receives a serial number at order-issue creation time only.

Inventory Transactions

If an Oracle Installed Base trackable item has been received into inventory and an Oracle Installed Base instance has been created, then any subsequent inventory transactions will be tracked in Oracle Installed Base as well.

Note: Oracle strongly recommends that you set up the Inventory Installed Base tracking parameter at the item master level. You must select items as Trackable for all organizations.

Similarly, you must set lot, locator, revision, serial, and others at the item master level.

For an inventory transfer or move order transaction, the location of an instance is updated to reflect the new location for a serialized item. For a non-serialized item, the quantity of the instance at the From location is subtracted, and the quantity of the instance at the To location is increased by the quantity being moved. If the item is issued to a WIP job, then the location of the item reflects the WIP job number. If it is issued to an asset, then it reflects the asset number. If it is issued to a project/task, then the location of the instance shows the project and task number.

Refer to Oracle Asset Tracking documentation for more details.

The Oracle Inventory transactions associated with Oracle Installed Base appear in Appendix A: Oracle Transactions Interfacing with Oracle Installed Base, Oracle Installed Base Implementation Guide,

The WIP inventory-sourced transactions are described in further detail in WIP Integration.

We recommend that the Interface Install Base Lines Concurrent Manager is running so that the interface lines are processed periodically and users can view the most current inventory transactions.

Note: If the Install Base Lines concurrent program is run manually, the User ID will represent the resource who created or modified the transaction. If the concurrent program is run automatically, then the User ID represents the resource who generated the process.

Oracle Order Management Integration

The integration with Oracle Order Management is the only integration that implements the functionality of the Oracle Installed Base Transaction Details window. This includes RMA receipt, sales order shipment, and sales order fulfillment. The functionality of the Oracle Installed Base Transaction Details window is not supported for internal sales orders.

RMA Receipt

An RMA return receipt generates an inventory receipt material transaction in the Inventory application. If a serialized item never existed in Oracle Installed Base, then the RMA receipt creates a new instance with the location in inventory. For non-serialized items, first create the instance with the required quantity using the Oracle Installed Base user interface and then reference it in the RMA. If the instance exists in Oracle Installed Base, then this return can cause a change of location to inventory and other changes such as status and owner as specified in the transaction type setup used to process the transaction.

In the sales return line, installation detail can be invoked to specify additional details for this instance and other related instances for this update to Oracle Installed Base.

Oracle Installed Base supports the Order Management RMA fulfillment process for non-shippable items under specific terms and conditions. Important conditions include the following:

Oracle Installed Base supports RMA fulfillment by one or more of the following events:

Instance attributes are updated based on the associated transaction types in the transaction details window.

Refer to Use of Transaction Details for information on the use of transaction detail. To use transaction detail, the transaction types being used have to be previously set up. Refer to Set Up Transaction Subtypes for instructions to set up transaction types.

Sales Order Shipment

For an Oracle Installed Base trackable, shippable item, a shipping transaction generates an inventory issue transaction in the Oracle Inventory application.

For a serialized item already in inventory, this transaction causes a change of location and ownership, depending on the transaction type being used.

For items serialized at sales order issue, the first-time shipment transaction causes the creation of a new instance with the serial number. If it has trackable components, then the component instances and component-of configuration for these components are built as well.

For non-serialized items, the quantity is subtracted from the instance at the inventory location, and a new instance is created with the customer ownership and location.

Configuration Creation at Sales Order Shipment

Oracle Installed Base supports the following Oracle Order Management integration based configurations:

It is important to note that items must be Oracle Installed Base trackable, and non-shippable items must be fulfilled to be represented in a configuration.

BOM Based Configurations

Key Rule: Configurations are built only for a parent item instance with Quantity = 1.

Oracle Installed Base supports the creation of BOM based configurations at initial shipment. Component-of relationships are created between trackable parent and component instances.

Notes Regarding PTO and ATO Models

The creation of a PTO model is supported as in previous versions of Oracle Installed Base. At the time of sales order line processing, Oracle Configurator enables the selection of optional items to be put into the PTO model. As a result, additional sales order lines are created for the mandatory and optional items. If they are Oracle Installed Base trackable, then at the time of sales order shipment, instances of the top model, the trackable components, and the component-of relationships are created in Oracle Installed Base. The PTO model need not be serialized controlled.

In all cases, at the sales order line for a sales order, installation detail can be invoked to specify additional details for this instance and other related instances, for this update to Oracle Installed Base. Refer to Use of Transaction Details for information on the use of installation detail.

To use the installation detail, the transaction types being used have to be previously set up. Refer to Setting Up Transaction Subtypes for instructions on setting up transaction types.

The creation of an ATO model is supported as well. At the time of sales order line processing, Configurator enables the selection of optional items to be put into the ATO model. Then a WIP job can be created for the configured item to be built in WIP. At the time of WIP assembly completion, the configured item instance and its configuration are created with the location in inventory. When it is shipped, the location and ownership will be changed to that of the customer. The ATO model need not be serialized controlled.

Sales Order Fulfillment

Oracle Installed Base supports sales order line fulfillment of shippable or non-shippable, Oracle Installed Base trackable items.

Fulfillment of an order line invokes the Oracle Installed Base interface and appropriately creates or updates Oracle Installed Base item instances.

Note: If the Install Base Lines concurrent program is run manually, the User ID will represent the resource who created or modified the transaction. If the concurrent program is run automatically, then the User ID represents the resource who generated the process.

Note: Concurrent programs used to process the order lines are:

Configuration Creation at Sales Order Fulfillment

Oracle Installed Base supports creation of the following configurations based on integration with Oracle Order Management:

Key Rule: Configurations are only built for a parent item instance with Quantity = 1.

Oracle Installed Base supports the creation of BOM-based configurations at fulfillment. Component-of relationships are created between trackable parent and component instances.

In all cases, at the sales order line for a sales order, transaction detail can be invoked to specify additional details for this instance and other related instances for this update to Oracle Installed Base. Refer to Use of Transaction Details for information on the use of transaction details.

To use the transaction detail, the transaction subtypes being used must have been previously set up. Refer to Setting Up Transaction Subtypes for instructions to set up transaction subtypes.

Ordering Process for End Customers and Partners

Oracle Installed Base is integrated with the Oracle Order Management end-customer or partner ordering process, and information that is specific to end customers can be automatically captured in Oracle Installed Base from sales orders.

You set up order management default values to specify Oracle Installed Base ownership and the current and installed location in sales orders.

Oracle Installed Base populates the owner, owner account, current location, and the installed location in the transaction detail, based on the order management defaults or entries in the sales order line.

Following sales order fulfillment, these values are appropriately reflected in Oracle Installed Base for an item instance.

The owner/account can come from the sold-to party/account or the end-user/account, the current location can come from the shipped-to location, end-user location, sold-to location, or deliver-to location, the installed location can come from shipped-to location, end-user location, sold-to location, or deliver-to location.

You can choose items to track only after order fulfillment if the tracking of inventory transactions is not important for your business. The control can be set at the item level in the Item Master, or at the Install Parameters level.

WIP Integration

Oracle Installed Base supports and reflects the majority of inventory transactions sourced from WIP jobs and WIP transactions including component-of configuration creation at WIP assembly completion.

WIP assembly completion creates a receipt and a subsequent transaction in Oracle Inventory. The Oracle Installed Base integration point with WIP is strictly through the inventory material transaction, not through any internal WIP transactions.

See Inventory Transactions for more information.

Assembly Completion and Allocation

The creation of Oracle Installed Base configurations in the context of WIP integration is determined by several variables including auto allocate parameter, genealogy enabled, single versus multiple job assembly quantity, serial control, trackable components, and others.

In general configurations are created subject to Rule 1 below.

Rule 1

For auto allocate = 'Y' and genealogy not enabled, configurations are built based on job requirements. Generally, excess component quantity is not attached to a configuration. Excess quantity is only attached if there is no job requirement.

Other considerations include the following:

For assembly quantity = 1, configurations are created and modified based on issued component quantities. An exception is the following repair/upgrade scenario: If item/serial number A is issued to a job and job completion creates the same item/serial number or the same item with a new serial number B, then the original serial number A is not created as a component of itself (original serial number A or new serial number B).

For multi-quantity assembly jobs, configuration creation is governed by the Auto Allocate install parameter: Auto Allocate = 'Y' and genealogy not enabled.

For serialized components:

For non-serialized components:

For serialized components:

For non-serialized components:

At the time of sales order shipment, the ownership and location are changed to that of the customer, depending on the transaction being used. Key supported WIP transactions include:

Support for Internal Sales Orders

The internal sales order is one of the means to transfer items between internal organizations. Oracle Installed Base supports the internal order process subject to specific rules and conditions. It updates item instances for internal order transactions including internal order pick, internal order in-transit shipment, internal order direct shipment and internal order in-transit receipts.

The key condition affecting Oracle Installed Base support for internal sales orders requires the selection of the Oracle Inventory Oracle Installed Base tracking parameter at item master level. Items must be selected as Trackable for all organizations. Similarly, lot, locator, revision, and others must be set at the master level. Generally Oracle Installed Base supports organization-level serial control combinations provided by Oracle Inventory. Specific conditions such as serialized at receipt item in Org A to serialized at sales order issue item in Org B are not supported.

In general, Oracle Installed Base updates the following item attributes in the internal sales order process.

Serialized Items

Inventory Location attributes (Organization ID, Sub-inventory, Location, Locator, Lot) are appropriately updated to reflect the transferred organization.

Non-Serialized Items

Instances may be created and/or updated (quantity decreased or increased) appropriately based on whether instances exist, negative quantities are allowed and so on.

In-Transit Internal Order Shipments

Direct Internal Order Shipments

Instance usage and location type are updated to 'In-Inventory' subject to serial or no-control rules.

Inter-Organization Transfers

These generally are subject to the same rules and processes listed earlier in this section.

Asset Integration

For information about asset integration, refer to Oracle Asset Tracking Implementation Guide and Oracle Asset Tracking User's Guide.

Project Integration

For information about project integration, refer to Oracle Asset Tracking Implementation Guide and Oracle Asset Tracking User's Guide.

Use of Transactions Details

The Transaction Details window is used to capture additional information that is used to update the instance, an RMA return line, and a sales order line.

The Transaction Details can be activated on the sales order line window by clicking Actions and selecting Installation Details. For a full description of this window, refer to Using the Order Management Transaction Details Window in Oracle Installed Base User's Guide and online help.