Purpose: Use this screen to define whether a company will fulfill orders from another company's inventory.
Yes/No field: Select this field if you wish to use inventory sharing, which allows inventory to be shared across multiple companies. For example, one company might maintain the actual inventory in its warehouse, and other companies point to the warehouse in this company for inventory fulfillment.
When this field is selected, the Sharing warehouse and Shared company/warehouse fields appear on the Create, Change, or Display Warehouse screens.
You can use this feature only to share inventory with warehouses in other companies; you cannot share inventory with other warehouses within the same company.
Company and warehouse records must be established for each company using this system to fulfill orders.
Leaving this field unselected indicates that this company maintains its own on-hand inventory.
Setup for sharing the inventory in a company with one or more other companies is described in the table below.
Setup |
Example |
System control value: Select this system control value in all companies to participate in inventory sharing, including both the company where you actually maintain the inventory and the company(ies) to share the inventory. |
Select this system control value in company 1 (shared company, where you actually maintain the inventory) and company 2 (sharing company). |
Shared warehouse: In the warehouse in the shared company, select the Sharing warehouse field. Do not set the Shared company/warehouse in the sharing company. |
Warehouse 10 is the actual warehouse in company 1. Set the Sharing warehouse flag in warehouse 10 of company 1. |
Sharing warehouse(s): In the sharing company(ies): Set the Shared company/warehouse fields for the virtual warehouse which corresponds to the actual warehouse. Leave the Sharing warehouse field unselected. Note: You should use the same warehouse number for the warehouse in the shared company and the virtual warehouse(s) in the sharing company(ies). |
Warehouse 10 of company 2 is a virtual warehouse. In warehouse 10 of company 2, set the Shared company/warehouse to 1 and 10. |
Locations: Create the same location(s) in the actual warehouse in the shared company and the virtual warehouse in the sharing company. |
Create location A010101 in warehouse 10 of company 1 and warehouse 10 of company 2. |
Items: Create the same item(s) in the shared company and in the sharing company, with consistent item warehouse and item location records across the companies. |
Item AB100 has a default warehouse of 10 and primary location of A010101 in both company 1 and company 2. |
Reserving Inventory Across Companies
Each sharing company points to the shared company when determining available quantity, on-hand quantity, and reserved quantity. For example, if 20 units of the item are reserved on orders in company 1, and 15 units are reserved on orders in company 2, the total reserved quantity displayed in both companies is 35 (20 + 15). Information on availability is displayed in the sharing company using inventory inquiries such as Inquiring into Item Availability (DIAV) and Using Inventory Inquiry (DINI).
In order entry: When you enter an order for a shared item in a sharing company, the system reserves the item in the shared company.
Backorders: If a shared item is backordered, the backorder quantity increases in both the shared and the sharing companies. When you process an inventory transaction that increases the on-hand quantity, such as receiving a purchase order, the system allocates the units across the backorders using the hierarchy specified by the Use Inventory Sharing Backorder Evaluation (I80) system control value. You can use this system control value to reserve all backorders in the shared company first, and then in sharing companies; or you can reserve backorders strictly on the basis of backorder priority and entered date and time, regardless of the company where you took the order.
Inventory transactions: If you process an inventory transaction in a sharing company, the information is updated in the shared company. For example, if you process a return in company 2, but you actually maintain inventory in company 1, the system updates the inventory information in company 1.
If you use Working with Inventory Transactions (WITI), the system accepts and processes the transaction you enter, but does not display the results on the screen. Similarly, all inventory transaction history (see is available for review in the shared company where you actually maintain the inventory; history is not tracked in the sharing company.
Troubleshooting: Please note the following when working with inventory sharing:
creating locations consistently: If you create and use a location in the sharing (virtual) warehouse that does not exist in the shared warehouse where you actually maintain inventory, the system ignores any transactions related to this location, and does not create an inventory transaction error.
