Understanding Lot Management

In PeopleSoft Inventory, the term lot refers to a quantity of inventory items produced as a group or otherwise collected into an identifiable unit. Lots enable your business to identify and monitor batch materials that might have specific restrictions—for example, items that become available or expire on particular dates. To facilitate identification, each group of lot-controlled items is assigned a lot ID number.

Lot control is the process of using procedures such as assigning lot IDs, and tracking parameters such as status and expiration date, for each lot (batch) as it moves through the system. You can track:

  • A single item-lot combination existing in multiple storage locations or multiple item-lot combinations existing in one storage location.

  • Receipt, issue, and shipment activity for lot-controlled items.

  • Lot usage in manufacturing assembly transactions.

Tracking covers the entire life cycle of the lot, from creation to expiration.

To ensure that lot-controlled items are acceptable for fulfillment processing, you must be able to capture accurate information about the various lot control parameters at any given time. The lot management business process in PeopleSoft Inventory enables you to track an item's lot status, availability date, retest date, and expiration date.

When you define an item in the Define Item component, you specify whether it is lot-controlled and enter default lot information for the SetID. You can modify this information for individual business units on the Define Business Unit Item - General: Common page. You maintain more specific information for individual lots on the Lot Control Information page. If you select Allow Auto-Add of New Lots (allow automatic addition of new lots) on the Inventory Definition - Business Unit Options page, the Complete Putaway process (INPPPTWY), the Express Putaway page, the Stock Quantity Update process (INPOPOST), and the Manufacturing Completions process add the necessary information to the Lot Control Information page automatically. If you do not use the automatic option, you must enter information manually before initiating any inventory transactions involving the lot.

Note: Determine whether an item is lot controlled before processing inventory transactions. Once a non-lot-controlled item has been put away, the lot control information is not available for modification. When working with non-lot-controlled items, PeopleSoft Inventory populates the Lot ID field on pages with the defaults established in the installation options but keeps this field hidden.

If you select the Allow Lot Allocation option on the Inventory Definition - Business Unit Options page, you can allocate specific lots for sales orders that you entered in PeopleSoft Order Management or for material stock requests that you entered in PeopleSoft Inventory.

When you receive a lot in PeopleSoft Purchasing, you assign it a lot ID and a lot creation date, plus a lot expiration date (if known). The lot ID is also assigned when you complete a lot in PeopleSoft Manufacturing or receive it in PeopleSoft Inventory. During the Complete Putaway process, PeopleSoft Inventory automatically stores the lot creation date on the Lot Control Information table. If you have defined values for shelf life, availability lead time, and retest lead time on the Define Business Unit Item - Inventory: Shipping/Handling page, the Complete Putaway process calculates the lot's availability, retest, and (if not already assigned) expiration dates.

PeopleSoft Inventory also calculates availability, expiration, and retest dates when you save the Express Putaway page, when you run the Stock Quantity Update process and include new lots, and when you run the Manufacturing Batch and Online Completion processes. These dates are not calculated if they already exist in the system or if there is no value at the business unit level for shelf life, availability lead time, or retest lead time.

For items received through interunit transfer, the Complete Putaway process extracts the following primary lot control attributes from the source business unit: description, lot creation date, retest date, expiration date, status, status type, reason code, warning message, purchase lot, grade, and comments. Items can inherit these attributes under the following conditions:

  • The destination business unit allows the automatic addition of new lots.

  • The lot does not already exist in the destination business unit.

  • The transaction being performed is an interunit transfer receipt.

  • The lot ID is not modified when receiving the interunit transfer.

Note: When putting away interunit transfers, retest and expiration dates are handled differently than when putting away other stock. Interunit transfer attributes are extracted rather than calculated.

You can update a lot's status and availability, retest, and expiration dates at any time on the Lot Control Information page. You can also view these parameters on the Lot Control Information Inquiry page.

PeopleSoft Inventory offers both automated and manual controls to help you manage expiring lots. The two primary resources used for this purpose are:

  • The Lot Retest/Expiration report, which enables you to create a list of lot-controlled items that are due for retesting or are about to expire.

  • The Lot Retest/Expiration workflow, which automatically notifies you when a lot reaches its retest or expiration date.

    This workflow generates a worklist entry indicating that the lot needs to be retested or that it has expired, then transfers you to the Lot Control Information page, where you can update the lot's status and retest and expiration dates.

    Note: PeopleSoft places no constraints on your updates; you can make an expired lot available for picking or shipping simply by changing its expiration date. In addition, the system does not automatically update the lot status for items remaining on the shelf beyond their retest or expiration dates—make this change manually on the Lot Control Information page.

Another control mechanism built into PeopleSoft Inventory is the generation of a warning message at key points during fulfillment processing if you attempt a transaction involving a lot-controlled item before the lot has become available or after it has expired. The following table indicates where and under what circumstances this warning appears.

Important! The warning message is intended to prevent you from shipping unavailable or expired products. The system does not physically prevent you from completing the transactions, even if a lot has expired.

Where Warning Appears

When Warning Appears

Create/Update Stock Request component

Upon saving the component after a lot allocation is performed, if the scheduled ship date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.

Allocate Lots page

Upon saving the page, if the scheduled ship date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.

Picking Plan report

The relevant date appears on the printed report:

  • Availability date: If the scheduled ship date is before the availability date.

  • Expiration date: If the scheduled ship date is after the expiration date.

Note: If you are using an electronic data collection system, these dates (as well as the retest date) are included in the picking extract file. However, the logic to check these lot control parameters during picking, or during acceptance of the picking transactions, does not occur.

Material Picking Feedback page

For push pick plans: Upon saving the page, if the scheduled ship date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.

For pull pick plans: Upon entry of a lot ID, if the scheduled ship date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.

Shipping/Issues component

Upon saving the page, if the scheduled ship date is before the availability date or after the expiration date of a picked lot.

Express Issue page

Upon entry of a lot ID (if using the lookup, the expiration date appears), if the scheduled ship date is before the availability date or after the expiration date when adding a line or saving the page.

Transfers page

Upon saving the page (when transferring lot-controlled stock from a non-WIP to a WIP location), if the current date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.

EZ Transfers page

Upon saving the page (when transferring lot-controlled stock from a non-WIP to a WIP location), if the current date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.

Container Management page

Upon saving the page (when transferring lot-controlled stock from a non-WIP to a WIP location), if the current date is before the availability date or after the expiration date.