Defining Serial Control and Shipping Serial Control
You can track serial numbers from the time that you receive an item or from the time that you ship an item from the business unit:
Serial control enables you to track an item as it moves from one material storage location to another.
This tracking method requires a serial ID for every material movement transaction involving the serial-controlled item. For example, the serial ID is required for putaway, cycle counts, and picking.
Shipping serial control enables you to track an item only after shipment.
If the item is returned, you have a shipping serial ID to identify it, but you do not have to track the serial ID throughout the entire inventory process.
There are several ways to assign shipping serial ID numbers before physically shipping an item:
On the Express Issue component, use the Serial ID page to assign ship serial ID or have the system automatically assign them.
On the Shipping/Issues - Ship Serial page or the Express Issue component's Serial ID page, you can assign shipping serial IDs to the order line and save the page, without marking the line as being shipped. The system can automatically assign the ship serial IDs using the Shipping/Issues component.
Through electronic data collection, you can assign shipping serial IDs after the item has been allocated using the Order Release process with a Create Allocation action (push picking plan) or after it has been picked using either online picking feedback or the inventory picking data collection transaction.
On the Inventory Front End Shipping EIP or the Inventory Shipping EIP, the users can manually assign ship serial IDs using the Location/Lot/Serial segment.
On the Shipping Notification EIP, users can manually assign ship serial IDs using the Lot/Ship Serial segment.
On the Fulfillment Workbench, you can assign ship serial IDs using the Pick Confirm, Front End Ship, and Ship actions. On the Location/Lot/Serial level enter serial IDs and leave the storage location blank. This indicates to the system to assign a ship serial ID instead of picking the serial ID. If you would like the ship serial IDs to be recorded with a specific lot ID, enter the lot along with the serial information. If you would like to pick the lot but not the serial ID, enter the lot on a separate Location/Lot/Serial entry with a storage location.
To use the Front End Shipping process page or the Shipping process page, you must have ship serials defined for the demand line before processing.
You cannot ship an order line that does not have the correct number of shipping serial IDs assigned for shipping serial-controlled items. For example, if the order line is for five units of a shipping serial-controlled item, but only three shipping serial IDs were assigned, an error message appears when you save either the Express Issues or Shipping/Issues component.
When you enter shipping serial IDs, you can assign them to particular lot IDs either manually or through electronic data collection transactions. When you generate shipping serial IDs automatically, you can specify a lot ID to assign to the entire batch of new shipping serial IDs. However, to generate 100 shipping serial IDs from two lots, you must generate the shipping serial IDs in two batches.
If you enter more than one lot ID, the system verifies whether the ratio of shipping serial numbers assigned is correct. For example, if 10 out of 25 items are picked from lot A and 15 items are picked from lot B, the system ensures that 10 shipping serial ID numbers are associated with lot A and 15 shipping serial ID numbers are associated with lot B. This verification occurs when you exit the Serial ID page and when you save the Express Issue page.
When shipping serial-controlled material is returned, you can specify the shipping serial ID number on the RMA Line (returned material authorizations line) page. This enables you to track which items were returned by shipping serial ID number.