Understanding Process Flow for Lot-Controlled Items

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.