Redwood: Enhancements to SCM Reconciliation Workbench

Today, the "Inventory Discrepancies" Redwood screen displays inventory information from both the WMS and ERP systems. Each Batch/Exp/Attributes tracked SKU has one discrepancy record comparing the quantity present in both ERP and WMS per Bat/Exp/ inventory attribute. However, some SKUs may not be batch/Exp/ inventory attribute tracked in the ERP but in the WMS. 

In such scenarios, the screen displays two lines for the same item; one WMS record with a batch number/expiry/ inventory attribute and one ERP record without a batch number/expiry/ inventory attribute. In release 26B, you can now consolidate Inventory Discrepancies into one single record per SKU by ignoring Batch/Expiry/Attributes (A to O), reducing duplicate lines, and speeding up reconciliation.

This enhancement allows you to create discrepancy computation rule in the ‘ItemSummaryGenerationRuleView’ module. The discrepancy computation rule can be passed in the Generate Inventory Balance Snapshot schedule job  which will allow overlooking Batch, Expiry, and Inventory attributes while calculating discrepancies between WMS and ERP on hands. The system adds up quantities across all batches, expiries, and attributes for a SKU, compares the total WMS quantity to the total ERP quantity, and shows a single discrepancy record for the SKU in the Inventory Discrepancy REDWOOD UI screen. 

NEW INVENTORY COMPUTATION RULE TYPE

• We introduce a new Item Summary Rule type called Discrepancy computation.
• When you select Discrepancy computation, the Summary type field is disabled and can remain blank.
• When you select Discrepancy computation, the Ignored Inventory Attribute List is enabled.
• We added a new checkbox/flag called Ignore non-existent items that allows you to skip/ignore discrepancy computation for items that exist in ERP but do not in WMS.

NOTE: You can control whether the system excludes Batch, Expiry, Inventory attributes, and non-existent SKUs during discrepancy computation.

• When you select Discrepancy computation, the selection criteria action is disabled. This is because the system captures all records from Fusion ERP and compares ERP inventory to WMS inventory to compute discrepancies. From 26B onwards, users cannot compute inventory discrepancy for specific SKUs.

UPDATE TO SCHEDULE JOB

To compute the inventory discrepancy between the WMS and ERP based on the discrepancy rule defined, you need to provide a discrepancy rule on the Generate Inventory Balance Snapshot schedule job.

• We added a new job parameter item_summary_discrepancy_rule (optional) to the Generate Inventory Balance Snapshot scheduled job.
• When you enter a valid discrepancy rule in item_summary_discrepancy_rule, the system applies the rule configuration while computing the inventory discrepancy between ERP and WMS.

For Example: WMS tracks an item by batch with BATCH01 (5 units) and BATCH02 (5 units), ERP does not track batch for the item, and the discrepancy rule tells the system to ignore batch number during discrepancy computation.

Facility	Company	ERP Item code	WMS Item Code	WMS Qty	ERP Qty	Qty Diff	Batch Nbr
FAC01	COM01	--	SKU01	5	0	5	BATCH01
FAC01	COM01	--	SKU01	5	0	5	BATCH02
FAC01	COM01	SKU01	SKU01	0	10	10

Facility	Company	ERP Item code	WMS Item Code	WMS Qty	ERP Qty	Qty Diff	Batch Nbr
FAC01	COM01	SKU01	SKU01	5	10	-5
FAC01	COM01	SKU01	SKU01	5	10	-5

UPDATES IN INVENTORY DISCREPANCY UI AND OUTPUT INTERFACE

Inventory Discrepancy UI

Based on the Discrepancy Rule defined on the schedule job, the system generates the inventory discrepancy. Now to trace the rule used to compute the inventory discrepancy, we have introduced a new column “Discrepancy Rule” on the Inventory Discrepancy Redwood screen. Add this column to your data grid to view the correct rule applied per run number when the Generate Inventory Balance Snapshot schedule job is defined with a discrepancy rule.

Output Interface

Each time the job runs, WMS creates a run number. The ERP must include this run number when sending its inventory balances to WMS, so that the ERP and WMS can handle quantities that is compared keeping the state of the inventory the same across both the systems. In non-Fusion setups, ERP systems cannot easily get the run number. Now, the system is enhanced to create an output file when the Generate Inventory Balance Snapshot job runs and generate_erp_inv_summary_flg is configured.

A new output interface type 'Inventory Summary Run Number' is introduced on the Output interface and output interface configuration. The new output file (JSON) generated will share the run number, so ERPs can use it while sending their inventory snapshot to WMS.

Steps to enable and configure

To configure New Inventory Computation Rule Type, do the following:

1. Go to the Item Summary Rule UI (ItemSummaryGenerationRuleView.)
2. Click (+) and choose the Discrepancy Computation from the Type drop-down. The Summary type field is disabled, by default.
3. The Ignored Inventory Attribute List field is enabled. You can choose your preferred attribute or choose all.
4. You can enable Ignore non-existent items flag to ignore discrepancy computation for items that exist in ERP.
5.  Click Save.

To configure the schedule job, do the following:

1. Go to the Schedule Job > Generate Inventory Balance Snapshot job type.
2. Set the item_summary_discrepancy_rule parameter to yes.
3. Click Save.