Overview of Parts Ordering

Learn how you can use Service Logistics to source and order service parts.

You can use Service Logistics to:

Order customer replaceable service parts and consumables.
Approve, source, and order field service parts that need to be installed by the field service technician.
Return defective and excess parts.
Order parts to replenish the field stocking locations.
Create backorders for unavailable parts.
Bill customers for replacement parts and give credit for parts returned.

You can create the following parts orders:

Sales Orders: Created for parts-only service such as part exchanges, advanced exchanges, returns, and sales.
Transfer Orders: Created to ship parts to support field service for a specific Fusion Service or third party work order, and for replenishing technician trunk stock and other field stocking locations.
Reservations: Created to ensure that a part is reserved for a specific work order, when parts are sourced from field technician trunk stock and site-dedicated, and other unmanned stocking locations. A reserved part won't appear as available in a technician's trunk stock and can't be used for any other task.

What happens when a part requirement is created?

A parts search program runs automatically to find the parts in the service supply chain, select the best shipping method, and calculate the estimated arrival date. For the parts search program to work, you must configure the Service Logistics lookups, ORA_RCL_SOURCING_FS (for Field Service) and ORA_RCL_PART_SOURCING_CS (for Customer Service). In these lookups, you must define the sourcing options that will be used for customer service (service request parts sales and exchanges) and field service (service work orders). You must also set up the sequence in which these sourcing options will be used to look for parts. The parts search program looks for parts until it finds a sourcing stocking location that has all parts. The search program then selects the lowest cost shipping method and uses it to calculate the arrival time and create the transfer or sales order.
If the search program doesn't return a result or returns a suboptimal stocking location, you can change the stocking location and shipping method in the Parts Search window. You can access the Parts Search window from the service request, work order, and part requirement pages. The Service Logistics parts search program also provides the option to use GOP and Inventory sourcing rules.
Service Logistics also calculates the charges including taxes for these part requirements through integrations with Subscriptions, Tax, and Pricing. For field service part requirements, this is a price estimate. The final price is calculated after the field service debrief transactions for parts, labor, and expenses are reviewed and submitted. For part sales and exchanges, the sales price is the actual price that will be charged to the customer and is passed on to the sales order. Note that all discounts specified in the service contract for the customer and asset are applied before the price calculation.

Let's understand a few more things about part requirements.

You can source the parts for a sales order shipment manually by selecting the source inventory organization and subinventory when you're adding the parts to the service request. The parts are manually sourced from the stocking location that you selected and not through the automatic parts search program. Manual sourcing is mostly used by service providers with simple supply chains. Note that manual sourcing is the only sourcing option available for depot repair shipments where the source is known when creating the shipment part requirement and the corresponding sales order shipment line.

Here's how you can create part requirements as a Service Logistics user:

In Service Logistics:

Source and order parts for service requests and work orders using the Manage Part Requirements and Create Part Requirements pages. These are service requests, generic work orders, Oracle Field Service Cloud work orders, and standalone work orders coming from Fusion Service. Note that standalone work orders are work orders that aren't associated with service requests.
Create part requirements for non Fusion Service objects, such as a service request from a legacy customer service application or a third-party work order.
Edit part requirements in the Manage Part Requirements page.

Note that field service technicians can create and manage part requirements only for service work orders and third-party work orders assigned to them. They can also create part requirements to replenish their trunk stock.

In Fusion Service:

Order parts for service work orders and service requests in the Create Service Request and Create Work Order pages of the Fusion Service application. To do this, you must enable the required feature at the service offering. For instructions, see the Fusion Service section in the Getting Started with Service Logistics Cloud Implementation guide.
You can create part requirements for all types of service work orders: generic, Oracle Field Service Cloud, and standalone.

Note:

As a Service Logistics user, you can't edit the part requirements created in the Fusion Service pages. You can only edit and cancel these part requirements in Fusion Service.

From Oracle Field Service Cloud:

Field service technicians can also create part requirements from Oracle Field Service Cloud, because of the Service Logistics and Field Service Cloud integration.

When you sell a part to a customer, you create a sales order. For all other item requirements, you create transfer orders, such as for field service or warehouse and technician stock replenishment.

What happens when a transfer order is created?

The transfer order creation to fulfillment process is carried through web services provided by Supply Chain Orchestration cloud.
Technicians receive the parts into their trunk stock and report the usage details when they create the field service debrief.
Field service administrators review the labor, parts, and other expenses and post the final charges based on which customer invoice is generated for billing.

How is the sales order fulfilled?

Service Logistics integrates with Order Management to drive parts shipping, receiving, and billing.

When the parts are shipped, an invoice is generated for the customer. The bill-to account and address and shipping address must be set up for the customer for order fulfillment.
The cost of the item comes from Pricing. The amount charged to the customer is the sum of the shipping charges and the cost of the selected item. The final price includes all service contract discounts.

Parts Only Service: You can order parts for service requests (Fusion Service and third party) when a customer can replace the defective part and a field service technician isn't required to visit the customer premises. You can use the same service request to capture the details of the defective part that's returned by the customer. A sales order is created to ship the required parts directly to the customer address.

There are two predefined businesses processes used for service activities that drive parts only service:

Customer Support: Use service activities set up against this business process for simple parts sales and returns. The order and return lines are created separately.
Parts Exchange: Use service activities set up against this business process for parts exchange. So when the user creates an order to return a defective or broken part, they can also create the corresponding shipment order line. This business process links the return and shipment lines so that Installed Base and subscription contracts can be updated when the broken product or part is received and when the repair or replacement is shipped.

Field Service: If you're a field service administrator, you can source and order parts required to complete a work order. You can order parts for the following types of work orders:

Generic Work Orders: Used when there's no integration with any automated field service scheduling application or offline mobile field service to manage field service activities. Customers will enter the Resolution Due and Requested dates manually. They will also enter the Work Order Area manually instead of it being decided by an integration between Fusion Service and Field Service.
Oracle Field Service Cloud Work Orders: Used when an integration exists between Fusion Service with Field Service to sync service work orders with activities in Field Service. When the work order is created in Fusion Service, it triggers the creation of a field service activity. The work order life cycle is managed using this integration.
Standalone Work Orders: Used for work orders that aren't associated with a service request, such as, work orders created for simple installations or preventive maintenance.
Third-party Work Order: Used for work orders from a legacy application.

If you're a field service technician, you can order parts for service work orders and third-party work orders that are assigned to you and order parts to replenish your trunk stock. Some field service technicians might only have access to create part requirements for certain field stocking locations but not start the sales or transfer order for those part requirements. These part requirements must first be approved by the field service administrator or parts coordinator. Field service technicians in this scenario don't have the Allow Part Orders privilege assigned to them.

Service Logistics provides one predefined business process to drive field service.

Field Service Stock Replenishment: As a field service administrator, you can order parts to replenish all types of stocking locations including the technicians' trunk stock.