How You Set Up Lot Control

To set up lot control, complete these steps:

• Establish lot control for an item

• Establish lot expiration (shelf life) control

• Establish lot grade control

• Establish lot number uniqueness

• Optionally, enable child lots

• Optionally, determine to automatically generate lot numbers

Establish Lot Control for an Item

You can establish lot control for an item when you define the item. You can select either no lot control or full lot control. If you choose full lot control, then you must assign lot numbers when you receive the item into inventory. Then, when you transact the item, you must provide a lot number that you specified when you received the item.

You can update lot control options for an item if the item has zero on-hand quantity. In addition, you can't change lot control when open shipments exist.

A lot number is a combination of an alphanumeric prefix and a numeric suffix. When you define an item, you can specify the starting lot prefix and the starting lot number. Inventory uses this information to generate defaults during transaction entry.

Establish Lot Expiration (Shelf Life) Control

Shelf life is the amount of time that an item can reside in inventory before it expires. When defining items under lot control, you can choose no shelf life control, a certain number of item shelf life days from the date that you receive the item, or a user-defined expiration date for each lot.

You can also enter the default expiration action code and expiration interval for the item. For the expiration action interval, enter the number of days the application adds to the expiration date before it performs an action on the lot.

Establish Lot Grade Control

When defining an item, indicate whether the item is grade controlled in addition to lot controlled. A grade code represents specific characteristics of a lot. If you select the Grade Controlled check box, then you must specify a default grade for the item.

Establish Lot Number Uniqueness

Specify whether lot numbers should be unique for an item in the organization parameters. If you don't establish lot number uniqueness, you can assign the same lot number to multiple items in the same organization and across organizations. If you control lot number uniqueness at the master level, you can assign a specific lot number only to one item in the same organization and across organizations. When you perform transactions, Inventory checks the lot number uniqueness control to generate lot number defaults.

Optionally, Enable Child Lots

If you enable child lot control when defining an item, you can specify a parent lot and a child lot for transactional purposes. The application processes transactions for the lot regardless of whether you specify the parent lot for the transaction. You can't modify this field if inventory transactions or reservations exist for the item. If you choose to control this attribute at the master organization level, then you can modify this attribute only if no transactions or reservations exist for the master organization or any child organizations that are associated with the master organization.

Optionally, Determine to Automatically Generate Lot Numbers

Specify how to generate lot number defaults in the organization parameters. You can generate sequential lot numbers based on an alphanumeric prefix that you specify when you define an item. Inventory can also generate lot number defaults for the entire organization. In this case, you must define a lot number prefix at the organization level.

If you don't want Inventory to automatically generate lot number defaults for you, you can enter your own lot numbers when you receive items. You can always override lot number defaults.