How You Set Up Serial Number Control

Before you can use serial number control, you must set the item attributes and organization parameters.

To set up serial number control:

• Establish serial number generation for an item

• Establish serial number uniqueness

• Optionally, create predefined serial numbers

Establish Serial Number Generation for an Item

You establish serial number generation at the item or organization level. You can choose from these values for the serial number generation option:

Serial Number Generation Option	Description
No Serial Number Control	The application doesn't enforce serial number control.
Predefined Serial Number	You must predefine serial numbers for the item.
Entry at sales order, transfer order, or work order issue	You can enter the serial number when performing a sales order, transfer order, or work order issue transaction.
Entry at inventory pick	You can enter the serial number at the time of picking.
Dynamic entry at inventory receipt	You can dynamically enter serial numbers when performing a receipt transaction.

Establish Serial Number Uniqueness

Choose the type of serial number uniqueness for your organization in the organization parameters. You can choose to enforce uniqueness within items, within organizations, and across organizations. The three levels for serial uniqueness are cumulative.

• Unique Within Items

  You can't assign the same serial number to the same item, regardless of whether that item exists in the same or a different inventory organization.

  For example, if you assign serial number SN100 to item A, you can't assign serial number SN100 to any other instance of that item in any inventory organization. However, you can receive a different item with serial number SN100 in any inventory organization.

• Unique Within Organizations

  The same serial number uniqueness rules apply as when you set serial number uniqueness control to be within items. Additionally, setting serial number uniqueness control to be within an organization prevents the same serial number from existing multiple times within the same inventory organization.

  For example, if you assign SN100 to item A in a particular inventory organization, you can't receive item B with serial number SN100 in the same inventory organization. However, you can receive item B with serial number SN100 in any other inventory organization.

• Unique Across Organizations

  The same serial number uniqueness rules apply as when you set serial number uniqueness rules to be within an organization. Additionally, setting serial number uniqueness control across organizations prevents the same serial number from being assigned to more than one item, regardless of the inventory organization.

  For example, if you assign SN100 to item A, you can't receive item B with the serial number SN100 in any inventory organization. In this example, SN101 and SN100 belong to different inventory organizations.

  When you assign a particular inventory organization's serial number uniqueness control to be across organizations, serial number uniqueness is similarly restricted for all inventory organizations.

Create Predefined Serial Numbers

If you specified Predefined Serial Numbers as the serial number generation option for the item, you can select existing predefined serial numbers from a list of values in the From Serial Number field on the transaction line or navigate to the Record Lots and Serial Numbers page to select serial numbers there. To access the Record Lots and Serial Numbers page, select the Record Lots and Serial Numbers button or action. On the Record Lots and Serial Numbers page, either select existing serial numbers from a list of values in the From Serial Number field or click Select Serials to see a full list of predefined serial numbers available for the transaction. If you specified Dynamic Entry at Inventory Receipt or Entry at Sales Order, Transfer Order, or Work Order Issue, then you can optionally predefine serial numbers for the item.

Inventory uses the starting serial number prefix and the starting serial number that you specify when defining the inventory organization or item to create predefined serial numbers. You can create as many serial numbers as you want for any item under serial number control.