Lot Management

Lot management includes assigning and maintaining lots, as well as managing child and parent lots.

Assigning Lots

You can pre-assign lots or assign lots while performing material transactions. For example, when performing a receipt transaction, you can assign a lot to an inventory item or group of inventory items. You can also add quantities to existing lot numbers. You can receive a single purchase order multiple times for different quantities. And, you can assign a different lot to each quantity.

The location where you create the lot determines the lot origination type. If you create the lot on the lot master, the origination type is Lot Master. If you generate the lot while performing a transaction, the origination type is Inventory.

The application generates a lot number based on either the organization or the item lot definition parameters that were previously set up.

Maintaining Lots

On the Manage Lots page, you can view, create, and edit lots. You can view all lots created in your current organization and the supplier lot information associated with the lots. For example, you can view lot attributes such as origination date, parent lot, material status, and origination type. You can also view the on-hand quantity associated with a lot by selecting View On-Hand Balances from the Actions menu.

You can also update the lot expiration date for items under lot expiration (shelf life) control on this page. The expiration date controls the availability of the lot for transacting and planning purposes.

With an expired lot, these rules apply:

• Can't be reserved for a date beyond the expiration date

• Can be transacted and is included in on-hand quantities

• Is included in a cycle count and count entry, and adjustments are allowed

• Is included in a physical inventory and tag entry, and adjustments are allowed

You can also enable and disable lots on the Manage Lots page. Disabling inventory lots lets you reuse the lot name with another item. This can save processing time and provides a way for you to self-correct an incorrectly entered lot. A lot is eligible to be disabled if the lot has no on-hand balance and hasn't progressed down the supply chain. Disabled item and lot combinations still show in historical transactions, but you can't initiate new inventory transactions for them.

Note: You can't disable lots for items that are both lot and serial number-controlled.

Child and Parent Lots

You can divide each lot into child lots that can reflect characteristics you choose for items within the lot. For example, you may divide a lot of items from a supplier into child lots to reflect differences in quality specifications. When you allocate stock for production, you can allocate specific lots to a production batch based on the potency, age, or other item characteristics.