Overview of Vendor-Managed Inventory

Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a supply chain management strategy in which a supplier manages items that are located at the buyer's location. You can use the Oracle Supply Chain Collaboration work area to view vendor-managed inventory tasks.

In Supply Chain Collaboration work area, enterprise users such as a vendor-managed inventory analyst can view VMI replenishment item status and supplier-initiated replenishment requests. Supply chain application administrators can manage the VMI network and VMI analysts.

In the Oracle Supplier Portal work area, suppliers can monitor on-hand quantities and replenishment status for the items they manage. If enabled, suppliers can also initiate the replenishment process by creating replenishment requests and adjust minimum and maximum inventory thresholds.

You can use the vendor-managed inventory features to:

• Allow suppliers to view and analyze on-hand quantities by using Supplier Portal or Vendor-Managed Inventory Items REST service.

• Share enterprise determined minimum and maximum inventory thresholds or even allow the supplier to manage these thresholds using Supplier Portal or Vendor-Managed Inventory Items REST service.

• Allow suppliers to initiate the replenishment process by submitting replenishment requests using Supplier Portal or Vendor-Managed Inventory Replenishment Requests REST service.

• Provide visibility to the entire replenishment life cycle for items managed by the supplier using Supplier Portal.

• Allow a VMI analyst to monitor the replenishment status of all replenishment items and supplier-initiated replenishment requests using the Manage Inventory page or web services.

• Allow a supply chain application administrator to manage VMI relationships by using the Manage VMI Network page or Vendor-Managed Inventory Relationships REST service.

• Allow a supply chain application administrator to manage VMI analysts by using the Manage VMI Analyst page or Vendor-Managed Inventory Analysts REST service.