Considerations for Selecting Serial Number Uniqueness Control

Select one of these serial number uniqueness control options to apply to the items in your inventory organization:

• Unique within items

• Unique within organization

• Unique across organizations

Unique Within Items

You cannot 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 cannot assign serial number SN100 to any other instance of that item in any inventory organization. You could, however, receive a different item with serial number SN100 in any inventory organization.

The following table provides an example of the serial numbers that are generated for two separate items when serial number uniqueness is set to be within items.

Organization	Item	Serial Number
M1	AS100 (Printer)	SN100
M1	AS101 (Laptop Computer)	SN100

Unique Within Organization

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 cannot receive item B with serial number SN100 in the same inventory organization. You can, however, receive item B with serial number SN100 in any other inventory organization.

The following table provides an example of the serial numbers that are generated for two separate items when serial number uniqueness is set to be within an organization.

Organization	Item	Serial Number
M1	AS100 (Printer)	SN100
M1	AS101 (Laptop Computer)	SN101

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 to be 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 cannot 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.

The following table provides an example of the serial numbers that are generated for two separate items when serial number uniqueness is set to be across organizations.

Organization	Item	Serial Number
M1	AS100 (Printer)	SN100
M2	AS101 (Laptop Computer)	SN101