Question:
Hello,
I'm wanting to post my Reject UD to Blocked Stock....however, when the inspection lot is triggered through a delivery (type 10) it is not posting the qty. to blocked stock when I make the UD.
I set up a new catalog for UD's to post the qty to blocked stock..but, the material remains in unrestricted after making the UD??? Does anyone have any insight on to what I'm missing here, because I'm at a lost as to what else to do!
Thanks in advance for your comments!
Deb
Answer:
Craig,
You provided me with exactly what I didn't want to hear (LOL) and the analysis I had come to prior to posting this message. Our scenario is on Bulk Shipments that require a type 10 inspection after loading. However, there are times when the UD is reject because it's out of spec for whatever reason. In this case, we wanted the ability to block the stock immediately while the business group made the decision on what to do with the product.
From the analysis I did earlier, I figured exactly what you had posted in your previous message. So, I guess now I'm looking for any ideas from anyone else who has dealt with this type of situation or if someone has a good tidbit or thought they'd like to share.
I do think I'm going to run into an issue when inventories are tight because if the material is picked to a delivery and there isn't any other inventory, it's not going to allow the stock posting to Blocked Stock happen because of quantity issues. Unfortuantely, the operators don't want to perform a 344 movement type...they want it to majically happen through the UD .
Help....any thoughts or ideas??????
Thanks in advance....Deb
Answer:
Hi Deb,
Yep... its a problem!!!
A lot depends on the material. In most of the business's I've worked with the material is usually worked in the truck until it's acceptable. In the cases where it really is unusable, the truck has to be unloaded and the material put somewhere. This can't be done via a 10 inspection type. So operators have to do all the transactions themselves.
The delivery is unpicked first. The material is still thus in the original tank it came from even though it is actually in a truck. They have to do a material movement to move the correct quantity of material from the supplying tank, to where ever they are putting the bad material.
I know they would like the lab to be able to do this for them via the UD. But why should the lab be fixing their work? If it's a large bulk tank the material should have been good already. If it was made in a reactor and is going direct to the truck, it shouldn't be pumped until a reactor sample is tested and cleared.
I've seen a few cases where some things are mixed and blended right in a truck, but these are pretty rare and mostly pretty simple processes that rarely result in bad material that can't be fixed in place.
Just tell them to make it right the first time and they won't have to do anything..
Craig
Answer:
Craig,
Thanks for your reply and believe me I'd love to tell them everything you described in your previous post
I had a possible idea and solution to their wishes and would appreciate your feedback on the issue. Okay, I thought about creating a user exit that would move the material into blocked stock when a particular UD is made through a specific catalog type. Do you think this would be wise to have our ABAP Team to approach or do you think I'm playing with fire?
I respect your comments, after all you are the expert in my eyes .
Thanks Again,
Deb
Answer:
You could do it via a UD follow-up action.. yes. I don't see any problem with that. I don't know how your handling batch numbers or even if this is a batch managed product. That could be a problem.
The follow-up action should unpick the delivery, and then move the material to a designated storage location and/or new batch number. The biggest problem I see is making this visible to loaders/operators. (as suddenly their delivery is unpicked and their material is gone!!) But hopefully a phone call from the lab would go hand in hand with the UD. It might be possible to include an email to the operator who picked the delivery if your operators do that step themselves. I know some places where they don't.
If it is batch managed, you probably want a new batch number assigned so the batch can be restricited or moved to block stock by the follow-up action as well. This prevents ATP and MRP from seeing it as available.
In addition, you'll always have to worry about 'ghost' inventory. Since probably, at the time of the UD, there is a good chance you don't have the scale tickets yet, your UD follow-up action would be making a transaction based on the estimated weight of the material, like 47,000 lbs. When in fact the actual qty. is somewhat different. At some point, the discrepancy has to be corrected, both in the bulk tank and the material that is isolated. This may or may not be a factor for you. It depends on the process at your plant(s) and when and where the truck gets weighed in relation to when testing is being done.
Often times, a truck is started loading, a sample pulled and sent to the lab. Hopefully the analysis is done by the time the truck is done loading. So the UD is done, but the truck hasn't been officially weighed yet. This is especially a problem in rail cars as usually only the bigger plants have railcar scales and weights might not come in for days.
Craig
Answer:
Craig,
Wow....you thought of a lot of additional things that I hadn't thought about yet. The weight of the truck/railcar is probably the biggest issue and I guess it would have to be the whole weight that is identified on the delivery.
As far as the batches, we're okay on this one because we create a 'shipping batch' before the inspection lot is created, so in essence each truck/railcar has its own batch.
Now for the hard part....getting my ABAPer to accomplishing this user exit . Here is the process that I'm going to propose:
1) When the UD is made w/ "X" then the delivery is unpicked and a 344 movement type is done to move the material from unrestricted to blocked stock.
2) The 344 movement type will be made for the full amount that the delivery has been created for.
I'll keep you posted on the success or failures on this one . Again, thanks for your input and thoughts on this process...it's nice to bounce ideas off someone every now and then!
Thanks!
Deb
Answer:
Good Luck Deb! Bulk trucks are always fun.. especially when you go live and there's this big trucker tapping his foot waiting for his paperwork..!
Craig