Multiple Location Inventory Design

[Del]

Hi:

I implemented this years ago.
My system is multi-warehouse and multi-location within each warehouse.
Basically, I created a hierarchy of files:
    Level 1: Item number (or SKU)
        Level 2: Warehouse File 1
            Level 3: Loc 1
                         Loc 2
                         etc....
                     Warehouse 2
                        etc....
and so on.

There is more, related to types of inventory, sized items (track by sizes), 
lotted items, and serialized items.  However, the above is the basic 
structure.

This approach is very flexible and can be adapted to a wide variety of 
customers, from those with only one warehouse and one location per item to 
those with one warehouse and many locations or multiple warehouses with many 
locations.  We have done this over and over for both distributors and 
manufacturers.  We don't have much experience with retailers.

However, the layers of complexity this introduces took years to implement.
It will require you to rewrite, or at least modify, nearly all the code in 
your system to make it really usable in a real world situation.
It also requires a customer who understands the extra work needed to track 
inventory through multiple warehouses and locations (best accomplished via 
bar code scanning by the way).
Everything from purchasing to receiving, to inventory tracking and 
reporting, to order entry, to picking, and to shipping will be impacted in 
ways you can't even imagine when taking a quick initial look at it.

My point is, this is no quick add-on.  It requires a complete rewrite of 
your system.
However, it can be implemented in stages, if the customer is flexible enough 
to deal with that.
Your customer has to be very patient and prepared for a long haul if they 
decide to do this.

Del Neroni



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Walker" <ScottWalker at RAMSystemsCorp.com>
To: <filepro-list at lists.celestial.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 4:07 PM
Subject: Multiple Location Inventory Design


>I have an order processing system.  Currently it only handles inventory 
>kept
> in one location.  Now a customer wants to start keeping inventory at
> multiple locations.  So the same part# could be in the inventory at the 
> main
> office and also at several branch offices.  I'm just starting to think of
> the design of this.  Should I have a separate record in the inventory file
> for each part#/location combination?  Should I use a qualified file for 
> each
> of the inventory of each location? (I don't use qualified files for 
> anything
> at the moment).   Of course, this design decision permeates itself
> throughout the system (ie.  Order Entry, Shipping, Purchasing, etc).  Any
> design ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Scott
>
>
>
> Scott Walker
>
> RAM Systems Corp
>
> (704) 896-6549
>
> ScottWalker at RAMSystemCorp.com
>
>
>
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