Building Operations / On Demand Work / Quick Start

Developing a Parts Inventory

Since having parts readily available is key to maintenance work running smoothly, the application enables you to enter your parts inventory into the application to better track and manage these parts.

Although the application enables you to define storage locations that you then associate with parts, this feature is not part of Quick Start. For Quick Start, you store all locations in the default 'Main' storage location that is provided with the application.

Benefits

When you define parts, you can then reserve these parts by estimating how many you will need for a job. When completing work requests, you can enter the actual number of parts used. You can then review the types of parts you are using each month using the Parts Usage report.

Developing a parts inventory provides the following benefits:

A parts inventory enables you to track key parts information, such as the parts you have on hand, those that are reserved for work that has been estimated, vendor and part information for reordering, and storage location. This helps you manage parts and provides important information when reordering.
The application updates the inventory for you as you reserve parts. When a supervisor makes an estimation for a work request that uses parts, the application updates the Quantity Available by subtracting the number of estimated (reserved parts) from the Quantity Available.
When a work request is closed, the parts inventory is also updated. If the actual number of parts used is different than the quantity estimated, then the Quantity Available is lowered with the difference between the number of parts actually used and the number of estimated parts. If the parts were not reserved, the total actual quantity is subtracted from the quantity on hand.

Calculated fields

The application calculates the following fields and shows them on the Define Parts form:

Quantity Available. This field records the quantity of the parts of this type that are currently available. The program updates this value when you reserve parts for a work request as well as when you run the Close Out Work Order and record the parts you consumed in executing work.
Unit Cost – Average. The application uses this field to calculate costs for parts associated with work requests. This value is calculated when you enter newly acquired parts and run the Adjust Inventory action.
Date of Last Use. The Calculate Inventory Usage action completes this field by checking the last closed work request or the last performed inventory transaction, and determining the date that the part was last used. This provides information that could be helpful when tracking usage. You can also edit this field directly in the Define Parts form.
Quantity on Reserve. The number of parts reserved for work requests. Parts are reserved when you estimate or update work. The application automatically updates this value as you reserve parts for work requests. When you update the work request, and enter the actual number of parts used, the application subtracts the quantity of parts used on the completed work requests from this field (as these parts are no longer on reserve.)
Date of Last Count: Updated when you run the Adjust Inventory task using the Rectify Physical Inventory action. You can also edit this fields directly in the Define Parts form.

Reports

The following reports are available when you use the application to manage parts:

Report	Description	Notes
Parts Usage History	This report shows a bar chart for each month that is color coded. The bars show the quantity of each part used during that month. You can assess which parts you are using most over time.	This report requires only that you enter parts when estimating or updating work requests.
Define Parts	This is the task used to define the parts inventory, but it also provides key information about parts usage to help you anticipate shortages, and better asses how much to order.	This requires you to enter your parts and optionally to enter a Minimum to Store and Quantity on Order. The report includes the Quantity Available and Quantity Understocked that the application calculates.
Inventory Transaction	You can make manual adjustments to the parts inventory using the Adjust Inventory task. The Inventory Transaction report lists all of these manual adjustments. The transactions are grouped by part and then ordered by date so that you can easily see the transactions for each part. Use this report as a historical audit of your inventory transactions. If you find that you are making many manual adjustments, perhaps you need to review your procedures for assigning parts to work requests.	Generating this report requires a parts inventory that you have manually adjusted. As a Quick-Start user, you will manually adjust the inventory to first enter your inventory, and then when you receive new inventory.
Reserve new parts	Review estimates that have the 'In Stock, Not Reserved' status. From this task, you can test different scenarios for assigning parts that do not have sufficient quantity on hand to meet all estimates.	You can receive alerts on the Home Page that inform you when there are part estimates that have the 'In Stock, Not Reserved' status.

Step 1 - Define the parts inventory

You define parts using the Background Data / Define Parts Inventory task. You can also access this task as the Inventory Manager. After you define parts. supervisors can then select them from the forms for estimating parts and closing out work requests.

You can also add a Part Code that has not yet been added when working from the Adjust Inventory task. See Adding new parts as you work.

To define parts:

Select the Define Parts task.
The Define Parts form appears.
Click Add New.
The form for adding a new part appears on the right.
Enter the following information for the new part:
Part Code: Enter the unique identifier for the part.
Tip: A good practice is to begin similar parts with the same identifier, and then append a unique suffix that identifies the part. For example, all your light bulbs could begin with BULB; you could then create parts BULB-FLOR-75W and BULB-FLOOD-150W to distinguish flood and florescent lights. You could further append the wattage to define specific bulbs.
Part Description: Enter a description to further identify the part. The Description appears in selection lists. For example, enter 150W, 120V, 4000 Hrs., 4 1/2" Dia., Tung to describe a particular florescent bulb.
Quantity on Order: Complete this field with the quantity of parts you have ordered, but not yet received. When you do not have enough parts for a work request, you can check this field to see if any are on order or if you need to order them.
Part Classification: Enter a value that groups similar parts. Having this value provides a way to search for similar parts.
Typical Order / Model Number / Stock Number : Enter this information as a reference for placing orders
Minimum to store: Complete the Minimum to Store field with the quantity you would like to keep on hand. You can determine this from the average parts usage over time and the lead time required to receive new parts. When you run the Calculate Inventory Usage action, the program then uses this value to determine the Quantity Understocked value.
Note: The following fields are not used by Quick-Start.
Unit Cost - Set by User. Not needed for Quick-Start.
Units of Issue / Unit of Order. Not needed for Quick-Start.
Click Save.
Quantity Available. When you run the Adjust Inventory action using the Add Newly Received Action, the application populates the Quantity Available field on the Define Parts form with the quantity you enter. This occurs whether or not you have entered a Physical Count Qty. The system will then update the Quantity Available as you reserve parts for work requests by subtracting the reserved parts from the Quantity Available
Quantity Reserved: When you estimate parts, you enter the Quantity Reserved which is summed for all work requests, and shown on the DeFine Parts (background data task.).

Calculated Fields on the Define Parts form

The application calculates the following fields that are shown in the Define Parts form:

Quantity Available: Calculated when you run the Adjust Inventory action, and updated by the application as you reserve parts for work requests and close out work requests.
Quantity on Reserve: Calculated by the system as you reserve parts for estimates.
Quantity Understocked and Date of Last Use. Calculated when you run the Calculate Inventory Usage action. See the section below - Optional - run the Calculate Inventory Usage.

Step 2- Add parts as newly received (manually adjusting the inventory)

It is important to run the Adjust Parts Inventory task as this task updates the Unit Cost - Average value that is used to summarize costs for parts that are associated with work requests. The application uses this average when costs are summarized in the Cost Analysis Dashboard.

In addition to running the Adjust Inventory action to establish your inventory, you will need to run this task to manually adjust the inventory in the following situations:

When new parts are received as part of an order
When parts are consumed that were not recorded as part of a work request.
When rectifying a physical count with the electronic inventory if a survey finds that they are out-of-sync.

After adjusting the inventory, you can use the Inventory Transaction report to review all of the updates manually transacted using the Adjust Inventory action.

As a Quick Start user you will not define multiple storage locations for your parts. Instead, you will assign all parts to the 'Main' storage location that is available by default. You can add the part to the Main storage location by using the Add as Newly Received transaction (this action adds the part to the location if it is not already there). See Manually Adjusting the Parts Inventory for step-by-step procedures, and a description of the Inventory Transaction report.

Step 3 - Associate parts with work requests

You can associate parts with work requests in either of the following ways:

You can reserve parts when you are estimating work. See Estimating Trades and Parts.
You can enter the actual parts used when updating work. See How To Update Work Requests.

Step 4 - Reserve new parts

Whenever the Quantity Available changes, the system re-evaluates the status for part estimates, and might assign some estimates the status of 'In Stock, Not Reserved.' This status indicates that there is enough inventory available for this estimate, but not enough inventory for all estimates for all work requests needing this part. Supervisors can use the Reserve New Part Inventory task to review estimates by their status, and to test out different scenarios for distributing parts that do not have sufficient quantity on hand to meet all estimates. You can test out different scenarios before committing the changes to the database.

See Reserve New Part Inventory.

Step 5 - Review parts reports.

Developing parts data results in several operational reports, such as Parts Usage History or Inventory Transactions. See the Reports section above.

Optional - run the Calculate Inventory Usage action

The Calculate Inventory Usage action is available from the Define Parts task. The Calculate Inventory Usage actions performs calculations, such as Total Inventory Value, that are used in reports that are not part of Quick-Start. However, this action performs two calculations that are relevant for Quick-Start:

Quantity of Understocked Parts. Determines if there are enough parts available to account for all unreserved part estimates and the Minimum On Hand you set for the part.
- If there are enough, the Amount Understocked is set to 0.
- If not enough, the system adds up the number of parts needed for all unreserved estimates plus the Minimum to Store, and subtracts the current Quantity Available from this amount to establish the Quantity Understocked.
- Unreserved estimates include estimates that have the Part Status 'Not In Stock' and 'In Stock, Not reserved'.
Date of Last Use. Checks the last closed work request or the last manual inventory transaction to determine the date that each part was last used. This information can be helpful when tracking usage.

After running the action, you might need to refresh the screen to see the results for the part you are viewing.