Hello,
I have a complicated (or at-least I think so!) item management question and where possible, I am attempting to use out-of-the-box BC.
A vendor that we deal with allows for configuration of the ultimate product we are purchasing. For an individual item, there can be up up to 6 configurations (some are physical modifications they make to the item, and some are less tangible configurations such as software etc. All items are serialised.
Example below, where 4 configurations are required to be selected.
Parent Item Code: PRODUCT-001
Configuration 1 (select one option only)
CONFIG1-001
CONFIG1-002
CONFIG1-003
CONFIG1-004
Configuration 2 (select one option only)
CONFIG2-001
CONFIG2-002
CONFIG2-003
CONFIG2-004
Configuration 3 (select one option only)
CONFIG3-001
CONFIG3-002
CONFIG3-003
CONFIG3-004
Configuration 4 (select one option only)
CONFIG4-001
CONFIG4-002
CONFIG4-003
CONFIG4-004
From the above example, there is effectively 4^4 = 256 possible combinations, for just one product. When the products are sent by the vendor, it is in effect one unit to us as you wouldn't be able to 'disassemble' these vendor configurations.
We are trying to come up with a way to manage these types of items, whilst still being able to:
>See how much stock we have in the Parent item code easily
>See how much of each configuration we have for a given Parent item code
>Where possible, only use one item code on sales document as, to the customer, it is just one item (we previously had the configurations set up as inventory items and that caused all sorts of issues with managing inventory, and it also meant customers would receive multiple lines on an shipment document/sales invoice for one physical item)
Ideas that I have come up with (each with their own pros/cons):
1) Using variants to house the most common configuration combinations, with the combination being held in description 2 for example (character length limitations here)
2) Creating our own unique set of item codes and creating the configurations as non-inventory items then using the bill of materials functionality. Attributes could then be tagged to the item card perhaps
3) Only having one item code per parent, but then using lot tracking to house the configuration option
4) Only having one item code per parent, then using non-inventory items to build sales orders/purchase orders (this is somewhat the existing process, but it makes it difficult to track what serial number is what configuration without looking into original purchase orders etc)
Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for those that may have dealt with this before.
Cheers
