Managing Durable Goods in Manufacton – Manufacton Support

Overview

Ultimately, the most important thing you can know about your company's durable goods (a/k/a "tools") is where are they and who had them last!

In Manufacton, tools are simply considered pieces of inventory that never get consumed and are always returned to the shop.

If you looking for a simple solution to track the "who", "where" and "when" of some of your most valuable assets, Manufacton's Logistic Management module has what you need.

This article covers the following topics:

Setting Up Manufacton to Manage Tools
Shipping Tools to/from a Job Site
Tracking Tools
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Setting Up Manufacton to Manage Tools

Defining Tools

Tool definition is maintained in Manufacton's Parts Catalog. Each tool type that you may want to track via inventory must be in this catalog.

The import of tools into the catalog requires data in two columns, Name and Catalog ID, similar to the following:

Additional information on populating the Parts Catalog can be found in the KB Article on Assembly / Parts Catalog.

Establishing Locations to Store the Tools

In order to be able to digitally store tools in a location that is not associated with any specific project, Manufacton's Nested Inventory and Nested Location capabilities need to be leveraged. Nested Locations are common locations for all of your projects' inventory/tools and do not have any project affiliation.

If your company is not Leveraging Nested Locations for any other purpose, it is recommended that only one (possibly two) locations be established when importing the "nest" of locations:

Tool Storage (or similar for tools ready to be distributed to projects)
- Tool Maintenance (or similar as an optional location for tools that are NOT available for distribution due to maintenance issues)

Note:  Over time, if additional, deeper nested locations are desired they can
       be added.  Initially, and for simplicity, it is strongly recommended 
       that you start with just the one or two locations.

See the KB Article on Nested Company Locations for specifics on how to perform the import.

Getting the Tools into Inventory

Once a tool storage location is established, it is possible to simply import those tools into those Inventory Locations. This process of importing inventory is described in the Managing Inventory section of the Inventory Manager KB Article.

All the tools that are currently in inventory and available for distribution should be imported into the top location of the nest. If the choice to have a nested "Maintenance" location was made, those tools which are not ready for distribution should be imported there.

Shipping Tools to/from a Job Site

Once the tools are in your inventory, standard inventory shipping processes are followed as if shipping any item from Inventory. One important thing to note is that the "Source Project" for the shipment should be the Common Stock Project:

In the Logistics Manager module
On the Inventory tab
Select Ship Inventory option under Bulk Action
Select the Common Stock Project
Select the top of the nest as the Item Location
Select tool(s) to ship to site
Select Ship Inventory
Provide a shipment Name
Select the Project to which the tools should be sent
Select the Location to which the tools should be sent
Select an Owner
Select the Recipient
Provide a Ship Date
Provide a desired Deliver Date
Set the quantity of each tool to be shipped to site.
Select Create Shipment
When the recipient chooses to Receive Items from the shipment...
It is critical to Release to Inventory so that those items are available to return to the shop at a later time
Select Receive

Conversely, when shipping tools back to the shop from a project, the "Destination Project" must be set to the Common Stock Project. In order to ensure that the tool at the job site shows-up in the inventory list:

Select the Locations icon
Select All locations (or ensure the location at which the tools are located is selected)
Select Done
Select Ship Inventory from the Bulk Action toolbar
Select the project from which the tool(s) should be shipped
Select the location from which the tool(s) should be shipped
Select the tool(s) to ship
Select Ship Inventory
Ensure the Destination Project is the Common Stock Project , and the Destination Location is the top of the Nested Inventory Locations

Again, it is critical that when the tools are received, they Release to Inventory those tools back into the shops Inventory so they can be shipped out again in the future.

Tracking Tools

Where tools are and who and when they were delivered is a simple matter of searching Inventory and/or Shipping records.

The Inventory tab will provide you insights as to where your tools are...

The Shipping tab will provide you insights into who and when those tools were delivered.

Note:  It is important to ensure that all the locations in which a tool may
       located are available in any filters set so that all the tools in 
       all locations show during a search.

If your company is subscribed to Manufacton's Analytics package, tools can be effectively tracked and reported on from there as well.

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