Items can be designated for lot or serial control in the Lot/Serial Control screen or via the Lot/Serial tab within the Stock Items screen. When an item is designated for lot or serial control, a lot number or serial numbers must be assigned at time of receipt and lot number or serial numbers specified when items are issued, picked, or transferred.
Lot Control Purposes
Items can be designated for lot control for these purposes:
•Sell items, components, and raw materials must be designated for lot control in industries such as food and pharmaceuticals where it is legally required to do so.
•Critical raw materials and components can be designated for lot control so that potential quality problems can be traced back to specific job inputs to help determine the origin of problems and to assess affected jobs and sales orders for possible corrective action.
•Perishable items with a limited shelf life can be designated for lot control and expiration control so that they do not get used or sold past their expiration date.
Only use lot control when it is required or serves a useful purpose
Lot control requires extra processing time for inventory transactions and therefore should only be used against items where it is required or serves a useful purpose. When an item is designated for lot control, a lot number must be manually assigned with each receipt and lot numbers must be specified when items are issued or picked. Furthermore, lot controlled items must be labeled by lot number and stock on hand must be carefully stored so that different lots do not get intermingled.
Devise a lot numbering convention
Lot numbers are manually assigned at time of receipt. You should therefore devise a lot numbering convention that provides consistency to your lot numbers. A simple method is to use two segments where the first segment is the PO number or job number and the second segment is the date.
Use PO and job receipt labels to identify lots on hand
After lot numbers are assigned in the PO Receipts or Job Receipts screen, you can go to the Batch History tab to print receipt labels that can be formatted to include the lot number as well as PO or job details. These labels can be used to identify on hand stock by lot number. Receipt labels can be customized using the Forms Edit utility.
Perishable items use lot control and expiration date control
Perishable items with a limited shelf life must be designated for lot control and for expiration date control. When such items are received, a lot number must be assigned as well as an expiration date.
Serial control tracks individual units
Unlike lot control, where an item lot number applies to multiple units, an item serial number applies to one unit.
Purposes of serial control
Items can be designated for serial control for these purposes:
•Sell items can be designated for serial control when each unit requires quality control or warranty tracking.
•Critical job components, which are typically higher value items that are serialized by the manufacturer, can be designated for serial control to track their use in specific jobs.
Only use serial control when it serves a useful purpose
Serial control requires extra processing time for inventory transactions and therefore should only be used against items where it serves a useful purpose. When an item is designated for serial control, a set of serial numbers must be entered or generated against each receipt and individual serial numbers must be specified when items are issued or picked. Furthermore, serialized items must be individually labeled by serial number.
You can use manual or automatic serial numbering
At the item level you can specify manual or automatic serial numbering. Automatic numbering is ideal because it generates sequential serial numbers for you within a pre-defined length and optional prefix and suffix.
Use PO and job receipt labels for serial number identification
After serial numbers are assigned or generated in the PO Receipts or Job Receipts screen, you can go to the Batch History tab to print receipt labels that can be formatted to include each serial number as well as PO or job header details. These labels can be used to identify on hand stock by serial number. Receipt labels can be customized using the Forms Edit utility.
