Quick-Start / Building Operations

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 mange these parts.

Benefits

You can develop a parts inventory that includes the physical count of your parts on hand and cost information, or you can simply add parts and associate them with specific work requests. By simply adding parts from the Report Problem form, you can then review the types of parts you are using each month from the Parts Usage report.

Developing a parts inventory that includes the physical count and cost of parts is optional,can provide 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. When a supervisor makes an estimation for a work request that uses parts, the parts inventory is updated. If you have entered the quantity on hand (Physical Count), the application updates the Quantity Available by subtracting the number of estimated (reserved parts) from the Physical Count you entered for that part.
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.
If you enter the Unit Cost - set by user - the application can use this to calculate the cost of parts and include this is the costs shown in the Cost Analysis Dashboard.

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 to 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 Inventory	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 enter a physical count if you want to have the system track availability.
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.

Step 1 - Define the parts inventory

To define parts:

From the Quick-Start Home page, under Background Data tasks, select Define Parts Inventory.
The Define Parts Inventory form appears.
At the top of the Parts list, click Add New.
In the Parts pane, enter the following required information:
Part Code: Enter the unique identifier for the part. For example, enter BULB-FLOOD-150W.
Part Description: Enter a description to further identify the part. For example, enter 150W, 120V, 4000 Hrs., 4 1/2" Dia., Tung to describe a particular florescent bulb.
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.
The following fields are needed if you want the application to calculate the cost of parts associated with work requests. The costs of parts can be included in the Cost Analysis Dashboard.if you enter the following information and then associate the parts with work requests.
Unit Cost - Set by User: Enter the typical cost/unit, so that the application can include the cost of the part in the cost summary shown in the Cost Analysis Dashboard.
Units of Issue / Unit o f Order: Enter the unit used for issuing or ordering this part (each, lbs, kilogram, feet, inches, dozen, ounce, gallon, liter, quart, or other).
The following are optional fields that you might want to add to better track your inventory of parts:
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.
Physical Count Qty / Date of Last Count.: If you periodically survey your supplies and count the physical quantity you have, you can record the physical count of your parts in this field. This quantity tracks usage in terms of units of issue.You can also enter the date that you did the counting.
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.
Click Save.

Calculated fields

When you enter a new part into inventory and click save, the system adjusts:

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, or Update Work Order calculation actions, which record the parts you consumed in executing work.
Unit Cost – Average (which the application uses to calculate work request part costs)
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.
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.).

Step 2 - 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 3 - Manually adjust the inventory

When you close out work requests, the application automatically deducts the parts used for the work from the parts inventory. However, sometimes you may need to manually update the inventory to reflect new parts that have been received as part of an order, or consumed parts that were not recorded as part of a work request. When this occurs, you can run the Adjust Inventory action to make changes to the inventory.

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

For information on manually adjusting the inventory and on the Inventory Transaction report, see Manually Adjusting the Parts Inventory.

Optional - run the Calculate Inventory Usage action

The Calculate Inventory Usage actions performs calculations, such as Total Inventory Value, that are used in reports that are not part of Quick-Start. This action performs two calculations that are relevant for Quick-Start:

Quantity of Understocked Parts. This is calculated as the difference between the Minimum to Store that you enter into the parts inventory, and the Quantity Available calculated by the system.
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.