Requirements - Field Service (FS)

Overview

The Field Service application tracks units in the file, maintains repair history, tracks scheduled service and performs failure analysis by unit, product code and customer.

Serial numbers are used to track field service information for specific units. These units may be either end items or components/assemblies. If components are serialized, they should be pegged to the end item they are used in.

Field repairs are recorded in the Field Service application with a failure code assigned to identify the nature of the product failure. Repair history should be available by unit, end item, customer and product code.

Field service inventories may be required to perform repairs and may be stored in several locations. Appropriate levels of spare parts inventory are determined by historical usage or by comparing customer orders with product failure rates stored in the Warranty Tracking application.

The Field Service application may also track routine service calls for products that require regular service. To accomplish this service intervals must be established for each product and reports generated regularly for serviceable units in the field.

Functions

• Maintain field service/repair information for both components and end items
• Peg serialized components to the end item's serial number
• Access field service information by end item serial number or serialized component number
• Maintain end item serial number tracking in:
• Final test
• Finished goods
• Any time after the unit is shipped
• Categorize repairs by user defined failure codes
• Maintain free form text to describe:
• Failure reason
• Repair action
• Service action
• Perform field unit repair analysis by:
• Serial number
• Failure code
• Component type
• Part number and revision
• Repair date
• Maintain a field service spare parts inventory
• Forecast spare parts inventory demand based on customer demand and meantimebetweenfailure for specific units
• Track and control part number and revision level updates (e.g., upgrades) for service parts
• Maintain interchangeability data on component revisions
• Track field service site visit history for installation of units
• Maintain unit location and repair history by customer and serial number
• Assign and schedule a regular service interval for specific units
• Track and control the ascurrent configuration for specific units
• Assign a given customer to a field service territory
• Report scheduled routine service activity by:
• Customer site
• Unit
• Territory
• Product line
• Report on status of scheduled routine service for specific units.

Inquiries

• Access field service information by end item serial number of serialized component number on line.
• Inquiry into the status of a service call for handling customer inquiries. Inquiry should be allowed by:
• Customer number
• Service call number
• Customer name
• Zip (Post) code/ telephone number
• Other user defined.

Reports

• Unit Service History Report – Printed on demand, this report details the service history of units in the field. It may be sequenced by serial number, part number, or product code.
• Serialized Component Report – Printed on demand, this report lists the serialized components and assemblies in a particular product. Failure histories are also listed for each serialized component or assembly.
• Customer Service Report – Printed on demand, this report lists the units, location, and service history of units purchased by a particular customer or customers.
• Field Failure Report – Printed on demand, this report details by failure code all units which have required repair since a specified date.
• Repair Cost Report – Printed on demand, this report details by repaired units, or component, the costs of repair and amount charged to the customer.
• Scheduled Service Report – Printed weekly or monthly, this report lists all regular service required for units in each field service territory or product line.
• Field Service Activity Report – Printed on demand, this report lists all service/repair activity that has occurred during a given time period. This report can be sorted by customer, territory, product line and indicates service actions taken, costs incurred and billing amounts.
• Monthly Returned Goods Report – Details by direct customer, by part number, by failure code, all product returns for the month (in warranty, out of warranty and damaged/abused).

Forms

• Return Goods Authorization - Form that should accompany goods returned to the factory.

Interfaces

• Warranty Tracking – Obtains component failure and product history information from Field Service
• Quality Assurance – Supplies component failure rate data and failure reason for forecasting spare parts inventory demand
• Order Entry – Customer service charges for product repair are accumulated in Field Service and loaded into the Order Entry application for invoicing
• Inventory Control – Demand for spare parts is directed through the Field Service application into Inventory Control. This information is used to determine the appropriate level of spares inventory necessary to maintain the desired level of customer service.
• Bill of Materials – Maintains product configuration records for reference in field repair.

Key Fields

• Products Tracked
• Serial Numbers
• Failure Codes
• Field Service Territory
• Field Service Inventory Locations
• Customer
• Product Location

Requirements - Receiving/Distribution Center (RDC)

Overview

Receiving/Distribution Center system supports the on-order verification process for receiving purposes. It will automatically update the perpetual inventory and act as the foundation for an automated Accounts Payable Module. It will track and provide information necessary to develop Open-to-Buy and manage on-order positions.

Receipts and Returns

• Provide receiving history by accumulating data by department/class, vendor, distribution center/store, style, and SKU and summarizing as data elements by department/class, vendor and warehouse/store (units and Business Currency)
• Maintain detailed audit trails to be printed, reflecting all activity against the receiving system
• Maintain a partial receipt file to avoid receiving overages or making duplicate payments
• Allow the maintenance of receiving information, including changes and voids; update the appropriate purchase order and inventory files
• Allow for purchasing, receiving and accounts payable comments to be printed on a receipt by purchase order or by line item
• Flag and report receipts with overages, shortages, or damages
• Automatically assign a receiving worksheet number to each receipt for shipments to the Assign a range of receiving worksheet numbers and a range of key rec numbers so they do not overlap with each other
• Print prices on receiving/storage marking labels
• Maintain a control log of opened and closed receiving worksheet numbers
• Scan and inquire against the open purchase order file by vendor number or name, either online or via reports
• Automatically generate a sequential line number for every receiving worksheet line item
• Reprint receiving worksheets and highlight that it is a duplicate copy. Include receiving worksheet/key rec header information, such as name of carrier, number of cartons, weight, etc., on receiving worksheets
• Access purchase order information online
• Receive by exception (enter purchase order number and flag received as ordered or key exceptions only)
• Stage merchandise for pre and post distribution
• Automatically generate a debit memo, shipping label, and packing slip for those discrepancies coded as a return to vendor
• Receive EDI communications from vendors on the ANSI X12 standard for forthcoming shipments. This preshipment advice should be coupled with the ability to laser scan bar codes on vendor cartons and be matched to the preshipment data transmitted. This data in turn should be capable of being matched to the ticket file and tickets printed sorted for the inventory in each carton. Thereby, the garment confirmation count is eliminated; the ticketing process becomes the count.
• Allow users to correct receiving errors:
• By quantity
• By cost
• Release a portion of each receipt into Quality Control inventory and hold the rest of the inventory until Quality Control approves the merchandise
• Reallocate store shipments based on current store balance and demand (as opposed to original balance and demand which originally were used to create the purchase order).

Additional Functions for Food Retailers

• Receive random weight products (by item and case).

Distribution

• Allocate goods to the stores by any of the following store combinations:
• All stores
• Selected stores by:
• Profile (e.g., cold weather)
• Demographics
• Price point
• Market area
• Store inventory needs
• Rate of sale by store by:
• Subclass (new merchandise)
• Subclass/vendor (vendor sensitive merchandise)
• SKU (reordered merchandise)
• Related sub-classes in more than one class (e.g., leather – skirts, jackets, vests)
• Store matrix (e.g., AAA to D)
• Previous year
• Automatically classify stores at the class level by using store/class sales volume. There needs to be at least 10 classifications (e.g., AAA to D).
• Automatically classify stores by using store sales volume. There needs to be at least 10 classifications.
• Pick/pack all SKUs for all stores at the SKU level
• Pick/pack all stores for a SKU
• Update store inventory – intransit when packing is completed
• Update store inventory – actual when store confirms receipt
• Provide for carton and SKU status control by tracking by:
• Packed
• Shipped
• Confirmed receipt
• Maintain SKU shipment history and onhand history for a rolling 64 weeks
• Generate, track, and control shipping manifests for each truck with unit counts by store
• Utilize item cube and weight data for space management
• Allow for both preassigned and variable entry of slots
• Allow for multiple items per slot
• Permit post receiving entry of slots
• Allow users to correct receiving errors
• Support cycle counting:
• By slot location
• By date
• Of problem products
• ABC (volume, pilfered items, Business Currencys)
• Develop a receiving door schedule
• Provide labor standards:
• Put away
• Picking
• Replenishment
• Provide documentation and reports to support physical inventories
• Prevent the receipt of product against one purchase order at multiple warehouses
• Generate picking labels with different sort sequences for each warehouse
• Enter product that was not available to be picked.

Additional Functions for Food Retailers – Distribution

• Ship random weight products (item and case level).

Warehousing

• Automatically allocate merchandise to the appropriate primary warehouse location at the point of receipt and print on the receiving worksheet. Any excess merchandise should be assigned to a designated bulk location.
• Print put away labels using bar codes for wanding purposes, if desired
• Automatically replenish primary locations with bulk merchandise
• Generate system assigned restocking tickets which reflect both a pull and put away location
• Track unused bulk space by zone
• Support multiple primary pick locations per item
• Track merchandise locations in areas other than bins (such as damages)
• Allow for alphanumeric warehouse locations. Support the ability to check digit each location
• Support warehouse space utilization modeling, placing merchandise randomly according to available space within a zone, as dictated by physical characteristics of product
• Adjust inventory using appropriate security passwords
• Assign new receipts to primary locations only if their stock level has fallen below its restocking point. This will save time by avoiding splitting a shipment and making two trips to separate locations.
• Support picking of bulk merchandise on a first in, first out (FIFO) basis, based on receipt date
• Generate pick tickets by zone
• Sequentially assign pick ticket numbers for control purposes to track open and closed pick tickets
• Adjust or cancel a pick ticket by exception only
• Assign page numbers to multiple paged pick tickets
• Generate emergency manual pick tickets online on an exception basis
• Preview a day’s demand and automatically allocate merchandise on pick tickets for store orders if sufficient quantities of inventory are not available
• If unavailable quantities exceed a specific threshold, provide the capability for management to establish allocation priorities by setting their own parameters.
• Warehouse cost should be related to the warehouse in which a product is stored
• Maintain product movement history
• Generate, track and control shipping manifests with carton counts by store
• Generate a bill of loading.

Key Fields

• Receiving Data
• Receiver Number
• Distribution Center
• Department
• Class
• Subclass
• Vendor
• SKU
• Received Units
• Received Business Currency (Business Currency)
• Received Pounds (Kg)
• Units Over/Short
• Business Currency Over/Short
• Pounds Over/Short
• Business Currency Damaged
• Units Damaged
• Pounds Damaged
• Status (e.g., Held, Quality Control, etc.)
• Quality Control Data
• Vendor
• SKU
• Vendor Item Number
• Total Units
• Accepted
• Rejected
• Distribution/Allocation Data
• Store
• Department
• Class
• Subclass
• SKU
• Item Cube
• Item Weight
• Business Currency Sales
• Unit Sales
• Weight Sales
• Store Matrix Classification (e.g., AAA through D)
• Demographics (e.g., Cold/hot weather, ethnic populations, age, income, etc.)
• Inventory Intransit
• Inventory Onhand
• Performance Data
• Zone
• Department
• Class
• Subclass
• Employee
• Activity (e.g., Pick, Pack, Put away, etc.)
• Pieces/Units per hour
• Business Currencies per hour
• Warehouse Data
• SKU
• Picking Location(s)
• Reserve Location(s)
• Cube
• Weight.

Reports

• Receiving Worksheets – Captures receipt and freight information for a shipment when it arrives
• Daily Receipts Report – Printed daily. This report shows all receipts by store/distribution center, purchase order and item reflecting on-hand, quantity ordered, and quantity received. Receipts that are received by adding a worksheet line item should be flagged.
• Receiving Worksheet Control Log – Printed daily. The log shows all receiving worksheets opened, closed, and still outstanding. Should be in a format to allow easy shipment review for acceptance or refusal if PO canceled or past ship date. Override controls should be provided with a clear audit trail. An automatic cancellation option is desired.
• Discrepancy Report – Printed daily. This report lists overages, shortages, damages, cancellations, or late shipments.
• Trouble Report – Printed daily. This report details any unresolved discrepancies.
• Opentoship Report – Printed weekly. This report is similar to open-to-buy and reflects next week's anticipated shipments.
• Stock Status Report (units and Business Currencys) – Print as required. This report sorts merchandise by age (receipt date) and stock status.
• Price Tags with Compare At Pricing – Price tags should be printed by store/SKU and optional competitor price.

Additional Reports for Warehousing

• Pick Tickets – Printed as required. Details items and quantities to be picked by location and/or by SKU
• Restocking Tickets – Printed as required
• Warehouse Service Level Report. Printed as required. This report lists the number of items requested versus actually shipped by category and by item. Summarized at the store level
• Picking Exception Report – Printed as required. This report lists items restocked more than once a week or not restocked at all within a one week period.
• Pick Ticket Control Log – Printed as required. This report shows the status of all pick tickets (open, closed, outstanding).
• Pick Tick Audit Report – Printed as required. This report shows the audit trail of inventory adjustments.
• Product Profile Report – Print as required. This report lists the average number of times a product is ordered.
• Zone Activity Analysis Report – Printed as required. This report shows the number of picks per zone.
• Daily Bulk Space Available Report – Printed daily. This report shows the amount and location of bulk space available.
• Inventory Tracking Report – Printed as required. This report monitors all product movement within the warehouse by reason code (pick, restock, re-warehouse).
• Pick/Pack Productivity Report – Printed as required. This report shows productivity and throughput by picker and warehouse area, provides an executive summary highlighting number of locations traveled to the number of pieces put away, and product size.
• Rewarehousing Report – Printed as required. This report provides rewarehousing and consolidation information.

Additional Reports for Apparel Retailers

• Distribution Center Service Level Report – Printed as required. This report shows service level by category and item reflecting the number of items requested versus actually shipped. Summarized at the distribution center/store level.
• Anticipated Deliveries Report – Printed daily. This report summarizes the number of units and the anticipated receipts based on purchase order due dates. Units should be summarized as flat, hanging, flat to hang and accessories.
• Picking Documents – Printed as required. Picking documents should include:
• –Warehouse zone
• Shipping zone (stores grouped by carrier)
• SKU

Interfaces

• Handheld Devices – Support an interface with handheld devices.