Maximo

Inventory Counting using IBM Maximo Mobile

Introduction-

Inventory counting is a process of physically verifying and recording the quantities of stock a business holds. The key object is to ensure the quantity in the digital system matches with actual quantities on hand. 

Benefits-

• Maintain accurate stock level
• Track discrepencies
• Avoid stock outs, overstocking or financial losses

Cycle Counting-

It is a method where a small portion of inventory is counted at regular intervals . It is a continuous process and frequency depends on the various factors like how much value an item adds, if it is fast moving or slow moving , ABC classification, item category etc. 

Adhoc Counting-

This is a counting done outside of regular schedule typically in response to a specific need or issue. Storeroom Clerk can perform Adhoc count if a need arise and verify the stock levels.

In this blog I  will be discussing the details about the functionalities available in Maximo Mobile for Inventory Counting. Please note that this feature is available from 8.8 onwards

Persona

Inventory Manager

Responsible for below duties with respect to Cycle Counting-

• Inventory Control Management - oversee stock levels , inventory accuracy, forecasting, reordering
• Inventory cycle counts- plan and implement cycle counts, investigate discrepancies, ad hoc counts. Inventory Manager ensures that Count Book is created based on predefined rules like ABC classification, item category, location etc.

Storeroom Clerk

• Inventory cycle counts- Responsible for physical counting the inventory items listed in the Count books. They are assigned specific areas or groups of items to count based on Count Books.

Apart from above responsibilities, Inventory Manager and Storeroom Clerk perform other duties related to Inventory Management but for this particular scenario, we are focusing on Inventory Counting.

Count Books

Count Books application allows Inventory Manager to create the count book that lists specific inventory items along with details like item, storeroom type , count type,    item selection type etc.  This is created in Manage and not available in Maximo Mobile.

•  Create count book
• Group items for counting
• Define count tolerance
• Reconcile inventory from the count book

Let us see how it works-

1. Go To Count Books application in Manage and create new count book.  Key information-

• Specify storeroom where counting is to be done
• Reason-Provide reason for count for eg- spot check
• Memo- more details
• GL Credit Account and GE Debit Account is already picked up from storeroom
• Selection Type - Provide selection criteria around Item Selection that are needed to be included in this particular count book.  Eg-
  • ALL- Specify ALL items In storeroom 
  • BIN- Specific Bin
  • CNTFREQ- Items based on specific count freq . For eg- Select me everything that needs to be counted by today
  • ICG - Inventory Counting Group . On Inventory records count groups are specified. 
  • ITEM- Only specific Items within the storeroom
  • ROTATING-All Rotating Items in storeroom
  • TOOLS- All Tools in storeroom

2. When count book is saved, selection criteria is run. The items meeting the criteria are added in Count Book Lines. It is read only because status is WAPPR and we can't perform a count but some information that is helpful when we are doing the count-

•     Match - If we have match or not
•     Accuracy- how accurate is the count . Actual vs System value
•     Reconcile- Once count is done, we can check the reconcile checkbox. It will reconcile the balance.
•     Current Balance- shows the current balance in inventory

5. I can perform the count here in Count Books application or via Mobile Inventory Counting App.

6. Let us understand concept of Tolerance. Go to Inventory Application and you will notice three new fields related to counting

• Count Group - The counting group to which item belongs
• Plus Count Tolerance - If I put a % tolerance, it will allow physical count over a certain percentage and still be fine with the match
• Minus Count Tolerance - If I put a % tolerance, it will allow physical count under a certain percentage and still be fine with the match

7. Organization Settings-

   Go to Inventory Options->Count Books Options

• Default count tolerance- If items do not have individual count tolerance specified then by default this % tolerance is used.
• Count rules- when we pull count lines into count book. In this case it is mentioned all Items. We can specify 'No Balance' in case we don't wanna pull in items for counting if balance is zero.  If we select  'No Issue' then the items which have not been issued within certain number of days will be excluded.
• Allow blind counts in Inventory Counting- If this is checked, we do not expose the details about balance of item in Role based application.

Inventory Counting

Inventory Counting is available in both Mobile as well as Role Based. 

In Role Based Inventory counting app, Reconciliation functionality is additional ( Please note that reconciliation is not available in Mobile)

in Mobile, we have Count Books and Ad Hoc Count.

1. Login to Maximo Mobile.

2. Click on inventory Counting. You will see below options

3. When click on Count books, the count books for the particular storerooms are shown. Please note that the default storeroom of the logged in user should be set. The count books will be shown for the default storeroom with status in Progress or Approved. These are sorted based on Count Due.

• Each card will show the important details like Counting due date, last count. 
• Some additional details like Overdue ( as you can see in the above screenshot in the red) and no of days by which the item is due counting.

4. Once we click on count book, there are two tabs- In Progress and Counted. The items needing count appear in 'In Progress' tab and once counting is done, they will move to 'Counted' tab. Below are functionalities available on this screen

• Filtering by Bin or Batch
• Find item by barcode/QR code scanning
• Do sorting based on Count Due, Bin and add more sort options.

5. Let us perform count.  As soon as we perform count, it moves to Counted tab.

Click on Save and Complete the count book. Post complete, the count book will no longer show in the list.

Now let us look at Role bases application, the experience is similar.

Now , let us look at Reconciliation. This is only available in CONNECTED Mode in Role based application. usually the warehouse managers/leads use this to understand the mismatched counts , review variance and perform reconciliation if needed.

By selecting the checkbox , we can reconcile the balance. This will update the transaction and update the Current Balance based on the latest physical count.

Conclusion-

Maximo Mobile provides a great way to perform the Inventory Counting effectively.

My next set of blog for Storeroom Clerk persona will be on Receiving and Issue and Transfers capabilities. Happy Learning :)