From the Maximo Support Desk - Maximo Inventory Kits Compendium

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Over the years I have answered several questions that Maximo Users have had regarding Kits in Maximo Inventory functionality.  If you search for information strictly about the Maximo Kit functionality, you may find several different documents which each discuss one or more aspects of using Kits in your inventory, so I'm presenting a more singular source of the most common usage information here.  Hopefully this article will assist you in utilizing this robust functionality in your Maximo inventory process.

The the practical definition of a Kit is simply a group of consumable inventory items that are issued together.  The classic example of this would be an oil change kit that gets issued to a Work Order where one of the tasks is to change the oil on a vehicle...  

Your inventory may contain three items that are required for this task:
    Oil - quart, 6 each
    Disposable Filter Wrench - 1 each
    Rags - cloth, 1 each

Your process could include issuing the three separate items in the quantities indicated, but it is more efficient for planning and re-ordering purposes to always package these items together and issue them all together to the Work Order as a Kit.  The procedures below indicate how to put this together, and make it operate as one item in your inventory.  The end result in this example is that you would issue one item, "Oil Change Kit" to the Work Order.  That single item, however, is comprised of three individual inventory items (Oil, Disposable Filter Wrench, Rags) in the required quantities.  

How To Create A Kit:

1. Go To Inventory | Item Master
2. Click on the New Item button
3. In the Item field enter a name for the Kit and Description
4. Click the checkbox for Kit?
5. Enter an Order Unit, such as EACH
6. Enter an Issue Unit, such as EACH
7. Save the record
8. On the Item Assembly Structure tab add the Items:
9. Note: You can add only items that are not Condition Enabled, rotating, or lotted.
10. Click on the New Row button
11. In the Item field | detail menu | Select Value | click on the item
12. In the Quantity field enter the quantity for the item
13. Repeat the previous steps until all the items have been added to the kit
14. Save the record
15. Select Action | Add Items to Storeroom
16. Select the desired Storeroom(s)
17. Enter a Standard Cost
18. Click OK
19. Click on the Change Status button
20. Select Active for the New Status
21. Click the checkbox for "Roll New Status to Organizations and Inventory?"
22. Click OK
23. Save the record

How To Add A Kit To Inventory:

1. Go To Inventory | Inventory
2. In the Item field enter the name of the Kit and press Enter
3. Click on the record to open it
4. Select Action | Assemble Kit
5. The dialog box will show how many Kits are currently able to be assembled, based on quantities of the kit's items; enter the desired quantity in the Assemble Quantity field and click OK
6. Save the record

How To Disassemble A Kit Or Remove An Item From A Kit:
A kit must be disassembled in every storeroom in which it exists before an item can be deleted from the kit.

1. In Item Master, open the record for the Kit                              
2. Look at the Items in Item Assembly Structure tab and the Storerooms tab to identify where the Kit is stocked.  You will need to disassemble the kit in each one of these Storerooms. 
3. In each Storeroom where the kit exists, the Kit must be disassembled:    
4. In Inventory application: Select Action | Disassemble Kit                                          
5. Enter the quantity to match the current balance (to disassemble all kits)                                                                    
6. Save the record                                           
7. Go Back to Item Master                                                   
8. Open the Kit Item record                                                 
9. Delete the item(s) from the Item Assembly Structure                      
10. Save the record                                         
11. Go Back to Inventory for each Storeroom that the Kit(s) were disassembled and then Assemble the Kit(s)                                
12. Select Action | Assemble Kit
13. Save the record

Now that I've outlined the User steps surrounding Kit functionality, here are some frequently asked questions and answers...

Notes about Reordering Kits:
If your vendor has the individual items that comprise your kit, but does not sell them as a kit, then you must reorder the individual items and then assemble the kit yourself.  If your vendor sells the individual items packaged as a kit, identical to the kit that you assemble in your inventory, then you will not see the individual inventory items' balances increased until you use the "Disassemble Kit" function. You will, however, see the inventory balance increase for the kit upon receipt.

Reservations?  If a reservation is made on a Work Order for a kit, the reservation treats the kit as a single item - reservations will be made according to the current balance of assembled kits, not the individual items that comprise the kit.

Other details regarding Kits:

• An item can be part of more than one kit
• A kit component can itself be a kit, allowing multiple level of composition; in other words one of the Kit items can be a different Kit
• A kit item cannot be condition enabled or rotating
• When you add a Kit item to a Storeroom, the Kit components are automatically added as well

                                          
Latest Enhancement:
Starting with Maximo 7.5.0.10 Feature Pack and 7.6.0.3 Feature Pack, there is a new option for disassembling a Kit:

In the default design of Kit functionality, when disassembling a Kit, the TOBIN field is set to the inventory item's default bin. If a default bin is not specified, it will use the first bin in the invbalances result set.  The enhanced functionality now allows you to automatically have the Kit disassembled to the same bin of the Kit.  This is achieved by using the System Property, mxe.app.inventor.useSourceBinForInvKitAction.

• If this property value is set to 0 : This will set your design to work as previously. The Kit gets disassembled to the items' default bin(s) or the first bin in the INVBALANCES result set.
• If this property value is set to 1 : This will make the Kit get disassembled to the same bin of Kit.  If the same bin doesn't exist for any of the Kit components, then the bin will be created automatically.

Hopefully this information is your one-stop shopping for all the information that you need to work with Kits in your Maximo inventory process.

I have also published this information in more formal, knowledge-base article that you can send to any Users or colleagues that might benefit from this information:

Inventory Kits - Detailed Setup and Notes

Tom Richardson is an IBM Maximo Support Engineer and frequent contributor to the Asset Management Blog community.  For a complete index of links to his articles, visit
Index of articles by Tom Richardson, Support Engineer