Product item inventory information

You can configure attributes for an item's inventory information that determine how it is monitored and handled for the overall inventory picture. The overall inventory picture provides the Application Console user with information about an item's availability and demand. This information can also be used to determine how long it takes to process the item and, if applicable, how long before the item expires.

You can also determine whether or not an item is tag controlled. A tag number is used to uniquely identify an item in the system regardless of the inventory identification numbers you use (for example, lot number and revision number). Inventory identification numbers are used to differentiate products within inventory, physically and systematically, because these “product instances” have different characteristics. Some common examples of identification numbers are lot number, revision number, and manufacturing batch number.

While an organization may have multiple inventory identification numbers, these identification numbers are not necessarily relevant to every product in the organization's catalog. For some products, a lot number uniquely defines all characteristics, whereas revision number differentiates another product. The inventory tag number is used to rationalize these different situations. In most cases, the tag number represents one of the inventory identification numbers such as lot number, batch number, or revision number based on the product.

For example, you have two different items, one called Item A that is uniquely identified by a lot number and one called Item B that is uniquely identified by a revision number. In this case, when an instance of Item A is created with a lot number of 12345, it is also assigned a tag number of 12345. When an instance of Item B is created with a revision number of 98765, it is also assigned a tag number of 98765.

Some of these attributes can also be specified at the classification level. For more information about viewing inheritable attributes, see Viewing inheritable attributes.

For more information about defining common item attributes, see Defining common item attributes for a classification value.