Workflow and approvals
The workflow feature of IBM® MRO Inventory Optimization addresses the need for financial as well as managerial approval after changes have been made to stock keeping units by users.
Workflow ensures that when changes have been made to any stock keeping unit the correct approval is sought before the changes are exported to the ERP.
Workflow streamlines the due diligence process, for both the reviewer and team members that are required to approve the changes made.
It does this by allowing organizations to customize business approval rules in IBM MRO Inventory Optimization that manage the routing and sequential approval process, from submission through to approval.
As MRO supply chain and inventory management processes require the ability to provide due diligence around their decision making processes, especially financial approval, this feature provides this to the customers.
The problem
When IBM MRO Inventory Optimization recommends changes to be applied to the client’s system, accepting these changes is not always a simple matter.
Some of these changes propagate large effects, impacting cost, value and inventory levels significantly - effects that reflect on the organizations' balance sheet.
Due to the impact of these decisions, an estimation for possible oversight must be applied to the decision making process in order to manage future changes arising from IBM MRO Inventory Optimization recommendations.
The workflow engine
The workflow engine allows a single individual, an Inventory Controller for example, to submit changes for approvals. Approvals required for item changes will automatically be solicited from specific individuals within an organization based on the rules that have been set up.
Whether these approvals are required or not is determined by these rules.
Workflow rules can only be set up by company personnel who are designated IBM MRO Inventory Optimization administrators or the IBM consulting team.
Changes that result in specific effects, or that match specific criteria, specified in these rules must be approved by responsible company personnel.
Example situations
The workflow engine assists in the following scenarios:
- Permissions on how much spend a user has the authority to approve.
- The need for Maintenance to approve changes to critical items.
- The warehouse supervisor providing input to decisions, i.e. do they have the space to hold it?
- Business impact changes at an item level require Inventory Manager input.
- Additions to inventory greater than or equal to a specific value requires Executive General Manager approval.
Keeping track of changes that carry results beyond moderate thresholds, and having these changes be reviewed and signed off by responsible parties, is the purpose of workflow.