Melissa Kruminas

Have you ever started to cook dinner just to realize you’re missing a few important ingredients for tonight’s meal? Or have you ever started to work on a project to realize you don’t have all the parts you need? Whether it’s tonight’s dinner or tomorrow’s project, the proper management of parts (or ingredients) plays a key role in your success. Infor EAM offers three tools to make your materials management process run smoothly. The difference between planned, reserved, and allocated parts is a common question by both new and experienced users. Let’s take a look at how these concepts apply both in the storeroom and in the kitchen.

Planned Parts

Planned parts are those parts that we may (or plan to) use on an upcoming job. Think of this as your recipe – these are the items you will need for the job. Whether planning parts directly to the project activity or using a materials list of pre-planned parts, your planner will be able to quickly view storeroom availability to determine whether he or she has the items needed and exactly how many may not be there. Think of this step as checking to make sure you have all the ingredients in the recipe. Checking your cupboard for ingredients doesn’t update your shopping list; it’s just a way to check what you need against what you have.

Reserved Parts

Reserved parts are those ingredients that you will use up when cooking your meal, so you need to go ahead and add them to the shopping list to replenish them. In EAM, reserved parts are deducted from the quantity on hand when determining whether inventory is below desired levels (depending on stock method) and should be considered in stock replenishment. Reserved parts can be considered a soft hold. Although reserved parts are taken into consideration for stock replenishment, reserving parts does not prevent other employees (or a hungry kid) from using your reserved parts (or eating your ingredients for dinner).

Allocated Parts

Just as reserved parts may be considered a soft hold, allocated parts are considered a hard hold on your parts. Allocating parts will hold them for the work order to which they are allocated, showing an adjusted quantity on hand in your storeroom. Consider these the toddler version of parts management (or the snack bin). “Don’t touch it. That’s mine!” View reserved and allocated parts on the Reservations tab of the store record.

Learn more about parts management, with our course offerings and with Melissa Kruminas at Infor EAM TechEd: Register now for Technical Hands-on training for Infor EAM in Denver, June 18-20, 2019.

This post was originally published on the Infor Blog.  It has been reposted by request.  Read the original post at: https://www.infor.com/blog/planning-reserving-and-allocating-parts-in-infor-eam