Information Systems:ASW Warehouse Balance Files

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Overview

This page discusses the 4 warehouse files/tables that are often implicated in issues with the weekly out-of-balance reports. Any time Purchasing or the DC complains about quantity imbalances that they can no longer correct, it involves these files. This article was written after a thorough discussion with Protelo regarding the interface between ASW-DIS and ASW-WHM modules. It will not have instructions to solve specific problems with these files but instead provide general insight into the matter which has been validated by a firm that specializes in ASW. Explore the categories below to find related articles. 

Note: There is some overlap with this article written by Sheila, although that attempts to describe patterns behind some of the issues. I  think the content in the "Overview" section of that article is more accurately described here. -norwizzle (talk)

The 4 item balance and transaction files

In essence, these 4 files keep track of item balances and transactions. There is a pair of item balance/transaction files for ASW Distribution (ASW-DIS), and a correlating pair for ASW Warehouse Management (WHM). The key to understanding this topic is to understand the difference in purpose and relationship between ASW-DIS and ASW-WHM. That is sort of touched on throughout this article, but perhaps a separate discussion is required for that topic.

Files in ASW-DIS (SROSRO and SROITR)

The ASW-DIS module involves purchase order and sales order tasks. The main concern is the concept of items brought into inventory and sold from inventory.

SROSRO - Stockroom balance by item: Item exists here as a single record per warehouse (MAI, RET etc.). This file holds information on item quantities as it relates to ASW-DIS - on hand, on order (PO), available, and reserved, with some of these being calculated fields. Note that there is no info pertaining to the item's location in the warehouse. Rather, the quantity just refers to how many there are in the system. Colloquially, this balance has been referred to as the ASW balance. Interestingly (read: frustratingly), ASW sometimes refers to this as the warehouse balance, despite their otherwise terming of the warehouse as stockroom.

SROITR - Stockroom inventory transactions: Inventory is the net difference between quantities purchased and quantities sold, so the type of transactions that make up this file are similarly two-fold: purchase order additions and sales order subtractions (specific to an item, of course). Interestingly, the creation of a purchase order does not itself register the "add" transaction, but rather that occurs upon the closing of an inbound shipment. This actually makes perfect sense: a purchase order is just a marker in the system that the items were ordered to be added to inventory, but it is not until the warehouse is done with their tasks to receive the items that the stock is actually available in inventory. Positive-value transactions (additions) from purchase orders in SROITR are thus logged and associated with the user that closed the inbound shipment/PO. Conversely, sales orders do not register the negative value transactions in this file (subtractions from inventory), but rather the completion of a picked order by an RF user. 

Note: Don't be confused by the fact that the transactions in this file are associated with tasks in the ASW-WHM module. They are merely triggers that invoke ASW-DIS processes.

Files in ASW-WHM (WHOLOC and WHOLTR)

ASW-WHM involves tasks related to item quantities and transactions within warehouse locations (i.e. shelves). Many tasks in ASW-WHM are actually performed through another ASW module: ASW-RFH, and others are accessed through the customized "50 - Warehouse" menus designed as part of Unity.

WHOLOC - Warehouse location balance: Items can be located in several locations within the warehouse. In fact, even users are defined as locations in ASW-WHM. When an RF user picks an item, for example, theoretically a record would exist for a transient period in this file with the item at the user location (i.e. 4 eaches at MAI 99 JOHND), until the transaction occurs to the move the item from this location to 88-PACKING. Records only exist in this file if there is a non-zero quantity for an item at a location. That is, if there are 9 eaches at location A1-Z123 and all 9 are picked, the record is deleted. This further illustrates the separation of concerns between ASW-WHM and ASW-DIS. While ASW-DIS may need to acknowledge and keep track that an item has a quantity of 0 (so that a purchase suggestion can be generated, for example), ASW-WHM does not need to be aware that there are no eaches of that item for a warehouse task to modify, and deletes the record. 

Note: ASW-WHM may not be concerned that the item does not currently exist in the warehouse, but it does need to know where an item would go if it were to exist. This information is stored in WHOLOP - Warehouse  location occupancy. Active and regularly stocked items will have a record in this file specifying an MAI location. That same item may also have fields/records in this file specifying the assigned zone, and  additional overstock locations.

WHOLTR - Warehouse location transactions: Log of item movement within warehouse locations. Sometimes this file is difficult to interpret, as each RF action is logged as multiple (as many as 5) transactions. For example, when picking an item, there is a (-) transaction from the location and a (+) addition to the user location. There is then a pair of -/+ transactions from the user location to 88-PACKING. Finally, there is (-) transaction from 88-PACKING, resulting in a net decrease in quantity as a result of the sales order.

Relationship between files

Needless to say, the 4 files must balance (per item). When tasks in ASW-DIS and ASW-WHM as executed as per normal routine, the underlying transactions do balance all the files. There are many processes that update these 4 files, and any interruptions of the underlying processes are what cause imbalances between these files. To better examine the relationship of these files, consider a particular example - the life cycle of a PO:

  • A purchase order is generated by a buyer, containing a list of items (PO lines). This purchase order exists within the ASW-DIS module. Keep in mind that this purchase order could be received/completed (i.e. brought to status 60) entirely within ASW-DIS (recall how manual orders are received i.e. through a reception note). However, for regular items in inventory, receiving the PO in ASW-DIS would mean that there would be no trace of these items ever entering the warehouse.
  • Thus normally, when the warehouse receives a shipment notice for a purchase order, they create an inbound shipment for that PO. An inbound shipment is to ASW-WHM as a reception note is to ASW-DIS (in fact, an inbound shipment correlates to one or more reception note(s) behind the scenes). Creating an inbound shipment to receive goods is essentially the only way to receive a PO in the warehouse (on an RF gun) i.e. the warehouse does not receive POs manually.
  • There are now two documents (one relevant to each module) with a list of the same items to be received - the PO and the inbound shipment. ASW-DIS and ASW-WHM are linked at this point, for this PO. Further processes need to update all 4 files.
  • RF receiving will update the ASW-WHM files (WHOLOC and WHOLTR) and the inbound shipment lines.
  • The closing of the inbound shipment will update the files in ASW-DIS (SROSRO and SROITR).

Other notes

DIS-to-FIN

Just as WHM is related to DIS, DIS is also related to FIN. When purchase orders and sales orders are received and fulfilled, respectively, the financial aspects of these transactions need to be applied to ASW-FIN. This is done during the overnight DIS-to-FIN process.

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