Part Administration - An Overview

Parts are the basic entities that need to be stored in different units of an organization. Parts are not only the core elements of a transaction in a logistics cycle; information like manufacturer part number, preferred supplier, standard warehouse, alternate part numbers etc., are used in all transactions within the organization. Part Administration business component provides for the definition of parts starting with their unique identity to their primary, planning, purchasing and sales information.

Every organization generally has a comprehensive Illustrated Parts Catalogue (IPC), which is used across processes. Primary information like part number, shelf life etc. are generally common across locations. Some information regarding parts like preferred supplier for sourcing the part, default warehouse where the part is stored etc., are specific to different organizational units or locations. Part Administration business component starts with identification of the main information of parts, which are common across all locations that share the parts master information. Other part numbers and alternate part numbers can also be maintained. Once the part is listed in the reference master list, each location, which has its own planning, or procurement can maintain their location specific planning, purchase and sales information. This business component also provides facility to define Group Hierarchy wherein parts can be associated to groups and groups in turn to Group Types. This information is used by almost all business components of inventory as well as other linear chains that need part information.

The business component also allows you to define expensing policy for the parts for which time life costing is applicable. Time life costing is a method applicable for the serial number controlled parts whose cost is very high and whose costing is done based on the overhaul life of the part or phase value. The possible expensing policies defined for the part are “Core Value on Phase Out”, “On First Issue” and “On Phase Out”. Time life costing is applicable for Usage-Based schedules and for Expense Type ‘Revenue” only. Once a part number has been set as ‘timelife’ the system will restrict the issue transactions if there is no ‘Authorized Maintenance Program’ and the “Overhaul Value” is not defined for the time life costing components.

Getting familiar with the activities