Consumable Materials are similar items that cannot be identified or tracked individually. These items typically have a lower cost and are not usually repaired. Examples include mounting hardware, cables, replacement filters, cartridges, etc.
An inventory manager, responsible for tracking a stock of consumable materials, should be able to report on the following:
- Quantity of material available (per location)
- Quantity of material received at a particular location over a period of time with a breakdown by transaction
- Quantity of material issued from a particular location to move to another location (warehouse) with a breakdown by transaction
- Quantity of material used (consumed) to perform work over a period of time with a breakdown by transaction
This article provides information and guidance on the following topics related to Consumable Materials.
Stock Keeping Units and Buckets
Consumable Materials of the same kind (e.g., model, condition) are typically indistinguishable from one another. Accordingly, InfraLink does not create multiple records to represent multiple batches of material that cannot be physically differentiated. For example, if we have X items of the given kind at a specific inventory location and then add another Y items of the same kind at the same location, we should end up with a single record that represents the total quantity (X+Y) of the material. This differs from Trackable Assets, for which InfraLink maintains a 1-to-1 Asset record.
Consumable Materials are managed in lots that InfraLink refers to as "buckets". Each bucket contains a quantity of stock keeping units (SKU) that is uniquely defined by:
- Model
- Status
- Warehouse
- Owner
- Contract
- Condition
- Assignee (if applicable)
- Expiration Date (if applicable)
Variable Quantities
A Consumable Material record may represent any quantity of stock keeping units (SKU). If, through Consumable Material transactions, a record is reduced to zero quantity, the record remains active and continues to display within applicable grid views. Future transactions may restore that record to positive quantities.
Consumable Material Transactions
Stocks of Consumable Materials may be split, moved, (re)combined, etc. So, InfraLink keeps the history of Consumable Material transactions, where each transaction represents moving a certain quantity of the material from one place or status to another place or status. In other words, transactions move SKU from one bucket to another bucket or, if applicable, a a newly created bucket.
Transaction Summary
| Transaction | Details | Initial Statuses | Target Statuses |
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| Confirm | The Confirm transaction is not intended to change the location or status of the Consumable Material. Rather, this transaction is used to verify the accuracy of the Consumable Material details in InfraLink. If a User, in the process of confirming a Consumable Material record, finds the actual quantity, condition, etc. of the Consumable Material lot is inaccurate, a transaction(s) would be necessary before that bucket should be confirmed. For example, if a record shows a quantity of "10" in InfraLink but the actual quantity on shelf is only "8", the User would perform a Report Missing transaction for the two units in question. Upon doing so, the original record could then be confirmed at the corrected quantity of "8". |
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| Receive New | The Receive New transaction should always be used to add newly purchased or received Consumable Materials.
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| Receive | The Receive transaction is used when Consumable Materials in transit reach their intended destination. The (Received) form allows Users to transition the received materials to the In Stock, Reserved or Staged status. |
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| Check In | The Check In transaction returns Checked Out materials to inventory via the (Check In) form. |
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| Ship | When Consumable Materials must be shipped from one location to another location, the Ship transaction is used. |
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| Transfer | There are a number of reasons why Consumable Materials may be transferred. For example, one Warehouse may transfer excess inventory to another Warehouse; items may be transferred to a lab site for staging; or specific quantities may be reserved for a pending repair or installation. |
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| Check Out | The Check Out Transaction allows Consumable Materials to be assigned to a specific User. The Assigned To field is required within the (Check Out) form, and only one User can be selected. |
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| Reserve | The Reserve transaction allows a specified quantity of material to be removed from the In Stock status and reserved for a person or purpose. The Assigned To field is optional within the (Reserve) form. |
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| Release Reservation | The Release Reservation transaction allows Users to transition all or a portion of reserved materials back into inventory (i.e., In Stock status). |
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| Report Use | Report Use is one of the most widely used transactions, as it records the use or consumption of Consumable Materials. Note: Material usage logged within the scope of a Case or Work Ticket Update does not impact Consumable Material record(s), as the two functions are detached. A separate Report Use transaction must be performed to properly reduce the appropriate Consumable Asset record, or bucket, by the SKU consumed. While the Assigned To field is optional within the (Report Use) form, the consistent selection of a User results in buckets that track consumption to project personnel. |
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| Report Missing | Given the nature of Consumable Materials, it is not uncommon for items to disappear from Warehouse shelves or staging set ups without record or notice. Additionally, material shipments sometimes bypass their intended recipient and are never properly received. In these scenarios, the Report Missing transaction can be used to properly status the items in question and correct inventory discrepancies. |
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| Report Damage | Report Damage transactions allow the User to transition the impacted quantity of material to a new Contract, location, status or condition via the (Report damage) form, and the transaction is recorded as a Report Damage update to the original bucket. |
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| Dispose | For numerous reasons, Consumable Materials may no longer be useful and require disposal. The Dispose transaction allows Users to transition a specified quantity of material to the Disposed status, which is a final status in InfraLink. |
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Performing Transactions
Consumable Material transactions performed from Asset grid views, via the Transactions menu options, add or transfer Consumable Material SKU between uniquely defined virtual buckets, each a Consumable Material record.
To perform a Consumable Material transaction:
- From the Main Menu, select an Assets grid view (i.e., All Assets, Spares) from the Materials Management stack.
- Apply filters to identify the desired Consumable Material record (i.e., the existing record that will be impacted by the planned transaction). For example:
- If adding newly received material to an existing inventory record, filter to locate the Consumable Material record that will be increased in quantity via a Receive new transaction.
- If reserving a quantity of In Stock items for a specific User, filter to locate the In Stock Consumable Material record that will be reduced by that quantity through a Reserve transaction.
- If transferring excess inventory from one warehouse to another, filter to locate the Consumable Material record for the inventory that will be split and moved to a new location by a Transfer transaction.
- Select the desired Consumable Material record.
- Select the appropriate transaction from the Transactions menu, which is positioned at the top of the grid view. See the Transaction Summary above for more information about each transaction type.
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- The application will present the corresponding Consumable Material transaction form.
- Certain form fields will be pre-populated based on the selected Consumable Material record. Note: Even when form fields are pre-populated, many transactions require the User to select the target status. Until that status selection is made, the application will not have the data necessary to identify bucket candidates.
- If adding a new Consumable Material (i.e., material not subject to previous records or transactions) to InfraLink, no record selection is necessary. For additional guidance, see:
- Receive new from the Transaction Summary section above and
- the Model and Type Creation During Receive New Transaction section below.
- Populate required form fields.
- Note the transaction form header, which communicates the application's search for bucket candidates. See the Identifying Bucket Candidates section below for more information.
- If no bucket candidate is identified, but you are confident that a matching record exists, double check the accuracy of form field entries (i.e., search criteria: Model, Status, Warehouse, Owner, Contract, Condition, Assignee and Expiration Date).
- Adjust form field entries as necessary to match target bucket.
- When ready, click OK at the bottom of the form.
- The specified quantity will be transferred to the appropriate bucket or, if applicable, a newly created bucket.
Transactions Detached from Case/Work Ticket-Logged Material Usage
It is important to note that Consumable Material consumption via the Report Use transaction is completely separate from material or miscellaneous expense usage logged within the scope of Case or Work Ticket updates (i.e., items logged when Case Status allows material tracking and/or miscellaneous expense tracking.) The associated Case or Work Ticket entries do not decrement quantities within Consumable Material records. A separate Report Use transaction must be performed to accurately decrement the appropriate bucket by the quantity used and/or logged.
Identifying Bucket Candidates
When processing any Consumable Material Transaction, InfraLink will persistently scan form fields entries against existing Consumable Material buckets to identify matches. As mentioned above, InfraLink scans the following fields for like entries:
- Model
- Status
- Warehouse
- Owner
- Contract
- Condition
- Assignee (if applicable)
- Expiration Date (if applicable)
As the User populates fields within the transaction form, the form header will display results of the application's search for matching buckets.
Ideally, upon entering all applicable data, the application will identify one matching bucket for that Consumable Material. However, real-world scenarios involving numerous active Users may produce multiple buckets for like Consumable Materials.
Selecting Bucket Impacted by Transaction
As noted above, it is recommended that Users first apply filters to identify an existing bucket that matches the Consumable Material in question. Selecting that Consumable Material record before selecting a transaction will pre-populate transaction form fields with many details and reduce the possibility of duplicate record/bucket creation.
Model and Type Creation During Receive New Transaction
As Users add new Consumable Materials to InfraLink via the Receive New transaction, the (Receive New) form allows Users to select from existing material Models or create a new Model, providing the User has adequate Permissions.
Note: Creation of a new Model may also require the creation of a new Manufacturer record and new Material Type, if either does not already exist. The associated Permissions are required for each.
Deleting Consumable Material Records
Numerous historical transactions can be associated with a single Consumable Material record. For this reason, and to preserve the integrity of inventory records, InfraLink implements "soft delete" functionality for these records. That is, when a User chooses to delete a Consumable Material record, the application marks it as Deleted but maintains the complete record in the database. Deleting an Asset or Material record is an administrative function, subject to administrative Permissions. The function is typically used to remove outdated records from Asset grid views.
To delete a Consumable Material record:
- From the Main Menu, select an Asset grid view (e.g., All Assets, Spares).
- Apply filters to identify the desired record.
- Select the desired record.
- Select Delete from the commands at the top of the grid view.
- You will be prompted with a message: "Are you sure you want to delete the selected entry."
- Select Yes.
Restoring Deleted Consumable Material Records
Because Asset and Material records are soft deleted, the application does allow authorized Users to restore the deleted records.
To restore a deleted Consumable Material record:
- From the Main Menu, select an Asset grid view (e.g., All Assets, Spares).
- At the bottom of the Filters panel, locate the Deleted Items Filter and select Include Deleted.
- Select Apply from the Filter Controls at the top of the Filters panel.
- Deleted records will now be displayed within the grid view. Note: Deleted records are shown in gray italics.
- Select the desired record.
- Select Restore from the commands at the top of the grid view.
- You will be prompted with a message: "Are you sure you want to restore the selected entry?"
- Select Yes.
Related Permissions
Access to InfraLink tools and features is controlled by User Permissions. All features may not be accessible by all Users. Contact your Instance Administrator regarding User Permissions.
Permissions associated with tools and features described above include
- Consumable Material Transactions: Assets → General → Read, Update and Create
- Material Model Creation: Assets → Models → Read and Create
- Manufacturer Creation: Organizations → Manufacturers and Vendors → Read and Create
- Material Type Creation: Assets → Types → Create
- Delete Consumable Material record: Assets → General → Delete
- Restore Deleted Consumable Material record: Assets → General → Delete