Part Ownership

Introduction

The IFS Applications part ownership feature allows you to identify the owner and the type of ownership of the parts in orders, receipts, and inventory. A part in your inventory can be owned by your company, your customer, or your supplier. The same part can have different owners if they are kept in different inventory locations. In addition to identifying consignment stock, the ability to identify different part ownership is particularly useful when handling parts that are to be repaired, overhauled, or replaced as a service to your customers. This feature is also useful when you provide subcontracted or outsourced manufacturing for your customers.

The part ownership feature offers you the ability to

When the part ownership functionality is not available, the type of ownership will be Company Owned.

Part ownership is the identification of the type of ownership combined with an owner for a specific quantity of a part. When part ownership is available, the type of ownership is normally identified in the Ownership field and the related owner is normally identified in the Owner field.

You can use the part ownership feature with any part that can be put into inventory. Additional functionality for persistent ownership is available for serial-tracked parts.

Types of ownership

The type of ownership controls how parts are handled when they are received into inventory, while they exist in inventory, and when they are issued from inventory. In addition, the type of ownership identifies whether the ownership of the material is expected to change, and then it controls which processes are used if the material requires a change of ownership.

The types of ownership can be grouped as identifying either internally-owned stock or externally-owned stock. Internally-owned stock is material owned by the company connected to the site. Externally-owned stock is material owned by either a customer or a supplier. In IFS Applications, to designate internally-owned stock you will use the Company Owned setting. To designate externally-owned stock, you will use the Consignment, Supplier Loaned, or Customer Owned settings, as appropriate, to specify the specific type of externally-owned stock.

Company Owned

The Company Owned setting designates internally-owned stock owned by the company connected to the site. This is the default setting for a part's ownership type, and is the most common type of ownership. If the ownership feature is unavailable to you, the system will use this setting for the part. When you use this setting, accounting transactions are created for the inventory transactions because the parts affect inventory value.

Consignment

The Consignment setting is used for externally-owned stock that is supplied by a supplier with the intent that the company will eventually purchase the material using an existing purchase order when the stock is used or sold. Accounting transactions are created for the inventory transactions because the parts will affect inventory value. For more information, see About Consignment Stock at your Warehouse.

Supplier Loaned

The Supplier Loaned setting is used for externally-owned stock that is supplied by a supplier with the intent that the material later will be returned to the supplier. This is material that is on loan until the equivalent item that is being repaired by the supplier is returned. Accounting transactions are not created for the inventory transactions because the parts are considered to have zero inventory value to the site company.

Supplier-Owned

The supplier-owned setting is used for externally-owned stock that is supplied with the intent that once received into stock, will be converted to company-owned. The supplier-owned ownership is used as a temporary ownership between the arrival and receipt into stock if the value of the Ownership Transfer Point list in the Company/Distribution/General tab is set to Receipt into Inventory. No inventory postings will be created until the parts are received into stock (e.g., picking, floor stock, shipment and pallet) even if the purchase order is of a service or exchange type. These parts will not affect the inventory value or inventory part statistics. Quantities of these parts in arrival or quality assurance locations will be included in the supply/demand views so as to avoid multiple supplies for a demand created. Receipts made into arrival and quality assurance locations will be included in the inventory calculation of purchase costs. This type of ownership will not be used for internal purchase orders where the sites belong to the same company. If the sites belong to different companies, the supplier-owned ownership will be used. Stock could only be supplier-owned on an arrival or quality assurance location.

Customer Owned

The Customer Owned setting is used for externally-owned stock that is supplied by a customer (or a supplier for the customer) with the intent that the material will be transformed (maintained, repaired, overhauled, or used as a component) and eventually returned to the customer (or supplier). Accounting transactions are not created for the inventory transactions because the parts are considered to have zero inventory value to the site company.

Company Rental Asset

The Company Rental Asset setting defines internally-owned rental assets owned by the company connected to the site. Stock with this ownership is handled with zero cost in inventory. These assets can only be rented out to either external customers or to internal sites and projects. For more information, see About Rental Management

Supplier Rented

The Supplier Rented setting is used for assets that are rented in from an internal or external supplier with the intention to return them after the rental period ends. The owner of the stock is the supplier that has delivered the rental assets. Stock with this ownership is handled with zero cost in inventory. These assets can be rented out to either external customers or to internal sites and projects. For more information, see About Rental Management.

Inventory Handling

Inventory Locations

When you use the part ownership feature, there are several rules regarding inventory locations that you must follow. When an inventory location keeps stock that has different ownership types and/or owners, the following rules apply.

For externally-owned stock, the following rules also apply:

Keep in mind that the part ownership setting for a specific part in an inventory location is applicable only if the quantity of that part is greater than zero. To see the part ownership of a part that has been issued, look at the inventory transaction history. You can also look at the part serial catalog if the part is serial-tracked.

Note: If Allow Multiple Owners for Inventory Part on One Location check box is selected in the Site/Extended Site Info/Inventory tab, the same inventory location can keep stock with different ownership types and/or owners for the same inventory part.

Also if you try to duplicate any of the key values mentioned below for the different ownership types and/or owner in the same location and part then an error message will be raised stating that the stocks do not uniquely identify the ownership information and you are not allowed to perform this transaction. The key values are Site, Part No, Configuration ID, Location No, Lot Batch No, Serial No, Eng Chg Level, W/D/R No and Activity Seq.

Part Availability Control

The part ownership functionality does not change the existing part availability control functionality.

Counting

You can exclude different types of ownership from the count report.

When counting differences arise when you count either customer-owned or supplier-loaned stock, the resulting transactions will not transfer the ownership of the difference. Instead, the transactions identify that the quantity has changed. This is similar to what happens when company-owned stock is counted and differences arise. Counting differences are handled differently for consignment stock. For more information, see About Consignment Stock at your Warehouse.

Transfer of Ownership

You can change the part ownership of quantities in inventory with a transfer of ownership. This type of ownership transfer is in addition to the normal business transfer of ownership through buying the parts on a purchase order or selling them on a customer sales order. There are three types of part ownership transfers. They are:

Part ownership is also changed when:

You cannot make the following types of part-ownership transfers:

You can prohibit ownership transfers for a specific customer. On the customer record, you specify that the ownership transfer is not allowed for parts owned by that customer.

When a serial part returns to inventory with a change in part ownership, the persistent ownership of the component parts will change as well as for the components that are not supplier-loaned. An example of a change in the part ownership is when the serial part returns for maintenance after being sold and delivered to a customer. Also, it is possible that the customer has sold the serial part to a different customer or supplier. See the Persistent Ownership section below.

Inventory Transactions

Inventory transaction history records are created for transactions related to both externally-owned and internally-owned stock. However, postings for the transactions are only created when they relate to company-owned or consignment parts. (No postings are done for transactions that involve only customer-owned, supplier-owned, supplier-loaned, supplier-rented or company rental assets parts.)

Demand and Supply

Demand for a part must be fulfilled with parts that have the appropriate part-ownership type and owner (if externally-owned). Specifically:

A supply received on a supply order must have the same part ownership as specified on the order. This means that if the supply order specifies a part that has a Company Owned ownership type, the parts received must be company-owned; they cannot be consignment parts. The owner of externally-owned parts received must also be exactly as specified.

Orders and Requisitions

Certain types of orders allow you to specify part-ownership for the parts you want to receive (supply orders) or be issued (demand orders). These order types are discussed below.

For all other types of demand and supply orders, the system will consider the parts company-owned.

Purchase Requisitions

Purchase requisitions for order code 6 (External Service Order) allow you to specify the following types of ownership for the part:

All purchase requisitions allow only Company Owned and Company Rental Asset ownership types, except when created by a process that supports additional types of ownership (such as from IFS/Project or IFS/Project Delivery).

The ownership type specified on the purchase requisition line is used when creating the purchase order lines.

Purchase Orders

Purchase order lines for order codes 1 and 5 (Normal and Express Order) allow you to specify all ownership types, specifically:

For the Supplier Loaned, Supplier Rented and Consignment ownership types, the owner will be the supplier on the purchase order. For the Supplier-Owned ownership type, the ownership will be company-owned on the purchase order.

For purchase order rental lines the ownership is always Supplier Rented and it cannot be updated. 

Purchase order lines for order code 6 (External Service Order) allow you to specify the following ownership types:

Purchase order lines for all other order codes allow only a Company Owned ownership type.

The ownership and owner of the material received must match the part ownership on the purchase order line at the time of receipt. The part ownership of the material cannot be changed at the time of receipt.

When using the component part feature for sub-contracted work, part ownership is also identified on the lines for components connected to a purchase order line. The part ownership of the component lines must match the part ownership of the appropriate purchase order line.

When a purchase receipt is for a serial part that has previously existed in inventory, the part-ownership of the serial part record is changed to match the part-ownership of the current receipt. However, for external service purchase orders, the ownership of the part to be serviced is already determined in inventory before service. Therefore, the part ownership for the part is the same when it is received after the service. In other words, part ownership is not changed by an external service order.

Customer Orders

Only customer order lines with supply codes of Inventory Order, Shop Order, and MRO allow you to specify part ownership, and you can specify any type of ownership:

For Supplier Loaned ownership type, the owner will be the supplier connected to the customer on the customer order.

Consignment stocks are company owned until the customer uses or sells it. In the customer order, the Consignment Stock check box indicates if consignment stock management is active for the combination of customer, delivery address and sales part.

The part ownership of the delivered material must match the ownership and owner on the customer order line. The part-ownership on the order line can be changed only if no reservation, picking, or delivery has occurred.

You cannot specify part ownership for sales quotation lines. Return material authorizations (RMAs) are not allowed for customer order lines with external ownership. RMAs are only allowed when the ownership is Company Owned.

For customer order rental lines the following ownerships are allowed:

On a rental line supplier-rented stock can be reserved even though the ownership on the line is Company Rental Asset.

Work Orders

Part ownership will be identified on work order material and on work order receipts. The ownership will be one of the following:

The part ownership of the parts received must match the part ownership of the work order receipt. Also, the part ownership of the material issued must match the part ownership of the work order material.

Interim Orders

Part ownership on the interim header, the top of an interim order structure, can be one of the following:

Part ownership on the interim orders and the interim order components can be:

A change of part ownership will result in the change of the part ownership of the appropriate pegged interim order demand or supply. This means that:

You cannot change part ownership after the interim order is released.

Dynamic Order Processing (DOP)

Use of externally owned stock is not allowed in DOP. Regardless of whether the DOP header is created automatically or manually, only Company Owned parts are allowed. All supply orders should have the ownership as Company Owned.

Shop Order Requisitions

The part ownership on shop order requisition lines can be one of the following:

The part ownership on a shop order requisition is used when creating the shop order. Part ownership on the shop order requisition cannot be changed if it was created by another order (pegged) or has been converted to a shop order.

Shop Orders

Shop orders (in IFS Manufacturing) allow you to specify part ownership for manufactured and by-product items to be received as well as for component material to be used. The part ownership on the shop order material lines and the by-product lines can be different than the part ownership on the shop order header. However, the same customer must be the owning customer for all customer-owned parts on a single shop order.

Note: This means that it is possible for a company-owned part to contain some material that is customer-owned and other material that is supplier-loaned. In addition, a customer-owned part could contain some material that is company-owned and other material that is supplier-loaned. Persistent ownership functionality is available for serial-tracked parts.

Shop order headers can use the following ownership types:

You cannot change the part ownership on the shop order header after a receipt has been made on the shop order. In addition, the part ownership cannot be changed if pegging exists for the shop order.

Shop order material can use the following ownership types:

You can change the part ownership on the shop material line only if no reservation or issues exist for that line. In addition, the part ownership cannot be changed if pegging exists for the shop order material.

Shop order by-products can be externally-owned. You cannot change the part ownership on by-products after a receipt on that by-product line.

MRO shop orders do not change part ownership. The ownership for the part to be repaired will be the same as for the individual part. This means that when you receive serial parts from MRO shop orders, the ownership of the received parts should match both the part ownership on the manufactured part and the persistent ownership on the part serial catalog record for the part.

Project and Project Delivery

Material that is used on a project can have the following ownership types:

Material with ownership type Customer owned can also be owned by customers other than the customer connected to the project.

Rental demand from the project can have the following ownership types:

Planning

Planning is available only for company-owned and supplier-owned supply, demand, and inventory. This means that no planning is done for customer-owned, supplier-loaned, supplier-rented or company-owned renal asset demand or supply.

Persistent Ownership

The part ownership feature in IFS Applications also supports persistent ownership, which enables you to specify stock ownership even when the part is not currently in inventory or connected to an order. You can specify persistent ownership only for serial-tracked parts/object and for components in an as-built part structure that is serial or lot-tracked.

In most situations, component material will have the same part ownership as the parent part. However, in some situations, the component material may be included in a tracked part which has a different part ownership.

If the component exists in a serial- or lot-tracked structure, but the component itself is not serial- or lot-tracked, the system does not maintain the persistent ownership information for these components forever. The persistent ownership information for these components will be maintained only until the part ownership of the parent part changes. At that time, the persistent ownership of all components (that are not supplier-loaned) will change to the part ownership of the new parent part. The persistent ownership of supplier-loaned components remains supplier-loaned.

If a tracked component is disassembled from the parent part and received into inventory, it will maintain its current persistent ownership.

When you use manual processes—such as selecting a specific serial-tracked part from inventory to reserve, pick, issue, or deliver to a customer—for either a customer order or a work order, the system will check the persistent ownership of the serial part or any of its tracked components. If the ownership of the components is incompatible with the ownership of the selected part, you will receive a warning notifying you that there are part ownership differences. You then have the option to continue or pick a different serial.

Note: Compatible part-ownership does not mean that the part-ownership of all components is identical. A company-owned part could contain customer-owned components belonging to the same customer to whom the part is being sold. Also, a customer-owned part containing company-owned components would be considered to have compatible part ownership and would not result in a warning message when selecting the serial item for either a customer order or a work order. However, tracked components that are supplier-loaned or customer-owned with a different owning customer would result in incompatible part-ownership and a warning message.

Warning: Components are checked for incompatible part-ownership only when manual process are used to initially reserve, issue, or ship a serial-tracked part. No check for incompatibility is made for automatic processes that select material to reserve, issue, or ship. In addition, processes that issue or ship material that was previously reserved or issued do not check the persistent ownership of the components within tracked parts. If it is important to prevent the shipment of serial-tracked parts with mixed ownership, you must customize your system security settings to disable the automatic processes for reservation, issue, and shipment, where appropriate for your business.