Summary

This article provides a broad overview of the steps and detail required to successfully implement Inventory Control within the Solatech Window Covering Software package.

More Information

Most people tend to oversimplify the requirements for setting up Inventory Control, thinking it is an uncomplicated and straightforward process. If you were building a VERY basic blind, with very few options and an extremely limited color selection, that might be true - but our experience has shown that in virtually all situations the process turns out to be much more complex than initially thought. It is also common to be overly ambitious when estimating the time necessary to complete Inventory Control setup. The use of Excel spreadsheets to organize your work will greatly simplify the data manipulation that will be required in this process. A complete understanding of your product is essential to successfully complete Inventory Control setup. As this is a broad overview, specific procedures will not be listed, but rather the general steps will be outlined.

1. Develop a complete Bill of Materials
2. Create a worksheet for each style within your product (Complete Blind, 2 on 1 Headrail, Cordless, etc.). Copy the Bill of Materials into the worksheet for each style.
3. Starting with your most common style (normally Complete Blind or Standard Rectangular), define how each item in the Bill of Materials is used, and how much is used. Remember that we must ultimately convert this into a statement the program will understand. Don't forget that we must also define exceptions, when an item is NOT used.
4. Repeat for your remaining styles. SOME usage definitions may be able to be copied from other styles, but quite often a different style results in differing usage definitions.
5. With the assistance of Solatech, translate your usage statements using the proper syntax.
6. Create each inventory item within the product database, assign to style(s), enter Criteria (when an item is used) and Usage (how much of an item is used). Note that there may be multiple Criteria and Usage for each item.
7. With the assistance of Solatech, review for proper syntax, spelling and general format.
8. Import inventory items from the product database into the Solatech company file.
9. Make each item active, assign initial levels, reordering information, assign to proper Vendor, and set up scrap factor.

As you can see, this is a very detail-oriented process. The accuracy of the output is directly related to the accuracy of the data that is input.

However, carefully going through the process will enable you to accurately account for and track your inventory.

APPLIES TO

• Product Designer 4.2
• Solatech Window Covering Software 4.2