ServiceDesk 4.7.12 Update 12/16/12

EUREKA!!!!HALELUJAH!!!!SUPREMO FANTASTICO!!!!Increase in Quantity of Unique Stocking-Plans:

The exorbitant fanfare in the title is intended to reflect how badly some of our users have wanted this, along with the fact some have have wanted it for a very long time. 

The expansion was slow in coming primarily because I envisioned it as necessarily entailing a very major overhaul (involving core re-design elements) of the complete inventory system.  It's difficult to fit such a major re-work into our development agenda. 

About ten days ago one of our users (Brenda at Fields Appliance) presented a very factual and convincing case which vividly demonstrated how dramatically inadequate, for their purposes, has been the 8 unique stocking-plan max that has existed to-date (standard Offc plan, standard Trk plan, plus 6 added plans).  Though I'd already felt significant weight to provide the expansion, the vividness of Brenda's demonstration served to get my mind working much harder on the task.  As it worked in this fashion, I managed to conjure a strategy for increasing the quantity of stock-plans available, sans any major overhaul.  This made it practical to do in the short-term, rather than long-term.  Hence, the improvement is offered now. 

Our old ManagePlansAndLocations form (Ctrl-F10-->H-->L) looked like this (where the area on the left is used to define up to six beyond-base stocking plans):

Our reinvented form looks instead like this:

As you can see, the area where you can define add-on stocking plans is considerably changed.  Even on the face of it, you can see the quantity of potential add-on plans is increased to at least 12.  In fact, with use of the scroll function (you can use the standard scroll method, or the scroll wheel on you mouse will work fine too) you can create and access a full 60 (ten-times more than before).  We doubt if anyone will need a larger quantity than that.

The ManagePlansAndLocations form is not the only place the change was needed.  It applies as well in the Supplemental-Info window, as tied to the MasterPartsPlan interface:

OldNew

This is, of course, where you set the minimum for each stocking line item as corresponding to each of your specialized stocking plans (however many you happen to setup).  Again, the scroll function allows you to access the entire array of up to 60 unique/added plans.   

As any experienced SD user knows, we have two, rather separate systems for handling parts: the PartsProcess system for special-order parts, and the InventoryControl system for stocking parts.  Each is tailored for the particular needs as applicable to its respective context, and they are very different.  A major historical difference is that, while the PartsProcess system has always been designed to keep very careful track of items on order and awaiting arrival, in the InventoryControl system we historically considered this a less essential objective. 

A significant departure from this laissez faire approach (in regard to inventory items on order) was created some 13 months ago (see entry accompanying Rel. 4.5.45), when we added a feature that keeps behind-the-scenes track of what's on order, and when you go to formulate a new order informs you, in regard to any item that may need to be ordered, of any order that's presently pending for that same item (again, please see the prior release notes). 

As we added that enhancement, we contemplated it would be but the first step toward creating a more full-fledged, pending-PO-tracking element, as part of SD's InventoryControl system.  This release provides a tiny further step. 

Specifically, we've made the Inventory-Items-On data much more readily visible.  Prior to this release, the only way to see such data was as it was reflected when going to place a new order via the F10 form.  We've now added a simple export function, that allows you to see it in full:

We recognize this export will facilitate a somewhat less-convenient visibility than might be optimum, and lacks any facility to edit the actual source data as present within ServiceDesk.  If users express the need, we'll no doubt expand to such capabilities in the future.  In the meantime, a simple export like this can be created with a much  smaller programming investment than can a full-fledged (and editable) user interface.