Substitutes are a powerful feature where StockIQ will look for inventory that can be substituted for the order lines currently in an order line displayed in the Place Orders screen.
The presence of a substitute is called out by a little orange flag in the Order Quantity column of the Order Lines grid. When you click on a line with substitutes, the header of the "Substitutes" tab will indicate the number of substitutes that StockIQ has found.
Configuring details of the substitute suggestions can be done in the Substitute Order Settings screen.
There are five types of substitutes that StockIQ will scan for when creating your order suggestions:
- Alternate Site - StockIQ will look for inventory at other sites that can be used instead of the supplier currently selected. The most useful mode for this is to look for excess at other sites that is just taking up space and should be transferred if there are needs elsewhere.
- Alternate Part - This works from the ItemSiteAlternate data feed, if present. StockIQ will look for inventory of items that you have specified are valid alternates, and offer those as substitutes in case it will let you avoid an order.
- Alternate Supplier - In the special case of when StockIQ detects that you are projected to stock out of an item, we will look at any additional suppliers that might have a shorter lead time, and suggest those shorter lead time suppliers as a substitute in case it can prevent a stock out.
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Replaced Part -If you have replacements on any of your items, StockIQ will suggest that you satisfy the requirement with your replaced/old inventory first, rather than the new part, until the replacement is depleted. It does this in two ways:
- Looks for replaced inventory at the destination site, e.g. you can just use up the replaced inventory just sitting around first
- Looks for replaced inventory at the sending warehouse (if the order being created is a transfer), so that you can send old inventory and sell through that first, before sending new inventory.
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Un-Shipped PO - Useful primarily for overseas suppliers, StockIQ will look for quantity on Unshipped PO's that you may be able to redirect if necessary to meet a shortfall. If a substitute of this type is found, StockIQ will note the Order Number, Order Date, Release Date, and Expected Ship date of the unshipped quantity found. Further, StockIQ will also add notes to the External Line Note and System Notes indicating to "please re-route from Order XYZ" for convenient.
- NOTE: To work properly, this feature requires that your SupplyOrderLine data feed is specifying quantity shipped information, and that you have sensible shipping lead times in your system. please contact StockIQ if you're unsure of this.
Substitute Columns
Once StockIQ has identified a substitute, several columns of information are shown to help you evaluate if you want to use the substitute:
(Star) - Indicates if StockIQ is recommending this substitute as a good choice upon which to act.
Use Substitute - This column has a hyperlink in it, that will allow you to use the substitute. The text may have several labels:
- N/A - StockIQ found inventory, but it has no information about how to create an order line for it. If you click this, it will suggest you add information to the Intersite Lead Times table.
- Use Ad-Hoc Substitute - If this is shown, it means that StockIQ has some lead time information from your Intersite Lead Times, and can construct a temporary Item-Site-Supplier linkage to create an order line for you with those lead times.
- Use Substitute - StockIQ found inventory and an associated ItemSiteSupplier record with full information to create your substitute order line.
When you click either of the last two options, a small dialog will appear letting you choose how much you want to create your new order line for. When you apply this, your original order line will be removed, and a new one that is your substitute will be added in its place.
NOTE: If your substitute is a "Partial" substitute, then your original line will remain in place but will be reduced in quantity, since the substitute was not able to completely replace the amount that you needed.
Complete Sub? - This column shows if the substitute is complete or not, e.g. if enough inventory is found in the form of the substitute to completely satisfy your initial requirement. If the substitute is partial, when you click the "Use..." button, then the original line will remain in place, but will be reduced by the amount of the substitute found, and the new line for the substitute will be added.
Sub Type - Indicates if the substitute order line proposed is a Site, Part, Replacement, Vendor, or PO substitute.
Item - The substitute item. Usually the same as your starting item, unless the substitute is for an alternate part, or a replaced part.
Site - Where the substitute inventory was found. If the substitute is a different vendor, the site will be the same, but the supplier code will be different.
Qty Found - This is the quantity found for substitution, e.g. 100 excess, 50 on hand, etc.
Qty Type - Describes the type of this quantity, e.g. was it Excess, On Hand, Available or whatnot.
Supplier Code & Name - Supplier information if available
Planning LT - Lead time for this substitute. Useful since you may be able to get from a different warehouse, but it may take longer (or shorter!)
Supplier Cost - This is most useful for Vendor type substitutes, you can quickly see if your cost is lower or higher, and can weigh your options on taking the shorter lead-time substitute.
Substitute Order Qty - StockIQ's suggestion for how much your replacement Substitute Order Line should be. This is based on the "Comparison Qty" setting from the Substitute Order Settings. When you click on one of the links in the "Use Substitute" column, this is the quantity initially suggested.
System Comment - Shows any notes that StockIQ has about the substitute
Additional columns not shown by default:
- On Hand Qty - on hand at the location where the substitute was found
- Avail.Qty - available quantity at the location where the substitute was found
- Current Excess - current excess at the location where the substitute was found
- DoS (Days of Supply) - Days of supply on hand at the location where the substitute was found
- Erp Order Number - Order # associated with an unshipped supply order substitute, otherwise null. Useful if you are using the unshipped PO feature
- Order Creation Date - Order creation date of an unshipped supply order substitute, otherwise null. Useful if you are using the unshipped PO substitute type.
- Release Date - Release date of an unshipped supply order substitute, otherwise null. Useful if you are using the unshipped PO substitute type.
- Expected Ship Date - Expected ship date of an unshipped supply order substitute, otherwise null. This date plus the shipping lead time from that vendor to your current site will be used to calculate the planned receipt date for the unshipped supply order substitute, if used.
Using the Substitute
Once you have viewed your substitute, and intend to use it, you can click on one of the links in the "Use Substitute" column. A small dialog will appear. You can modify the "Substitute Order Qty" suggestion if you wish, and click "Apply".
When you do, your original order line will be removed or modified based on if the substitute is complete or partial. A small blue confirmation window will appear when the substitute has been created.
From there, you simply continue on building your order. Your original order line will no longer show substitutes
When you are complete with your order, you can move to the next steps in the normal way. When you reach Step 4, the only difference is that StockIQ will show an additional status box asking what status you want assigned for your substitute order lines:
This default status is also controlled by the Substitute Order Settings screen.
In most cases, we find that folks will want to set the default status to "Hold for Merge" so that at the end of the day, after they have done all their ordering and substitutes, they can merge all substitute suggestions into one order per sending warehouse, to avoid sending lots of one-line transfer orders to the sending warehouses. However, this is not necessary in all cases.