Substitutes are a powerful feature in StockIQ where StockIQ will look for inventory that can substitute for an order line being proposed in your order. See the Substitutes topic for more description on how substitutes and how to use them.
You can reach the configuration screen by going to Admin--> System Configuration --> Substitute Order Settings
Substitute Order Lines
The settings in this section control how StockIQ will try and find substitutes for the order line in the order you're building. These three "Mode" settings control how opportunistic StockIQ will be when looking for possible substitute inventory.
StockIQ will start conservative and work up to your setting. For example, if you specify that your alternate site mode is "Current Available", we will first look for excess, then projected available, then current available, so that the most conservative quantity found that can make a substitute will be presented, with the goal in mind of minimizing problems due to moving stock around.
Alternate Site Mode - This configures what type of inventory StockIQ will look for when looking for inventory at alternate sites. Generally, "Excess" is the best setting here so you can transfer excess only. However, you may wish to look for any on hand or available inventory.
- Any - Any substitute is shown, regardless of if you can act on it or not.
- On Hand - On hand quantity is evaluated for if it can satisfy the substitute or not. The on-hand available for the substitute might be modified by the "Protect..." settings (see below)
- Current Available - Available Quantity is evaluated for if it can satisfy the substitute or not. The amount available for the substitute might be modified by the "Protect..." settings (see below)
- Projected Available - Projected Available at lead time quantity is evaluated for if it can satisfy the substitute or not. The on-hand available for the substitute might be modified by the "Protect..." settings (see below)
- IMPORTANT: Projected available at lead time is evaluated ignoring any planned orders by StockIQ, and ALSO ignoring any incoming supply (since the incoming supply is NOT guaranteed to be arriving on those dates.)
- Excess - Excess at the alternate site is evaluated for if it can satisfy the substitute or not. The excess qty available for the substitute might be modified by the "Protect..." settings (see below)
- Disabled - no alternate sites are evaluated for substitutes
Alternate Part Mode - What inventory type (excess, available, etc) to use when looking for alternate parts based on your ItemSiteAlternate feed.
Alternate Supplier Mode - Allows you to set what options are considered for an alternate vendor:
- Any - Show any alternate suppliers at all times.
- Shorter Lead Time - only show alternate vendors with a shorter lead time
- Lower Cost - only show vendors that are lower cost than your selected vendor
- Shorter lead time or lower cost - either of the above
- Disabled - Do not check for alternate vendors
Alternate Supplier Stock Level Filter - When you're using either the 'Shorter Lead Time' or 'Shorter lead time or lower cost' filter, this allows you to further filter when a substitute vendor is suggested, by limiting the suggestion to only when the item is projected to be either below panic point, or projected out of stock. In this way, the suggestions are only shown when they might help prevent or reduce a stock out, rather than being shown regardless of if the substitute is helpful or not.
Replaced Parts Mode - What type of inventory for replaced parts. On Hand is the best suggestion here, so that you can sell through your replaced inventory at your current (or sending) site as quickly as possible.
Search For Unshipped Supply Orders - This checkbox enables a function whereby StockIQ will look for open, unshipped purchase orders destined for other locations, and present them as possible expedite opportunities to your current site. The amount of substitute presented is the amount of that unshipped quantity that can be safely redirected without the receiving site ending up below its safety stock at the projected arrival date of that order.
NOTE: To work properly, this unshipped-supply-order 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.
Comparison Quantity - When making the substitute, StockIQ can compare against the order quantity on your order line, or it can examine what was the Raw Quantity you really needed in the first place. If you have large mins, multiples or EOQ's, this can mean that you maybe only needed 2 units of something, but due to a minimum of 100, the order quantity suggestion was 100. In this case, if StockIQ found 5 units at another warehouse, that would be perfectly fine to transfer. We recommend leaving this to "Raw Quantity"
Default Order Status - When you act on a substitute by using one of the links in the "Use Substitute" column, what order status should any substitute order lines be given? Should they go to review, be held for merge for later aggregation, or placed straight through to "Approved"?
Substitute Required Percent Fulfillment - This instructs StockIQ on how complete the substitute quantity must be before the substitute is suggested. Normally this is set to 100%, e.g. there must be enough of the substitute to completely satisfy the requirement of the original item and site. However, you can set this to a nonzero percentage such that SIQ will still suggest the substitute, even if it will not completely satisfy your initial requirement.
This can be desirable in long lead time or highly constrained supplier situations. For example, if you have a order suggestion for 100 units, and there are only 50 excess at an alternate site, normally the substitute would not be shown. However, setting this box to 50% would enable that substitute to be shown.
Include Non-Standard transfer Paths in Substitutes - When this option is enabled, StockIQ will present you substitute suggestions from any warehouse in your supply chain that has a substitute quantity. If there is not an entry in the Item-Site-Supplier file, StockIQ can often create an Ad-Hoc transfer suggestion based on your Intersite Lead Times configuration.
When this option is disabled, only inventory from warehouses that have existing links in your item-site-supplier file will appear as valid substitutes.
Include Substitutes with no configured Inter-Site LT - When this option is enabled, StockIQ will present you substitute suggestions from any warehouse in your supply chain that has a substitute quantity, even if there is no configured lead time information either in the Item-Site-Supplier feed for the InterSite Lead Times configuration screen. These substitutes show up with N/A in the action column of the substitute. This can be useful during initial configuration until you have your data configured as you want it to be.
When this option is disabled, these N/A substitutes are suppressed, so you do not see that they were a possible option, which provides less unnecessary noise in the substitute recommendations
Allow Violate Minimums - Can the substitutes violate transfer minimums?
Allow Violate Multiples - Can the substitutes violate transfer multiples?
Include Available-To-Build in Available-To-Transfer? - When this option is enabled, StockIQ will INCLUDE in your Available-To-Transfer number whatever is also available-to-build at the source site. This is usually done only when the source site has as its primary source for your item a manufacturing facility that can assemble parts on demand and ship them out in addition to what is already on hand.
Alternate Warehouse Quantity Displays
In the Place Orders screen, there are "Src Warehouse XXX" columns, as well as "All Warehouse XXX" columns. What quantities are/are not included in those totals are controlled here.
Protected Safety Stock At Source Site - When enabled, StockIQ only shows you the amount of
on hand/excess/available at the source warehouse MINUS the safety stock at that warehouse. This prevents you from transferring out of that warehouse and immediately needing to transfer more
in to reestablish safety stock levels.
Additionally, if the source warehouse is a hub warehouse, the amount "protected" is only the amount of safety stock at that warehouse due to independent sales of inventory out of that warehouse, so that the "protected" amount doesn't include safety stock that is specifically for replenishing the warehouse that needs it!
Protect Out-Of-Stock-Qty At Source Site - This setting is not commonly used. When enabled, StockIQ will subtract out from the on-hand to transfer (and other X-to-transfer) quantities whatever amount is your out-of-stock quantity. This settings has no effect when your out-of-stock quantity is zero.
Include Non-Source Warehouses in Warehouse Totals - Normally, in the All Src Warehouse fields/columns shown in the Place Orders screen, StockIQ will only show quantities from warehouses listed as a source transfer site in your item-site-supplier file.
When this option is enabled, quantity at all warehouses will be shown, regardless of whether they are a valid ordering source for your current item-site or not.
Include Self in Warehouse Totals - Normally, StockIQ will not include the currently shown item-site in the All Src Warehouse fields. But, if you want to consider your entire stock level in all warehouses, this option will instruct StockIQ to include quantity from the current item-site.