Hi All,
I have following situation with a customer. They sell modular equipment, so the complete equipment is produced as a part serial, and it contains multiple modules that are also Part Serials. All Part serials are defined as Serial Objects (the complete machine and the individual modules).
So after Delivery of the machine, IFS creates the Serial Object structure based on ‘Create SM Object’ functionality on the CO line. So all Serial Objects of the modules receive ‘Current Position’ = ‘Contained’.
Now: after X months, a module breaks down. They work with local service partners that remove the module from the equipment and replace it with a new one (the replacement itself is not tracked in IFS, no WO exists, you only see a sale and shipment of a new module). The old module needs to return to their HQ for breakdown analysis and possible repair. They want to do this with RMA so they can easily track all modules that are coming back from all over the world.
problem: when you try to receive a Serial Object in Current Position = ‘Contained’ through RMA this generates an error.
I also cannot use ‘Disconnect from parent’ on the Part Serial since my object has been reported to Service Management.
The only method I currently know is to return the part using a Work Order. That removes the Serial Object from the structure and puts the part ‘In Inventory’. But as I mentioned, the customer would like everything that returns tracked and received through RMA. So currenlty I am obliged to issue the Serial Object back to customer, removing it from my stock and now has ‘Current Position’ = ‘Issued’. And we can do a receive on the RMA.
Is there another method to deal with this situation in an easier way? I find the whole process tedious and time-consuming. I wonder if there is an easier method to get a Serial Object returned that is in ‘Current Position’ = ‘Contained’
best Regards
Roel
