I sold a finished product with a serial number to a customer. A component part of the sold finished product was sent back to me for repair. The component part that was sent back to me also has a serial number. I will send a replacement for this part.

The customer did not send me the entire finished product , only a part of it, which is our main issue.

I cannot reopen the shop order I used to produce the finished product and unissue the component part underneath it, because it is a very old shop order, and the cost calculations for that period have already been made.

However, the component part also needed to be entered into my inventory. I received this component part into my inventory with a Return Material Authorization.

I manufactured a new spare part and shipped it to the customer.

Now, I cannot use this returned serial-numbered component part in another weapon, because it gives me an error saying that “Serialized component  <my component part and serial no> exists in catalog structure” .

I also cannot assign a different serial number to the component part because the serial number is marked on.. How should I proceed?