Project Material Demand doesn't register a 'shortage' in 'Inventory Part Availability Planning' page

Hi Sachitha,

I’m currently investigating a similar scenario where it’s a project material demand with supply option as Purchase. When clicking Reserve ‘assuming’ that inventory is available, it gives the shortage notification, but it does not create a shortage record anywhere. When I run Generate Inventory Part Availability Exceptions, it did create exceptions for it. Perhaps try that? 

But I noticed it won’t show up in Inventory Parts with Shortage screen unless it’s a customer order demand that’s connected to a project. Did you get a record in the Inventory Parts with Shortage screen for your part with shortage? 

From what I have found so far, it looks like the parts are deemed to be on shortage only if the demand comes from a customer order, work order or a shop order connected to a project and not a misc part material demand entered on the project. Unsure if this is the intended behaviour or if my observations are wrong. 

Have you found a solution for this? If so, would very much be interested in knowing it. 

Thanks!

Sudara

Hi ​@desilvasachitha 

     You created this post nearly one month ago. Did you get any solution for this issue or raise a support ticket for this?

If not, may I know which version you are working with? I felt that we should have a look on this issue.

regards,

Piyal

Hi ​@Piyal Perera,

Thanks so much for following up,  please note that I have not lodged an IFS ticket for this but very much like to get a resolution.

Moreover, please note that I was testing in IFS Cloud 24R1 SU6 my apologies as i should have included this in the original post itself. 
 

​@Sudara I am agree with your comment //From what I have found so far, it looks like the parts are deemed to be on shortage only if the demand comes from a customer order, work order or a shop order connected to a project and not a misc part material demand entered on the project// as this coincides with my investigation results,.

Hence, based on the above, as far as i can see there could be 2 explanations,
a)  ‘Project Misc. Demand’ was never considered as a supported source to register a shortage in the 'Inventory Part Availability Planning' page
b)  ‘Project Misc. Demand’ was implemented as a supported source to register a shortage in the 'Inventory Part Availability Planning' page but is not working properly due to a defect in the system for certain releases 

Thanks! 

​@desilvasachitha I too think it's either of the two points you have mentioned would be the explanation behind this.

​@Piyal Perera is there any way we can have this confirmed please i.e. if ‘Project Misc. Demand’ was never considered as a supported source to register a shortage upon automatic reservation or it was considered but not working properly in some of IFS releases? For us this is a requirement a potential customer is looking for and would be good to have an explanation / workaround at least. Thank you!

Hi,

  I had a close look now and were unable to identify as a defect with the existing Shortage functionality design. When you Reserve (this is automatic reservation from your inventory - Supply option need to be defined from the inventory) and found any shortages then we can identify as a shortage and resolving shortage is the next action. For other supply option (like Project MRP, MRP, Purchase), it should create corresponding supply objects to fulfil the shortage. That is the my opinion.

regards,

Piyal

Hi ​@Piyal Perera

Thanks for looking into this.

 “For other supply option (like Project MRP, MRP, Purchase), it should create corresponding supply objects to fulfil the shortage.” Does this mean the system is expected to automatically create supply objects when automatic reservation displays the shortage notification? 

There is no Shortage Quantity column in Misc. Demand in Project, and when tried to reserve items from the inventory automatically for supply option Purchase, it doesn’t show the shortage in the Inventory Parts with Shortage unless the demand came from a customer order, shop order or a work order. It only gives the info message that not all quantity could be reserved. If they were shown in the Inventory Parts with Shortage screen, then the users can identify there is a shortage for that part and create corresponding supply objects. The issue is that it’s not shown anywhere. The only workaround I found was generating part availability exceptions. But I don’t know if this is the correct way to go.

Looks like this is the IFS functionality ‘as designed’ 

You’ve hit the nail on its head at ​@Sudara by re-emphasizing the issue at hand //There is no Shortage Quantity column in Misc. Demand in Project, and when tried to reserve items from the inventory automatically for supply option Purchase, it doesn’t show the shortage in the Inventory Parts with Shortage unless the demand came from a customer order, shop order or a work order//. 

As I've highlighted before i believe that Project demands are perhaps not considered as a source by which a ‘shortage’ gets recognized and printed on the ‘shortage’ column of the ‘inventory part availability planning’ page. 

Thanks very much for spending time and effort on this ​@Piyal Perera , but honestly I am not still convinced that there is no foul play here UNLESS as I've pointed out earliest project misc. demands are not supported for shortages from the get go. However, if that is the case the behavior in IFS is bit counter intuitive and has a gap in my opinion when it comes to how shortages are recognized against Project Misc. demands. 

Thanks!