Inventory merging (org setting)

This organizational setting drives the Merge Inventories function by automatically consolidating identical part inventories from multiple receipts and purchase orders into a single inventory record.

This functionality was developed to address the following challenges:

• Manually managing separate inventory items for the same part across different POs and receipts

• Multiple barcodes for identical parts lot tracked/untracked parts

• Unnecessary inventory lines cluttering the system

• Digital processes don't match real-world warehouse operations

This feature provides the following:

• "Dump More Bolts in the Bin" - mirrors real-world warehouse operations where untracked and lot tracked COTS parts are naturally consolidated into single locations or bins,

• Single Source of Truth - One barcode, one location, one inventory record

• Seamless Consolidation - Automatically merge identical parts without losing traceability to purchase orders and receipts

Use Cases

✅ Use Case 1: Multiple Receipts, Different Purchase Orders

• Scenario: Same part received on different dates from different suppliers

• Example: 50 bolts received on Monday from Supplier A, 25 bolts received on Wednesday from Supplier B

• Result: Automatically merges into single 75-bolt inventory with one barcode

✅ Use Case 2: Multiple Receipts, Same Purchase Order

• Scenario: Same part received in multiple shipments against the same PO line

• Example: 100 widgets ordered, received in 3 shipments (40 + 35 + 25)

• Result: Consolidates into single 100-widget inventory while maintaining PO traceability

✅ Use Case 3: Non-PO Inventory Integration

• Scenario: Additional inventory received without purchase order association

• Example: Customer returns, engineering samples, or transferred inventory from other locations

• Result: Seamlessly rolls into total available inventory count

Details

This feature can be switched on and off by navigating to your Organization Settings in ION and selecting 'Merge Inventories (V2)', as shown below:

Note: If Merge Inventories V1 is also turned on via the feature flag, and the the V2 org setting is switched on, inventory will be merged according to V2 logic (discussed below).

How to trigger merging:

• By making a change to a part inventory in the Inventories page. This workflow can be seen in the video below, along with a general overview of the merge functionality

• By partially kitting an inventory item, as shown in the picture below. The fact that the selected amount (shown in the blue box below) is less than the available amount (shown in the green box below), indicates that a partial kitting operation will occur. The merge occurs on the remaining un-kitted inventory.

Note: Currently, merging is only triggered by customer interaction with the UI and not by any actions from scanning.

Merge criteria

In order for inventory items to be eligible for merge, the inventory candidates must have:

1. Same underlying part id; part must be of type 'part' and not a tool

   1. Tracking type can be untracked or lot tracked, but cannot be serial tracked

   2. If part is lot tracked, lot IDs must match

   3. A part inventory with an assigned serial number will not be merged, even if the underlying part is not serial tracked

2. The same location, and location must be set (i.e. two inventories with no location assigned will not merge)

3. The same status, and status must be 'available' or 'unavailable'

4. The same unit of measurement

5. No abom installations

6. No related purchase order lines that are in 'canceled' status

7. No related runs

8. No related issues

9. No related part kits

10. The quantity kitted and the quantity installed both should equal zero

⚠️ Important Limitation (V2.0):

Merge will NOT occur when the same part is referenced on different purchase order lines within the same receipt.

Differences from Merge Inventories set through Feature Flag:

1. Criteria for assessing merge candidates for a given inventory has changed (see above)

2. Upon merge, a new part inventory is created and the part inventories to be merged are deleted

   1. At this time, comments, file attachments, labels and shared custom attributes are not copied over

   2. No transaction history will exist prior to the merge for the newly created merged inventory (traceability to related PO lines and receipts is maintained)

3. Old barcodes for the inventories that were merged in will now point to the new merged inventory