Handheld Req Returns

Years ago I created an Access Database program with a wireless barcode reader and pushed the IC500 transactions to Lawson for case cart picking (and returning). One computer and reader was setup to pick and the other to return. This was the quickest way I found to keep up with this ugly process.

You would pick an item and scan it's bar code (one scan per each). The same was true for returns. Put it back on the shelf and scan the bar code. The database program would run generate an IC500 file every hour and send it to Lawson.

Thanks David. Is anyone aware of a more real-time way to process these transactions? Iedeally, I would like to avoid creating another batch job.

Are you using MSCM?

We are not. We are part of a large, multi-site, health system which tried unsuccessfully to implement this at other sites. I am told that we are not looking to revisit MSCM.

Do you have any sense of whether this could be made available at an individual location level (IC12) without implenting this at a system level (IC11)?

I doubt it would be cost effective for only one location, but yes you could set it up that way.

Hey Folks,
So one question and then one of the solutions we have used in the past...

The question is why not use the RQ35 (Requisition Return) rather than the IC21? Now, this question is a bit self-serving because we also, by and large, use the IC21 to return stock (it is just how we were "taught"--thanks, E&Y). But as I recall from the little testing I did, the RQ35 was a cleaner process from a budgetary/reporting standpoint. In the end, I think they both get to the same place.

That all said, we had an affiliate that used a two-bin kanban system in place of par locations. Don't ask, it was just what that particular Materials Manager was comfortable with. Anyway each bin had a bar code for the location, and a label for an "A", the item and the refill quantity. When a bin was emptied, it was returned to the storeroom. The inventory staff then used a book of preprinted labels that, when scanned, filled in the header of the RQ10. They then scanned the bin for the RQ Location and the line for the RQ Line (FC, Item, Quantity). It was not the most elegant system, but it did function.

All of that is to say that you can use barcodes to create transactions, rather than lines in a batch file. If you can figure out the series of keystrokes, you can create a label. Given that barcode readers can scan the faces of today's smartphones (though I still pay in cash for my Starbucks addiction), someone is probably smart enough to create scannable barcodes for the header of an IC21.

Food for thought,
Red