Implementing Oracle Inventory, users are clamming various situations when system process is not related to the real one. Inventory Plus is working as an interface for Oracle Inventory, solving all the standard Oracle Application issues.

1. Inventory Management:
Genesis Inventory Plus+
Genesis Inventory Plus+ in addition to
Oracle Inventory: For a perfect
experience in Inventory Management
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013

2. Table of contents
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH ORACLE eBS .....................................................................3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... 4
NO CUSTOMIZATIONS ...................................................................................................... 4
FIRST INSIGHTS ................................................................................................................. 5
DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................................... 6
Why the need to develop Genesis Inventory Plus+ ........................................................ 7
SPECIFIC FEATURES .......................................................................................................... 8
Inventory security ....................................................................................................... 8
Stock transactions operational reports ....................................................................... 8
Quantity availability at transaction date ..................................................................... 8
Header and line stock data form ................................................................................. 9
Distribution account generator ................................................................................... 9
User interface standardization .................................................................................... 9
A two-step transaction: Save and Process................................................................... 9
Automatic reversal transactions ................................................................................. 9
Managing transactions based on Stock Ledger Cards (SLC) ........................................ 9
Cost method determination at warehouse level ......................................................... 10
HOW THE PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED ........................................................................... 11
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
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3. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH ORACLE eBS
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
3

4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The ERP software suppliers constantly improve the features of the
component modules, trying to stay up-to-date with the customers’
increasingly complex business requirements. On the other hand, the
consultants, “the fieldwork teams”, the ones who must bring to life the
sold products, identify additional requirements lists, always the same,
left uncovered even in new versions. The customer is faced with the
feeling of buying a product that does not cover, as he imagined, a
specific area of business. The ERP software vendor is also facing a
problem: the application cannot be modified,
only within very tide limits. Therefore, the
customer
receives
an
approximate,
unsatisfactory and sometimes error-prone
solution.
Genesis Software Consulting has developed in
time a product suite, which includes Genesis
+
Inventory Plus , fully integrated into Oracle
E-Business Suite, in order to respond to express
requirements from customers. These products
have been designed as a new work interface
within ERP application, a role rather than
module-oriented one, thus replacing the standard operating mode. In
order to solve the same tasks in the new interface, the user is faced with
less screens, the information is condensed, automated and secured,
while maintaining control and the possibility to correct operating errors.
Using the new interface, the customer can intervene, making changes
that the product developer forbids.
+
It is recommended that Genesis Inventory Plus be used each time
Oracle Inventory is implemented because a list of critical features and
corrections for the user is added.
NO CUSTOMIZATIONS
We believe customizations, changes made in the standard Oracle
Applications ERP, that are not supported by the vendor are something
we do not recommend. Why customizations are not good? Regression –
one minor customization could dramatically affect a standard set of
functionalities; Standard support cannot be offered even for standard
functionalities if were affected by customizations; Upgrade – new
versions upgrade can become a more costly experience if
customizations are in place; Know how – for standard applications you
have vendor support and general documentation, while for
customizations the support depends on only a few developers. These
are just a few of many pitfalls of customizing the ERP software.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
4

5. This is why we don’t recommend and don’t support customizations of
Oracle ERP. We developed our products as distinct tools over the
standard functionalities of Oracle without interfere with or change
these functionalities. They just channel the existing power of Oracle
ERP to more efficiently solve the business problems of your company.
The standard functionalities remain unaffected by our products and you
can still use them, if you choose, independently of our product.
FIRST INSIGHTS
Oracle E-Business Suite Inventory module, and the related ones,
represent one of the problem sources in implementation, both for users
and for consultants. The consultants are forced, by the structure of the
application, to ask the users (stock keepers and stock manipulators) to
operate, in fact, simple stock issues-receipts, in a variety of screens,
with different configurations, hard to remember and to use. For this
reason, very often, managers are forced to renounce to online operation
performed by stock keepers, delegating the operation to the accounting
department and postponing it to the end of the month. Under these
conditions, any use of material planning and tracking becomes
impossible for intervals of less than a month. The inventory operations
accounting audit is highly hindered by a data structure considered
sometimes too simplified. The transactions must generate the
documents required by legal regulations in force (Receipt Note,
Consumption Note, Stock Balance Sheet). Furthermore, the operating
mode must be performed more strictly, leading to a secure operation in
stock management, the stock shown being the one from the system
date and not the one from the transaction date, and the closing of the
stock value balance not leading to accounting differences. Hence, the
stock accountants lose much time identifying and reconciling
operational errors. Consultants, in turn, are forced to develop complex
reports having an insufficient data model.
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For all these requirements, Genesis Inventory Plus is the solution.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
5

6. “Eggshell” metaphor
Michael Hammer, known in the business-consulting world as the inventor of the concept of BPR – Business Process Reengineering,
uses the “egg shell” metaphor to explain a consequence of the business processes fragmentation. Thus, a business process is like an
egg with a whole shell. This can be rebuilt, after egg breakage, in two ways: either breaking the egg into many small pieces, a large
quantity of glue being necessary to remount it, or by breaking the egg in a few larger pieces that require less glue to rebuild. The egg
rebuilt from a large number of small shells will always be farther than the original than the one rebuilt from fewer larger shells.
What does this mean? The higher the number of screens necessary for a process (the egg) to be operated (more shells to assemble),
the more effort is needed for operation and control (glue). The higher the number of screens, the farther is the operating process from
the real business.
DESCRIPTION
+
The Inventory Plus product developed by Genesis allows stock keepers
to operate secured Inventory management movement, using fewer
screens, with automatic process report generation (Goods Receipt
Note, Consumption Note, etc). Stock change is made at the transaction
date and not at the system date. Transactions are performed in two
steps, Save and Process. The unprocessed transactions do not generate
accounting entries and can be easily modified or deleted. The stock
keeper can automatically perform correction transactions having an onscreen document reversal function. The transactions are auditable, from
quantity and value point of view, and are connected to Stock Ledger
Cards, highlighting the quantity and value left on the Card.
+
Fig. 1 - Genesis Inventory Plus Application
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Genesis Inventory Plus improves the Oracle modules features used to
track product inventory. It adds new forms of operation and
viewing/auditing of transactions.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus works together with Oracle Inventory module.
+
The new features introduced by Genesis Inventory Plus do not cancel in
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
6

7. any way the standard Oracle features. The only thing changed is the
user interface.
Why the need to develop Genesis Inventory Plus
+
These days, customers all over the world are increasingly demanding.
They want to have today what the developers promise to achieve in the
future. In our view, customers are less interested in the technological
process incorporated in the new versions of ERP applications and more
interested in the practical solutions for their business problems.
After years of Oracle Applications implementation, Genesis Software
Consulting team was able to capitalize the experience gained into a
+.
product suite, which also includes Inventory Plus
+
Successful use of Inventory Plus has enabled Genesis to extend ERP
implementation in other areas of company business: resource
requisition and forecasting. Now, stock keepers receive products based
on Purchase Orders, release the raw material for consumption and
receive in stock the work-based finished goods, whereas the delivery to
the customer is performed on a per order basis.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
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8. SPECIFIC FEATURES
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle Inventory a series of new
features helping to improve transaction operation by stock keepers and
their auditing by stock accountants.
Inventory security
In an inventory organization nominated stock
keepers are responsible for specific
warehouses. For example, a person is
responsible for raw materials, another one is
responsible for finished goods, and so on.
Each of them wants no one else to have
access to the warehouse he/she is responsible
for.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle
Inventory the warehouse security defining two
new entities: warehouse and stock keeper.
After configuration, a stock keeper will be
allowed to operate only in the warehouses
he/she is responsible for.
+
With Genesis Inventory Plus only the user
with the “stock keeping” role for that
nominated warehouse will operate in a
specific warehouse, which leads to increasing
confidence in the system.
Stock transactions
reports
operational
Stock receipt and issue transactions recorded
by stock keepers are accompanied by filling
the documents certifying product movement.
The person delivering the product, as well as
the person accepting it, needs a document
signed together with the stock keeper in order
to validate the exchange of products.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle
Inventory stock transactions, documents
organized in a document nomenclature,
associated to warehouses, with unique
number sequence.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
Fig. 2 Transaction-associated document
When the stock keeper records a stock
transaction in a warehouse, the system will
generate a transaction specific document,
with a unique number, associated to the list of
involved products. The document is printed to
be signed by the people involved in the
transaction. The documents are sent to the
Accounting Department at the end of the
month because they are source accounting
documents.
Quantity availability at transaction
date
In real life, the stock keepers do not work with
negative stock. The stock issue cannot be
bigger than the stock receipt. Oracle
Inventory displays and uses in transactions the
quantity available at system date. If an issue is
operated in the past, the quantity available at
the system date may lead to a negative
balance in the past.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle
Inventory, in the new interfaces, the available
quantities at transaction date. If it is operated
in the past, the system takes into account only
the quantities at that moment and ignores the
quantities on the system date. Thus, there will
never be negative stock in the stock balance
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9. regardless of the order in which the
documents were recorded.
+
Inventory Plus form the inventory and
distribution accounts required to audit
transactions performed by the stock keeper.
Header and line stock data form
It is useful for stock keepers that the ERP
interface in which they operate to be
organized similar to the documents they are
accustomed to, with header and lines. The
header should contain general data and the
lines should contain operated products
specific data.
User interface standardization
Users appreciate simple, standardized,
intuitive and easy to learn user interfaces.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus provides a single form
for all types of inventory transactions
operated by a stock keeper.
A two-step transaction: Save and
Process
In the early stages of operating, users need to
be able to correct, change and delete, with no
accounting implications.
+
Fig 3.Header and lines organized transactions
Genesis Inventory Plus interface allows a
two-step transaction: Save and Process. The
saved data can be updated or deleted, with no
accounting implications. After processing, the
system creates the accounting. Therefore,
only operating a reversal transaction can
perform the correction.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle
Inventory, in the new interfaces, header and
lines design. The header format changes
dynamically. Depending on the type of
document displays supplier data for Goods
Received Note (GRN) or customer data for the
Delivery Note.
Distribution account generator
Each document type needs specific
accounting entry. Stock keepers, on the other
hand, choose to operate the stock without
being involved in accounting transactions.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle
Inventory, in the new interfaces, mechanisms
for automatic getting of distribution account
using Oracle Workflow account generators.
When stock keepers use the Genesis Inventory
+
Plus interfaces, they do not need to operate
any account-related information as this is fully
automated. Stock Accountants find in Genesis
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
Automatic reversal transactions
Stock keepers and accountants need the ERP
system to include automatic correction
mechanisms.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds correction
features that reverse the faulty document.
Stock keepers use the reversal feature to
automatically generate a new document,
which cancels the incorrect one. Stock
accountants find in the system the reversed
document associated with the faulty one.
Managing transactions based on
Stock Ledger Cards (SLC)
Stock accountants need the system to allow
full stock audit. To that effect, the data must
allow the report of an inventory balance
sheet, with initial stock at the beginning of the
month, receipts, issues, quantities, values and
balance. The best way to track stock
movement is to record the transactions of
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10. SLCs. Each stock receipt must generate a SLC
number so that, subsequently, when
operating issues, they can be connected to
receipts.
The SLC must point out the remaining
quantity and value from a receipt. The SLCs
where the remaining quantity and value are
equal to zero are considered closed SLCs.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus adds to Oracle
Inventory a new data structure that allows
report of an inventory balance sheet and
Stock Ledger Card. An interface is made
available for stock accountants where they
can view and audit the stock based on the
document associated to the transaction and
the SLC. They can view the remaining
quantity and value on each SLC separately.
The SLC is used in automatic document
reversal mechanism. A stock receipt can be
reversed only if its SLC is restored,
respectively the remaining quantity and value
are identical to the initial ones.
+
Managing the data in Genesis Inventory Plus
based on SLCs excludes the potential for
variance accounts.
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
Fig. 4. Managing data based on SLC
Cost method determination at
warehouse level
Stock accountants must track the balance of
stocks movement at warehouse level.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus provides, in addition
to Oracle Inventory, the cost method
determination at warehouse level. The
combination of Product line accounting
standard feature from Oracle Cost
+
Management with Genesis Inventory Plus
feature of cost method determination at
warehouse level allows the stock accountants
to track the stock balance for each warehouse
separately.
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11. HOW THE PRODUCT WAS DEVELOPED
+
Genesis Inventory Plus was developed progressively, covering the
business requirements raised by different customers in implementation
projects, since the early 2000’s. We initially started from simple
development mechanism (table triggers, packages, procedures), so as
to finally obtain a stand-alone product, with proper screens and tables,
which interfaces the standard modules. The result was an
“encapsulation” of the expertise gained in an easy to customize and
control product, similar to any Oracle product.
Genesis Inventory Plus+ includes all technical elements characterizing
an Oracle product. It has its own database schema, a proper descriptive
flexfield (DFF), specific configuration items, operating forms and view
+
results forms. Genesis developers use in Genesis Inventory Plus the
modern mechanisms offered by Oracle Workflow. Thus, the forms of
operation developed, Miscellaneous Transactions and Commitment
Transactions, have their own account generator used to achieve
distribution account. At the same time, all operated transactions are
controlled through Oracle Workflow for validation, interface and
correlation when multiple transactions require interconnections. The
transactions operated are simultaneously saved, both in Genesis
+
Inventory Plus tables, and in Oracle Inventory tables. In Oracle
+
Inventory, the transactions operated from Genesis Inventory Plus are
identical.
+
Genesis Inventory Plus has its own set of reports to be added to the
ones existing in Oracle Inventory. For each type of
+
transaction/document, Genesis Inventory Plus submit the Transaction
report in order to offer the stock keeper the document required to
certify the product exchange by signature. At the end of the month, the
Stock Accountant runs the inventory financial audit reports, Inventory
balance sheet and Stock Ledger Card.
Software and consulting you need
White paper
(Informative document)
January 2013
Author: Dorian Balmuș
Genesis Software Consulting
Address: 65 Samuil Vulcan St., sector 5,
Bucharest, Romania
Contact person: George Faur
phone: +40 741-084-009
e-mail: george.faur@genesissoftware.ro
www.genesissoftware.eu
Whitepaper – Informative document, January 2013
Copyright © 2013, Genesis Software Consulting. All rights
reserved. This document is provided for information purposes
only and the contents hereof are subject to change without
notice.
This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to
any other warranties, including implied warranties and
conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
This document is provided for marketing and information
purposes, and does not entail any contractual liability. The
content hereof is protected by the Copyright Law L8/1996 and
allied rights, as subsequently amended and supplemented.
All Genesis trademarks are used under license and are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Genesis Software
Consulting.
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