Inventory Ownership/Management Methods:

• Vendor/Supplier Managed Inventory (VMI-SMI): the supplier takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed upon inventory of the material, usually at the customer's consumption location.
• How eTurns works:
  • eTurns is configured to release material via the minimum / maximum feature or kanban card.
  • Min / max requires use of eTurns ordering, receiving and check out features.
  • When the minimum is breached, eTurns creates a suggested order, which goes to the supplier after the customer approves it.

• Consigned Inventory: the supplier owns the inventory and stores it at a customer location until ownership is transferred to the customer at the time of consumption.  Usually high turnover parts are candidates for consignment.
• How eTurns works:
  • Supplier determines, with influence from the customer, what product is needed and in what quantities those products will be stocked at the customer location.
  • Customer receives and stocks supplier’s product in the consigned stocking location.
  • Supplier owns the inventory at the customer’s manufacturing location until the customer removes product from the consigned stockroom.
  • Transfer of ownership occurs when product is removed.
  • Product is transacted individually or by package quantity.
  • Transactions of usage and replenishment can be sent automatically through EDI integration with the supplier/vendor/distributor.
  • Billing can be done in one of two ways, depending on the agreement between the supplier and customer:
    • Option 1: Billing can occur upon consumption and the use can trigger replenishment if the minimum quantity (reorder point) is breached.
    • Option 2: Billing can occur upon replenishment.

• Customer Owned Inventory: refers to a model where the customer owns the inventory when the material leaves the supplier location.
• How eTurns works:
  • Customer decides what product and in what quantities the product will be stocked at the customer location.
  • The customer orders, receives, and stocks the product in the customer-owned stocking location
  • Customer removes inventory to support direct manufacturing or indirect maintenance processes. When inventory levels fall below the minimum, eTurns creates a suggested order to replenish material from the supplier.
  • The replenishment transactions can be sent automatically through EDI integration with the distributor.
  • eTurns has a complete PDA-enabled cycle count capability for maintaining inventory accuracy.

Inventory Location Methods:

• Remote Stockroom / Onsite Inventory: the inventory resides at the point- of-use, which often is a remote customer location.
• How eTurns works: 
  • Customer or supplier is responsible for maintaining inventory levels.
  • Inventory can be consigned or customer owned.
  • eTurns is configured to replenish material via the min / max feature or kanban card.
  • Min / max requires use of eTurns ordering, receiving and removal features.

• In plant store: a supplier’s employee receives and stocks a supplier’s product in a secure stocking location; a form of vendor managed inventory.
• How eTurns works:
  • eTurns can track, replenish, and invoice for this supplier-owned inventory at the customer’s manufacturing location.
  • eTurns can track the product individually or by package quantity.

• Tool cribs: Tool cribs can be established for a variety of support items such as tools, production support items, and instruments for test and measurement.
• How eTurns works:
  • Items in the tool crib are labeled with bar codes generated by the eTurns application.  eTurns can also use any bar code already on the tool.
  • Items are checked out to technicians and service personnel through scanning the item’s bar code or entering the transaction on a PC.
  • When items are returned to the tool crib the bar code is scanned once again.
  • Activity is tracked using the tool view in eTurns.

Inventory Replenishment Methods:

• Breadman:  the supplier visually reviews the inventory levels and restocks the inventory to a predefined level. The supplier obtains a receipt from the customer for the restocked inventory and invoices the customer accordingly.
• How eTurns works:
  • eTurns’ PDA is used to scan the bar codes of the items needing replenishment.
  • Transactions from the PDA are synchronized to the PC
  • eTurns can be configured to:
    • create, commit, and submit a PO to the supplier with no further review;
    • create an order list to turn into a PO; or
    • create a PO directly.
  • Once a PO is created a supplier can add edit or delete any item on the PO before submitting.
  • POs are automatically transmitted via EDI to the integrated supplier’s business system.

• Kanban / demand pull: Kanban is a signaling system to trigger action. Historically, a kanban system uses the manual pulling of cards from bins whose items need replenishment.  This is a material control concept based on “pull” because inventory is pulled from the supplier when a bin is empty.
• How eTurns works:
  • Typically, the kanban cards are pulled and dropped into a collecting box.
  • The customer periodically brings the PDA to the box and scans all the kanban cards dropped in the box.
  • Transactions from the PDA are synchronized with the PC
  • eTurns can be configured to:
    • create, commit and submit an order to the supplier with no further review;
    • create an order list to turn into a PO; or
    • create a PO directly.
  • Once a PO is created a supplier can add, edit, or delete any item on the PO before submitting.
  • POs are automatically transmitted via EDI to the integrated supplier’s business system.

• Cycle Count Min/Max Ordering: This inventory management concept can be used in many industries including restaurant, industrial, distribution, and medical supplies.
• How eTurns works:
  • On a consistent basis of your choosing (daily, weekly, etc.), you scan inventory barcodes with the PDA and use the “thumb-rocker” to indicate quantity in the bin.
  • The PDA is synchronized with the PC.
  • A “diff-report” is created showing the difference between what eTurns says should be on hand versus what was just counted with the PDA.
  • A manager then reviews the report and determines a course of action:
    • Option 1: Accept all new PDA counts.  Any adjustments made to an item’s quantity on hand are recorded in the audit trail for reporting.
    • Option 2: Recount items and re-syncronize with the PC. The most recent  count is  recorded as the correct count.
  • eTurns will compare recorded quantities to the customer-defined minimums and create suggested orders up to the maximum.
  • If cycle counts are performed on a consistent basis, such as weekly or semi-monthly, then eTurns “activity report” can:
    • Average the usage over the last six cycle counts and reset the maximum.
    • Display the usage over each of the last 6 counts along with the average of the last 4 and 8 cycle counts for assistance in determining if the suggested order is correct based on most recent activity.
    • Ensure that suggested orders always take into account the standard packaging