How to Set up service and refurbish items (internal service vendor)

Quick guide

1. Create a durable item with a Service vendor under the supplier tab

2. Assign the product to the device and add one location for New, used, refurbish, and service

3. Remove 'Override pick rules' on the group level if you don't want the users to be able to select what status an item should have

The refurbish/service workflow overview

The system supports several different types of items. An item is always one of the following:

• Consumable - Items that are considered as used as soon as they are picked.
• Durable - Items that can be reused several times and can be returned to the system.
• Serialized - Items that are durable but also have a serial number making them unique. Typically used for items that need to be sent for service, calibration or repair.

An item can have different statuses. Some can not be used in combination with items of the type Consumable. An Item always has the status of one of the following:

• New
• Used
• Refurbished
• For Service

If you have a tool or item that you want to repair/refurbish and use multiple times, there are certain criteria that have to be met:

• The item type must be set to durable (serialized optional)
• A service vendor must exist.
• A scheduled service script is needed (internal service vendor) or a manual service order can be created and used (external service vendor)
• A location allocated to "for service" to place items for service in.
• A location allocated to "Refurbished" to place items that return from service.

When working with internal service vendors, any items that are placed in the "For Service" location, will automatically and instantly generate a "Service List", allowing items to be "Picked for Service".

To set up a service workflow, perform the following steps:

1. Create a service vendor
2. Create a durable item 
3. Create a scheduled script for service
4. Assign items to locations on the SFI.

1. Create a Service vendor

Quick navigation: Data management > Vendors

Begin by creating a new Vendor in AdminPortal under Data Management and then Vendors. Fill in the Vendor ID, Name, Internal checkbox, and the templates to be used. Click Save vendor. If additional information like e-mail is added as well, it can be used in the service script to notify for example a service technician that there are items waiting to be serviced.

2. Create a durable item

In this step, we're adding a new item from scratch, but it can just as well be imported from the catalog, the important part is that it's set to Durable. For this example, we will name it 'refurbish_item' to make it easy to find in the SFI later on.

We're setting its status to Released and leaving the classification as the default C. 

At the Supplier tab, we fill in the mandatory fields, and also make sure that we check the Service/Calibration checkbox that you can see at the bottom of the following screenshot:

Doing so expands a couple more mandatory fields and options to be filled, and in Type: we select Service, and for Service Vendor we pick the new service vendor we created in step one.

3. Create a scheduled script for service

Next up is creating a service script. This is what defines what service vendor to use and creates the service picklist. When used with an internal service vendor it will generate the service pick list instantly as soon as a durable item is returned For Service and the minimum amount of items for service threshold has been reached.

Start by navigating to Order lists > Scheduled Scripts and click on the New script icon and start populating the mandatory fields as needed. In this example, we're selecting all classifications and a minimum Quantity for service: of 1 to make it trigger as soon as there is at least 1 item in the For Service location in the cabinet. Click Save script to be able to edit the target tab.

On the target tab, we select our newly created service vendor, which we called Internal Service and also select the stock and device for which the script shall work. Click Save script once again and then Set Active.

4. Assign item to locations on the SFI

This step is optional if you prefer to do the item location assignments on-demand. It is, however, a regular item assignment workflow where you create a new assignment for each of the 4 different statuses: New, Used, Refurbished and For Service. If you don't know how to assign an item a location, follow this guide.

To test the setup please follow this guide