TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Rules
  • Access to IC Modules. Relevant User Groups and Roles
• IC BOM Module
  • Overall Process
  • Create BOM from BP
  • Choose WH and WH Lead
  • Fill BOM from a BOM Template
  • Fill BOM from Excel
  • Add Ad Hoc Items to BOM (If Needed)
  • Identify and Address Shortages (Includes Missing Materials)
    • Identify Missing Materials
    • Add Materials to Project Price List, Where Applicable
    • Check the Marked-Up Price
    • Identify Stock Shortages
    • Address Shortages (Incl. Missing Materials)
  • Send BOM to Warehouse
    • Pre-Kitting Work
  • Send BOM to WH Via Button When Ready for Kitting

Rules

FCX Inventory Conrol (IC) automatically keeps track of the stock count and estimated $ value of your consumable Material inventory.

But to do this, all processes which involve moving Materials into or out of a Warehouse (WH) or which otherwise adjust the stock count must be managed inside the system.

IMPORTANT
To make sure stock counts remain accurate, it is very important that 3 rules be followed with regard to stock Materials:
    1. All Materials which enter the WH need to be received into inventory by either "Purchase," "Transfer" or BOM "Return".
    2. No Materials should ever leave the WH without a BOM or Transfer .
    3. Manual adjustments should only be used in special cases.

Access to IC Modules. Relevant User Groups and Roles

IC Processes are carried out by multiple people in different Roles. In FCX, access to IC Modules is controlled by the appropriate user groups and roles. 

The following table illustrates User Groups relevant to IC:

As a rule, all users are members of the FSM BP Managers user group.

A user can also be included in several user groups as well. In this, case, access to components is inherited from the corresponding user group in priority order (a higher level of access overrides a lower one).

Another thing that determines access to IC components is Employee Roles:

• BOM Manager — access to the BOM Dashboard and BOM tab in BP card. It means that the FSM BP Managers user group provides access to the BOM dashboard itself, the role opens the list of Build Plans. For these BPs you can also access the BOM tab in the BP card. 

• Advanced BOM Manager — gives the ability to edit the Bill of Materials record not only at Pending life cycle stage but also at Sent to Warehouse, Kitted, Completed stages. Access to change requisites: BOM Name, BOM Type, BOM date, Due date, Warehouse, Warehouse Lead.

For both roles, you can apply the filter by class to access Build Plans of a specific class.

For BOMs, these roles can move a BOM from the Canceled/Sent to Warehouse → Pending and from Pending/Sent to Warehouse → Canceled.

FCX IC manages multiple processes related to the movements of consumable Materials. IC is divided into several different Modules, each of which manages several of the IC Processes. One or several User Groups may be involved in any Module Process. In this article, we will talk about IC BOM Module, specifically how to create a BOM and sent it to warehouse.

IC BOM Module

The IC BOM Module manages several processes related to using Bill of Materials (BOMs) to pull Materials from stock for use on Site builds.

All steps of these processes are currently recorded and managed on or with the BOM card(s) inside FCX Desktop. In addition to it, Field Crews can use Mobile BOM functionality to create a material request, Warehouse Managers and BP Managers can work with IC dashboards — a summary of your company's material inventory.

Users who directly work on BOM processes need to be trained to navigate FCX Desktop.

• Read more about main features of FCX Desktop here.
• Here about IC dashboards.
• About BOMs in the FCX Mobile App.

Overall Process

This Module is concerned with overall IC processes of Extraction of Materials for use in a Build Plan and Return of leftover. The Overall BOM Process contains 2 parts:

1. Create and Send BOM to WH.
2. Mark BOM Items Kitted, Picked-Up or Returned (see the separate article).

The BOM Overall Process Part "Create and Send BOM to WH" consists of several steps. The following Process Steps are all covered by this User Guide:

1. Create BOM from BP
2. Choose WH and WH Lead
3. Fill BOM from a BOM Template
4. Add Ad Hoc Items to BOM, If Needed
5. Identify and Address Shortages (Includes Missing Materials)
   • Identify Shortages
     • Identify Missing Materials
     • Add Materials to Project Price List, Where Needed
     • Identify Stock Shortages
   • Address Shortages (Incl. Missing Materials)
     • Decide How to Address Shortages
       • Choose WHO Will Address Shortages (BP Manger or WH)
       • Choose WHEN to Address Shortages: Before or After Kitting Starts
     • Initiate MPR from BOM to Address Shortages (Incl. Missing Materials - Different User Guide)
6. Send BOM to WH
   • Send BOM to WH Via Ad Hoc Task for Pre-Kitting Work
   • Send BOM to WH Via Button When Ready for Kitting

At this point in your implementation you no doubt know how to navigate to a BP, so we will begin on the BP card for the Site you need to pull Materials for.

Create BOM from BP

Locate the Build Plan you need to pull Materials for and open the card.

Open the General tab of the BP →  click BOM in the Financial part ob the BP card to view BOMs associated with this BP →  Click Create Record to create a new BOM.

Warehouse Leads and Administrators can select what type of BOM to create: original or return, while other users can generate only an original BOM. 

Or go to the Details tab in the BP → switch to BOM tab → click New BOM. 

Choose WH and WH Lead

Fill out initial BOM info as listed:

1. Name the BOM something that will make it stand out to you. Default name contains the BOM's number and BP name.
2. Indicate the date the BOM needs to be "Kitted": Picked and prepped for pickup by the crew.
3. Warehouse is filled according to the calculation specification. Warehouse Lead is a Manager specified in the Office/Department card related to the Warehouse. Choose the WH and WH Lead you want to be responsible for this BOM. 
4. Save to continue.

Fill BOM from a BOM Template

BOM Templates can be created where multiple Sites have the same Material needs. Click Add from BOM Template and select a template (if available) to fill the BOM from.

If you see the warning that there is no associated price for the BOM's Project for a certain material, you should add a marked price.  Read more about adding Materials to Project Price List below.

Fill BOM from Excel

Read about Import from Excel option here.

Add Ad Hoc Items to BOM (If Needed)

To add items to the BOM, one by one, either click into the empty table to create your first line, or click the current last line:

• Click the > symbol to open a drop-down menu.
• Select Add to add a new item. You can also press the down arrow key on your keyboard from the last line to add a new one.
• In the new line, click the ... (three dot) button in the Material Item column to add a Material to the BOM.

You are now looking at your Material List. Your list may be different than the one shown in the screenshot.

By default, Materials are shown organized in a Hierarchy of Parent Category →  Child Category →  Materials.

• Toggle through the Parent and Child Categories until you find the Material you want, then select it in the Main Content pane, on the left (do not double-click or click "Select" yet).
• On the ribbon above, in the Record group, click Open Card to review the Material List item card.

If you cannot find the Material you are looking for, while creating a BOM, you should take specific steps to resolve this, as described below under "Identify Missing Materials".

Sometimes there are several Materials in the library with very similar name (where just the size differs, for example).

On the Material List item card you can use the Material's picture, Vendor Part Number and Vendor URL to verify that the item you have selected is indeed the one you want.

After checking the Material List item card, close it and click Select to return to your BOM.

You now need to add the Requested QTY of the Material you want to extract from stock. Type this into the relevant column for the Material's row and press Enter.

Identify and Address Shortages (Includes Missing Materials)

Identify Missing Materials

Just because you do not immediately find a Material when you try to add it ad-hoc to your BOM does not necessarily mean it is missing and needs to be added to the library. 

Before coming to that conclusion, check to see if the Material is just missing from your Project Price List.

To do this:

• open the Material List Reference directly, using FCX Explorer,
• or use the "Show Materials without corresponding Price List Item" action in the BOM card. It will show the list of materials that are not linked with the BOM's Project.

Make sure “Quick Filter” is turned-on on the “View”  tab of the Ribbon (adds search row under column titles)

Search by Vendor Part # and various keywords that  may be part of the Material name.

If you find the Material, follow the instructions below on how to add it to your Project’s Price List.

If you do not find the Material, follow the instructions under “Initiate  MPR from BOM to Address Shortages”.

Add Materials to Project Price List, Where Applicable

From a Material’s Material List card, take the following steps to add it to Project’s Price List.

Note the Material’s Unit Of Measurement (UOM).

Use the “Add to Project  Price List” Button on the Vendors and Pricing Tab.

Take this step yourself if allowed by your company’s policies and procedures (you have full access to the Material List reference).

If you are not allowed to do this yourself, send it in a task to your Material Library Manager (IC Administrator) and ask him or her to add it for you.

Check the Marked-Up Price

The Material Marked-Up Price may not be correct. Take steps to fix Marked-Up Price, if needed.

There are 2 possibilities:

1. This Material has unique pricing. If it does not follow a general rule which applies to all or most Materials under this Project, then it has unique pricing. Here you should just change Fixed Price to “Yes”, fill out the MarkedUp Price manually and select and “Billable: Yes or NO” per the contract.

2. This Material should follow a project pricing rule, but does not. If this Material should have a calculation and does not: send in a task to your Project Library Manager and ask him or her to create a calculation. 

 They need to know:

• if the material is billable or unbillable, and
• the desired markup %.

More about MarkedUp Percentage calculation specification here.

Before concluding the pricing is wrong, make sure you are thinking in terms of the correct UOM. If you ever feel a Material's UOM should be changed, reach out to your Material Library Manager (IC Administrator).

Refresh data to see the Material added to the Project’s Price List.

Identify Stock Shortages

Anytime the Requested QTY entered exceeds the amount in stock at the selected WH, the system will alert you and indicate how many the location has.

When you see this message, it tells you need to fill a shortage. Note that the message will be displayed with multiple Materials listed if you add from a BOM Template with default quantities in excess of current stock. 

To export a list of all Material shortages, click Show Materials Report in the Inventory group of the ribbon. You are going to have to do a Material Purchase or Transfer before all Materials for this Site can be kitted and picked-up.

Address Shortages (Incl. Missing Materials)

At this point in the process, if the BP Manager has a shortage, he or she needs to make 2 decisions.

1. Choose who will address shortages (BP Manager or WH). 

The BP Manager has 2 choices:

• Personally initiate MPR or Transfer to resolve  the shortage. 
• Allow the WH to initiate these steps as they see fit.

Which route you choose will be determined by the policies and procedures at your company, as well as workload and the specific situation.

2. Choose when to address shortages:  before or after kitting starts

The 2nd decision the BP Manager needs to make now, if there is a shortage, is when to address shortages.

Stated differently,  he or she needs to decide how the BOM process should proceed regarding the delay in resolving the shortage. There are 2 choices:

• Wait to send the BOM to the WH until the shortage has been resolved.
• Partially Kit BOM:
  • If you send the BOM to the WH and allow them to proceed with the next step, Kitting the BOM, they will have to Partially Kit the BOM.
  • Doing this Creates Child BOMs for the un-kitted items. The first BOM can be completed, but the child BOMs are still open.

Which route you choose will be determined by the policies and procedures at your company, as well as workload and the specific situation.

Send BOM to Warehouse

Pre-Kitting Work

In the scenario where the BP Manager chooses for the Warehouse to initiate a transfer or MPR to resolve a shortage, he or she will NOT use the “Send  to Warehouse” button.

Instead, the BP Manager will create a Material Purchase Request themselves or ask a WH Lead to do this.

Send BOM to WH Via Button When Ready for Kitting

If the BP manager decides to address shortages after kitting starts, the only other step he or she needs to take, under the scope of this Guide, is to click the “Send to Warehouse” button.