Process: Manage inventory
Flow
Legend

Objective
Encapsulate processes for the management of inventory.
Description
This process is used to contain several processes that are involved in
inventory management. This includes processes for managing reserves on
inventory (prevent it from being allocated to orders), for managing adjustments
to inventory, and for managing expected inventory. Expected inventory allows
the tracking of inventory that has been ordered as well as what has and has not
arrived.
Inventory includes anything that can be physically accounted for in a
fulfillment center. There are specific definitions of types of inventory that
can be fulfilled, such as items, products, SKUs, bundles, packages, and dynamic
kits; but these are all considered inventory.
WebSphere Commerce supports the following inventory-management methods:
- Use WebSphere Commerce to track and manage inventory. This method only
takes into account inventory sold through your online store. WebSphere Commerce
is unaware of any other method of selling your products.
- Use your existing fulfillment center to track and manage inventory. In this
method, the site would configure the messaging system to communicate between
WebSphere Commerce and the fulfillment center.
- Use a legacy system.
Available to promise (ATP) provides a mechanism to ensure that commitments
made to customers are based on information a seller has about expected
inventory as well as inventory currently available. You can manage expected
inventory records (anticipation of arrival of inventory from a vendor to a
fulfillment center) and track as well as manage inventory.
WebSphere Commerce provides tools to manage inventory:
- Inventory management interface allows the Seller and Consumer Direct
Operations Manager or B2B Logistics Manager to track and manage their product
inventory.
- Real-time product inventory update as products are ordered or returned by
customers.
- Backorder support
- To allow specific products to be backordered, the Product
Manager selects Allow Backorder on the Product Fulfillment page of the Product
notebook.
- The Product Manager can also force a particular product to
be backordered. To do this the Product Manager specifies Force Backorder on the
Product Fulfillment page of the Product notebook.
- To see which products are on backorder, run the Products on
Backorder report.
- Create an expected inventory record.
- Create ad-hoc inventory receipts for a fulfillment center.
- Receive inventory against an expected inventory receipt for a fulfillment
center.
- Check if expected inventory receipt is complete.
- Close expected inventory adjustment for a fulfillment center.
Features
- Available to promise
- Expected inventory
- Inventory adjustment
- Inventory reservation
- Drop-ship fulfillment
- Receive inventory
Edition
Professional, Business Edition
Subprocesses
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