While you can manually add a BOM to a Shipment, Cofactr offers a powerful tool to create a shipment of a full Bill of Materials at a multiple directly from the BOM view. It is accessible through the BOM app. You can initiate shipping a whole BOM by selecting a BOM and then navigating to the Inventory tab, which will look something like this:
Notice the "Add 0 Parts To Shipment" action button that is grayed out. That is the action we'll be using to ship our BOM.
By clicking in the column of square toggles on the left of the part lines you can select any number of individual parts which you'd like to ship (or add to a shopping list via the "Add to Shopping List" button. For more info on that click HERE.)
For this demo, we're focusing on creating a shipment of the entire BOM at a multiple of 10.
We'll click on the square toggle in the header row to select all the parts in the BOM which will look like this:
Now we can click on the same button to add parts to shipment, but now we can see the button text has changed to "Add 13 Parts To Shipment" indicating we'll be adding all 13 parts in the BOM to a shipment.
Clicking on that button will bring up a dialogue that offers 'Add To Existing Shipment' and 'Create New Shipment'. For this we'll create a new Shipment which we'll add a note to of "10 Sweetmote Controller Parts". We'll fill lout the rest of the dialogue as if we were creating a shipment normally. For more info on the meaning of the fields you can look HERE.
After filling out the initial dialogue fields it should look something like this:
Scrolling down you'll see the option to 'Add Overages for Assembly Attrition'. In my case I'll say we do want overages, so I'll leave the toggle on. Below that we see the 'Stock Lot Selection Preferences'. Clicking on that line will expand those options which look like this:
These include types of stock lots I would like to use. For more info on the toggles in this section you can look HERE.
Then you'll see 'Stock Lot Selection Prioritization' which provides the following options:
Stock Lot Selection Prioritization
Smallest Quantity First means Cofactr will select the stock lots with the smallest quantities until the necessary quantity of parts is met.
Largest Quantity First means Cofactr will select the stock lots with the largest quantities until the necessary quantity of parts is met.
Closest Quantity Match means Cofactr will select the stock lots closest in quantity to the necessary number of parts.
Oldest Purchase Date First means Cofactr will select the stock lots that were purchased longest ago until the the until the necessary quantity of parts is met.
Newest Purchase Date First means Cofactr will select the stock lots that were most recently purchased until the the until the necessary quantity of parts is met.
I'll decide not to include Expected Stock Lots or Processing Stock Lots and select Closest Quantity Match for this example. That would look like this:
Below that we see the 'Stock Lot Labeling & Notes'. Clicking on that line will expand those options which look like this:
There are a couple toggle in that section that mean the following:
Stock Lot Labeling & Notes
Print Reference Designators on Labels means that Cofactr will include the reference designators for each part on the label which is attached to the stock lot. These will be applied to the stocks that align with a single part line.
Print Numbering For Multiple Stock Lots of the Same Part means that Cofactr will list out the number of the lot out of the total n umber of lots provided. So if 3 lots are necessary to fill the quantity of parts needed for the shipment the lots would be labeled with "Lot 1 or 3", "Lot 2 or 3", and "Lot 3 or 3". These will be aligned to stocks that align with a single part line.
Prefix Text for Printed Labels is any information you want printed on every stock lot label before the reference designators or stock lot numbering, such as the order number for your contract manufacturer. These till be the same for every stock lot in the shipment.
Suffix Text for Printed Labels is any information you want printed on every stock lot label after the reference designators or stock lot numbering. These till be the same for every stock lot in the shipment.
The labeling information will be printed on every stock lot in the shipment along with the manufacturer part number, date code, your organization's name, and other relevant data. You'll see a 'Sample Label Text Preview' below the option and fields that will show you an example of what the labeling will look like. Please note that there are no spaces between the prefix, designators or stock numbering, and suffix, so make sure you look at the preview and check that it is appropriate to your intention.
For this example I'll decide to print reference designators and numbering for multiple stock lots, add a prefix of 'Order 456_', and not include a suffix. That would look like this:
The next thing to do it 'Calculate Stock Lot Assignments'. This will tell Cofactr to look over your stock, considering the preferences you indicated, and make the best possible strategy for shipping the desired BOM. If you don't have enough stock of a part a warning will show up in reference to those parts. If you do have enough of the part it will indicate that the stock lots will be added to a shipment and that a shipment will be created. Here is the example I was working on, which I had plenty of stock for:
As you can see, the Successfully Calculated shipment is very simple. I'll go ahead and click on 'Add To Shipment' to create this shipment. After clicking the 'Add To Shipment' Cofactr will think for a moment and then let us know it has successfully created the shipment with a 'Request Processed' alert in the upper right hand corner that looks like this:
Here we see the new shipment in Inventory/Shipments with the correct info and stock lot labeling:
Please note that a shipment will not be packed or shipped until you click on the 'airplane' action button in the upper right corner of the shipment page. It will only be a draft of a shipment until that moment. Once you click the 'airplane' ship icon you'll have until Cofactr begins picking the stock lots to cancel your shipment, but its very likely there will be a very short window before Cofactr starts to fulfill your shipment. If you want to try to cancel an shipment please ask via the chat icon in the lower right or contact us at [email protected]
To show you potential challenges I'll fill out the same dialogue box but ask for a multiple of 1000 of the BOM to be added to a shipment, which my account does not have enough stock to fulfill. After calculating stock lot assignments I see a very different result:
You can see that Cofactr still gives the option to create a shipment and add 2 stock lots (the two lines that I have enough parts to make 100 units of) but that 11 of the parts indicate "Required quantity is greater than matching stock lots" meaning I will need to buy more stock of those parts to create a shipment of the BOM at a quantity of 1000.