The benefits of a healthy Inventory count:
- Accurate inventory reordering.
- Optimum Blank Selection.
- Manageable on-self quantities.
The steps to a successful Inventory count are:
- Freeze the Inventory items to be counted.
- The idea behind a Freeze is to take a snapshot of the inventory on hand at a given moment in time. It is important when doing the count that everything that has been picked has been scanned through Lens Pick Verification and that no one is picking lenses while the physical count is going on.
- Scan/count the Inventory items.
- Post (Update) the Inventory count to the inventory database.
To access the "Inventory Count" function; from the Main Menu:
- Go into the "Inventory" tab.
- Select the "Inventory Count" option:
Entering the "Inventory Count" function you will see the "Lens Filter" window; basically this is how you setup your lens criteria of what inventory items you want to freeze (count):
Once you are happy with your selections, click on the "Continue" button.
The next window will show you the "Lens Filter" in a more summarized format:
You will need to enter a "Batch ID"; this can be numeric (a number) or alphanumeric. The "Batch ID" can be used to track your different transactions made during the day.
Below I entered "1" as my "Batch ID": Click on the "Continue" button.
You will now see a screen listing all of the lens styles from your chosen selection. They will be broken down by semi-finished/finished, material, segment depth/width, upper add, diameter, color, pre-treatment and thickness code. You will also see the current Qty on Hand and how many have been counted. You can count the lenses by scanning the OPC codes or by manually entering the count for a particular lens on the lens detail screen (this screen is accessed by double clicking on a selected grouping. You can also use a flat file to load the lens counts by selecting the "Load count from file" button..
Count by scanning
To count by scanning OPC codes, go to the "Enter OPC # or Qty" prompt at the bottom of the screen. Simply start scanning OPC codes. As you scan each OPC code, it will appear in a list to the right for your reference. If you wish to enter a quantity, first scan the OPC, then enter the quantity. If a mistake is made, you can even enter a negative quantity.
Count by manually entered amount
To manually enter the count, simply double-click on an entry. A new screen will appear showing a grid with the current quantity on hand for each base/add or sphere/cylinder combination. Just click on the appropriate column and enter the quantity counted. When finished, press the "Save" icon to save your changes or the "Exit" icon to exit without saving.
Loading counts from flat files.
You can load counts from a flat file, the layout for the flat file is OPC code, followed by a quantity (this is optional), if a quantity is used, then the OPC and quantity must be delimited by a semi-colon or a comma.
Sample flat file
0800523409;5
0800523410;3
Press the 'Load count from file" button. A file selection screen will be displayed. Select the file you want to import .
If the correct file is selected, press the "Continue" button to load the contents of the file. If the OPC is part of the freeze range, the count will be added. If the OPC exists but is not part of the freeze count, or the OPC is not in your inventory, the OPC , quantity and the resulting error will be written to a count errors file. The count errors file, if it exists, will be available for printing both after the count file is imported or adhoc via a "View Count errors" button that will appear next to the "Load count from file" button.
Note: The loaded flat files will be archived in a folder called "INVCOUNTS\ARCHIVE". The count errors for the freeze batch will also be archived once the counts are posted. The files in the "INVCOUNTS\ARCHIVE" folder will be deleted based on the System Setting, in the Inventory tab, "# of months to keep inventory transactions" and the removal will be done, if required, when a new freeze count is started.
Processing the counts
Once you have finished counting all lenses for the chosen selection, click "Post Count"; meaning, update the information in the Inventory Database.
All items that did not have at least one scan or have not been entered a quantity amount, will be set to "0" (zero).
Since the item has not been scanned or entered a quantity, Rx-Universe will assume that you do not have any in stock.
All counts will be posted and an Inventory Count Variance Report created. If for some reason you do not wish to count this selection of lenses, click the "Purge Count" button and all entries will be removed, posting nothing (meaning your existing counts stay the same).
