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BuildTrace Docs

Inventory

Inventory answers two questions: what do you have, and where is it. You work in Inventory. A workspace needs at least one location before it can hold stock.

Locations

Section titled “Locations”

Stock is always held at a location. A location has a code, a name and a kind. Select Locations at the top of Inventory to manage them. The operations are createLocation, updateLocation, deactivateLocation and reactivateLocation.

The kinds are:

  • WAREHOUSE
  • STOCKROOM
  • PRODUCTION_LINE
  • QC
  • RECEIVING
  • SHIPPING
  • QUARANTINE
  • OFFSITE
  • OTHER

OFFSITE is for stock that is not in a building of yours, such as a founder’s home or a contract manufacturer.

A location code can’t change once stock, units or orders refer to it. You can’t deactivate a location that holds stock or units, or that an open build order uses. A deactivated location takes nothing new.

Serialized and bulk stock

Section titled “Serialized and bulk stock”

How you hold a part depends on its kind. See Parts and revisions.

  • COMPONENT and ASSEMBLY parts are held as individual serials. Receive them with receiveSerial or bulkReceiveSerials. They appear on the Serials tab. See Serials.
  • RAW parts are held as quantities, per revision, location and lot. Receive them with receiveStock. They appear on the Stock (RAW) tab.

A lot is a batch of bulk stock. It is the unit of traceability for bulk stock. A lot can fail an inspection. Stock in a lot whose latest inspection failed is on hand, but it is blocked until the lot passes.

On hand and available

Section titled “On hand and available”

Each row shows two numbers:

  • On Hand is everything physically there, at any status.
  • Available is available stock: what you can still commit. It is on hand, minus what open build orders have reserved, minus blocked stock. Blocked stock is QUARANTINED units for a serialized part and stock in failed lots for a RAW part.

When some stock is blocked, the row says how much is in blocked lots, so the numbers still add up.

Stock rolls up across locations

Section titled “Stock rolls up across locations”

A part’s rows add up across every location. For example, 200 at an offsite location and 300 in a warehouse give 500 on hand. Expand a row to see each location. Use the location buttons above the table to look at one location, or select All locations.

The operations are getStock, getStockByLocation and listSerialStock.

Moving stock

Section titled “Moving stock”

Use transfer to move stock between locations without changing the total.

  • For RAW stock, select Transfer Stock. Choose the revision, the from and to locations, the quantity and optionally a lot. The operation is transferStock.
  • For a serialized unit, open it and select Move. The operation is moveSerial.

adjustStock writes off or corrects RAW stock when the count is wrong.

Reorder points

Section titled “Reorder points”

Give a part a minimum, and optionally a quantity to reorder. Set it from Inventory or from the part’s Summary in Parts & BOMs, with setPartReorderPoint.

The minimum applies to the part as a whole: available stock across all its revisions and locations. When available stock is under the minimum, the part is flagged on the Stock (RAW) tab and listed on the Below minimum tab, with its shortfall and reorder quantity. listBelowMinimum returns the same list.

BuildTrace also sends a stock.below_minimum webhook. It sends it once per crossing: when a stock change takes the part from at or above its minimum to below it. Further drops while the part is below the minimum do not send it again. The part must get back to its minimum before it can cross again. Setting or changing the minimum never sends it. A part that is already under a new minimum is just listed.