It's been a while, but it looks as if things around here are getting busier again. I was asked about item dimensions in IC and while I believe the question had come up before, I was unable to find any old postings of mine or anything related to this. Basically... it appears there are no fields for an item's dimensions (length, width, height) in Inventory. There's a Weight field - which is good - but no dimensions. Am I missing something or are they really not there?
Assuming they are just not there, how does one work around that? I suggested using the optional fields or the 4 empty lines under the Vendors tab. Does Softrak or anyone else have any better ideas?
I was even thinking of putting all three dimensions in the same line and then parse the string and extract length, width and height from that single field. This way, we would use up only one field - not three.

Along those same lines: Once we somehow have those dimensions in Inventory, would there be a way to export that information out of Inventory and get it into Purchase Orders for Adagio (see below question from my boss)?

"are you saying we can use three blank fields for an item length, width
and height and then have Softrack add a formula to the purchase order
screen that will pull those pieces of data and come up with L x W X H=
case cube and then it will multiply case cube by # of cases and come up
with a cube per item and a cube total for the order?"

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Andre

Andre:

Basically the answer is; can't be done.

Options;

The typical purpose of this exercise is to get the cubic equivalent to a weight. I'd suggest just storing the answer in the weight field. By default PO and OE will then multiple the cases order/shipped by this number.

You could use the IC Additional Information to store the data but it's only static. I'm not even sure if it would be possible for Softrak to then take this information and parse it out into the answer you are looking for (PO or OE).

Thanks, Douglas! We are already using the weight field, so we couldn't use it for the cubic equivalent. But I guess we could use one of the other available fields for that. Reading your reply and my boss' e-mail again, it sounds as if they don't care so much about the individual dimensions (LxWxH) - they just want the cubic volume. I'll find out if that's the case.

Thanks again!

Andre

Andre,

What are you guys looking to do with this information in IC/POA?

We've done some software design for a few of our clients to generate packaging and container specs for shipping usage based on the dimensions (L x W x H )and weight of items on order(s).

Hello all,

The discussion about additional fields in Inventory has occurred several times throughout this last year, including one request to add an additional 50+ fields from one of our customers. However, the mere addition of the data elements to the data structure is only a minor part of the overall effort. Here are the questions that need to be answered for each data element you'd like us to add:

• What screen do you want to be able to enter the information on?
• Must any edits be applied to the data that has been input?
• Do you need to be able to import / export the fields?
• What reports should the new fields be printed on?
• What is the relationship of the new data elements to Adagio OrderEntry and Invoices?
• Does room for the new information need to be made on an order to store the information, or can it be retrieved from the Inventory record each time?
• Do you need to be able to print the information on any of the Adagio OrderEntry forms (Invoice / Order Confirmation / Credit Note / Picking slip etc)?
• Do you need to be able to do any calculations involving the new data elements on these forms?
• What is the relationship of the new data elements to Purchase Orders for Adagio?
• Does room for the new information need to be made on a purchase order to store the information, or can it be retrieved from the Inventory record each time?
• Do you need to be able to print the information on any of the POA forms?
• Do you need to be able to do any calculations involving the new data elements on the printed forms?
• What is the relationship of the new data elements to Adagio SalesAnalysis?
• Does room for the new information need to be made in the SalesAnalysis record?
• Do you need to be able to "turn off" the requirement for entry of these fields?

We don't have any problem just adding the data elements, but without comprehensive answers to the previous questions, I don't think that the data elements alone will be much use.

Having said all that, for anyone on the forum that would care to spend the time answering all the above questions for any data element they'd like to have added to the database, we'll be happy to consider making the new fields available in future upgrades to the products.

Hi Andrew:

Thanks for the list of questions! I'll pass them on and will get answers.. Well, I'll try anyway.;-)
Since I'm not really involved in the day-to-day use of POA or Inventory (or Order Entry, for that matter), I can't answer most of your questions in detail right now. However, from what I know and understand at this point is that our Import department needs to have for two reasons:

1. We currently use Excel spreadsheets with the specifications for every single item we manufacture. That's over 4000. There is a ton of information in each one of those spreadsheets, incl. several photos. Makes for very big spreadsheets. Some of that same information is then reentered into Inventory. Not all of it, since fields like length, width, height are not available in Inventory. The Import department and my boss want to investigate if we can have all the item information in Inventory and eliminate those thousands of spreadsheets.

2. As far as POA is concerned, from what I understand, they need the item dimensions to then calculate the cubic feet or inches (volume) of an item, which would then be multiplied by the number of items (quantity) to give us the total volume for a PO. This information could then be used to figure out how much of a PO can fit into a containers or how many container we would need for an PO. Here's what my boss wrote last night:

"Ok so we aren't using this as a weight proxy as we need both. This
needs to be figured out as it's central to the information flow. We
aren't the only company cubing containers. If this software can't
handle this see if you can find one that does. It needs to pull from
an item list with a fair number of fields and then be able to generate
a pretty straight forward po and have the ability to run subroutines
using variables from the item list. Hope this helps.".

This is all just my understanding as an outsider of what their requirements are. I'll get answers to the questions you have raised and I'll make sure to pass them on to you.

Regards,

Andre

Hi Ryan:

That's good to know. Thanks!

Please see my response to Andrew for what I think our people are trying to do. Right now, they don't really use POA to print POs because information like an item's dimensions aren't in Inventory or POA and without that they can't calculate the volume of a shipment. There are probably other reasons, but that's one. So they have an Excel template they fill in for any POs and then they do the necessary calculations with an item's dimensions and the quantity of items we're ordering. The item's dimensions come from another spreadsheet that I mentioned in my reply to Andrew. We have Excel files for every item we manufacture that contains the information we can't store in Inventory because the fields aren't there.

I guess, ideally they would like to have the item dimensions stored in Inventory. We would have to design (or change an existing template) in POA to calculate the cubic volume of a shipment from the item's dimensions and then print that somewhere on the PO. I'm going to get answers to the questions Andrew has raised and then things will hopefully become more clear. At this point I'm just the middleman passing on questions and information. By getting answers to those questions, I'll probably gain a better understanding of what exactly they need as well.

Regards,

Andre

Hi Andre,

If we added three numeric fields for LxWxH, do you also need a unit of measure associated with the units (meters / ft.in.)? Is the total volume of the order equal to the sum of all the individual volumes?

I understand that you cannot use the weight as a replacement for the volume. The volume measurement is unlikely to be "central" to the information flow, but my guess is that it might impact the number of things you include in a single order (to minimize the shipping costs in "container units"). You are definitely not the only company cubing containers, and are not the only company using Adagio cubing containers. Some software is capable of automatically computing the total number of shipping containers needed without any human intervention. However, it costs more to purchase, install and maintain than Adagio (by a lot).

Adagio Inventory has over 200 fields per item, and we're happy to add more. However, someone has to enter, maintain and report on the fields we provide, so we are somewhat cautious in expanding the record. Generating a PO is rarely straightforward, someone always wants to make adjustments to it, and everyone has their own idea of what a printed PO should look like (same as with an invoice or order confirmation).

I don't know what kind of "subroutines" your boss might be thinking of. Perhaps if he could describe the calculations being done, we could implement them and provide the resulting numbers he needs.

Personally, I don't think that you'll ever get away entirely from using Excel for this type of thing.

I would be interested in seeing one of the spreadsheets that you use to keep track of the information about an item that we aren't maintaining for you in Adagio Inventory. It might give me some insight into how we might improve the product for you.

Thanks, Andrew! I'll add those questions to your earlier list. I have a meeting about all this scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'll know more after that meeting. I'll also make sure to get copies of all relevant spreadsheets to you for evaluation purposes.

Regards,

Andre

Andre,

Feel free to contact Brian Young in our office (1-800-540-3164). He can outline the work he's done in the past and you can discuss congruencies to your requirements. That is, if there's an aspect that can't be handled directly in Adagio as Andrew suggests.