Inventory Receiving Processes for

Serial Controlled Items

An Oracle White Paper
April 2008
 Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
Scope ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Serial Number Uniqueness........................................................................................................ 4
Defining Serial Number Control for Items ............................................................................ 5
Serial Number Generation ........................................................................................................ 7
Serial Number Assignments...................................................................................................... 8
Technical Details......................................................................................................................... 9
Serial Number State or Status .............................................................................................. 9
Accepted and Assigned Statuses ........................................................................................ 10
Explanation of MARK_Ids ................................................................................................ 13
Profile option - 'INV: Restrict Receipt of Serials' ........................................................... 13
RMA Receipts for Serial Controlled Items ........................................................................... 14
Inter-org Shipment Creation for Serial Controlled Items .................................................. 15
Technical Details .................................................................................................................. 15
Dropship Receipts for Serial Controlled Items.................................................................... 19
Technical Details .................................................................................................................. 20
Receiving Open Interface support for Serial Controlled Items......................................... 22
Appendix A - List of Tables Used in Serial Numbers Storage And Processing ............. 23
Appendix B - Troubleshooting Some Common Issues...................................................... 25
Appendix C - Shortnames of the Forms Related to Serial Number setup and Entry.... 26
Appendix D - At a glance…. .................................................................................................. 27

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 2

 Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items

INTRODUCTION
A Serial Number is a unique number assigned to each discrete unit of an item that is
stored in inventory. A serial number can also be defined as a set of characters that
uniquely identifies a single unit and can be used for traceability and warranty purposes.
Serial numbers are valuable in quality control, as once a defect is found in the
production of a particular batch of product, the serial number will quickly identify which
units are affected. Serial numbers are also used as a deterrent against theft and
counterfeit products in that serial numbers can be recorded, and stolen or otherwise
irregular goods can be identified.
Oracle Inventory provides complete serial number support for inventory transactions.
Serial number control can be enabled for specific items in inventory. For items under
serial number control, a unique serial numbers is assigned to each individual unit and
thereafter the same serial numbers is referenced each time a material transaction is
performed.

SCOPE
This white paper details the receiving processes for serial controlled items performed via
desktop application. It explains the basic setup involved in using serial numbers and
provides technical details about the serial numbers and serial controlled items and related
receiving processes. It does not discuss Mobile Applications or WMS specific details for
receiving. It also does not discuss the serial number attributes as they are specific to
WMS.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 3

SERIAL NUMBER UNIQUENESS
A Serial Number must be unique so that it can be tracked. Uniqueness of Serial
Numbers can be enforced at various levels. This is defined at the inventory
organization level.

Within Inventory Items: Once a serial number is assigned to a particular item, it

cannot be assigned to the same item regardless of the inventory organization. For
example if serial number SN100 is assigned to item A, serial number SN100 cannot be
assigned to any other instance of item A in any other inventory organization. This also
includes CTO items derived from base model A. However, same serial number SN100
could be assigned to item B in any inventory organization.

Within Organizations: In addition to the restrictions Within Inventory Items control,

the same serial number cannot exist twice within the same organization. For example if
serial number SN100 is assigned to item A, it cannot be assigned to Item B in the same
inventory organization. However, SN100 can be assigned to item B in any other
organization.

Across Organizations: In addition to the restrictions Within Organizations, once a

serial number is assigned to an item, it cannot be assigned to any other item regardless of
organization. For example if serial number SN100 is assigned to item A, it cannot be
assigned to item B in any organization. If uniqueness Across Organization is assigned to
to any organization it restricts the serial numbers in all other organizations. If one
organization dictates Across Organizations, all other organizations must do so too.

In Oracle Inventory, Organization Parameters window is used to define the uniqueness

of serial numbers in an inventory organization.
Inventory -> Setup -> Organizations -> Organizations

Figure 1: Serial Number Uniqueness Setup

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 4

 DEFINING SERIAL NUMBER CONTROL FOR ITEMS
Serial number control for an inventory item can be defined when the item is created. An
item can have following serial number controls:

At Receipt: Serial numbers are created and assigned when the item is received into
The serial number control inventory. Thereafter, for any material transaction, serial number for each unit must be
attribute is controlled at provided.
Organization Level, which
means that same item in At sales order issue: Serial numbers are created and assigned when the item is issued
different inventory
(shipped) against a sales order. Serial numbers are then required at ship confirm. If the
organizations can have
item is received back on a Return Material Authorization (RMA), serial numbers are
different serial number
control defined.
required. All other material transactions for this item bypass serial number information.

No control: Serial number control is not established for the item. All material
transactions involving this item bypass serial number information.

Predefined: A predefined serial numbers is assigned to the item when it is received.

Thereafter, for any material transaction, serial number for each unit must be provided

Inventory > Items > Master Items > Inventory Tab

Figure 2: Serial Number Control at Item Level

The serial number control attribute is controlled at Organization Level, which means
that same item in different inventory organizations can have different serial number
control defined.

The following table presents conditions where certain options can be changed back and
forth:

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 5

Table 1: Serial Control Change Conditions
Change back and forth Change back and forth When
between between
Predefined serial numbers Any time
Dynamic entry at inventory
receipt
Dynamic entry at sales order No serial number control Any time
issue
Dynamic entry at inventory No serial number control Item has no on–hand
receipt quantity

Dynamic entry at sales order
issue
Predefined serial numbers
Dynamic entry at inventory
receipt
Predefined serial numbers Item has no on–hand
quantity
No serial number control Item has no on–hand
quantity
Dynamic entry at sales order Item has no on–hand
issue quantity

If Serial Generation is controlled at the Item level, the check for on–hand quantity is
against the sum of on–hand quantities in all child organizations.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 6


The process of generating
serial numbers does not
assign serial numbers to
units in inventory. It simply
reserves specific serial
numbers for an item, for
later use.
SERIAL NUMBER GENERATION
If serial number control type is defined as Predefined for an item, the serial numbers for
the item must be predefined for that item using the Generate Serial Numbers window. If
the serial control is defined as entry At Receipt or At Sales Order Issue, serial numbers
can be generated optionally.
The process of generating serial numbers does not assign serial numbers to units in
inventory. It simply reserves specific serial numbers for an item, for later use.
Oracle Inventory uses the starting serial number prefix and the starting serial number
specified in the Item window to load the number of predefined serial numbers
requested. Any number of serial numbers can be generated for any item under serial
number control using the Generate Serial Numbers Window.
Inventory > On-hand, Availability > Generate Serial Numbers
Figure 3: Generate Serial Numbers Request
Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 7
SERIAL NUMBER ASSIGNMENTS
Once a serial number is assigned to an item, the combination of the serial number and
the item is an entity known as a serialized unit. From that point on, Oracle Inventory
tracks all movements and maintains the following information for each serialized unit:

Receipt or Ship Date - The date on which a material transaction for the serialized unit
was performed. This information is updated when serialzed unit is moved using material
transactions.

Serial State - Oracle Inventory assigns one of the following states to the serialized unit:
Defined but not used, Resides in inventory, Issued out of inventory, or Resides in
intransit.

Location - The organization, subinventory, and locator in which the serialized unit
currently resides. Material transactions update this information when the serialized unit
is transferred.

Revision level - The revision of the item when the serial number was assigned to the
unit.

Lot number - During material transactions, the lot number is specified first and then
the serial number. Oracle Inventory tracks the lot from which a specific serialized unit
originates.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 8

TECHNICAL DETAILS
All serial numbers are stored in MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS (MSN) table. This is the
table Serial Number generation program populates, given the number of serial numbers
to create and the starting number and prefix.

All material transactions involving serial numbers are stored in

MTL_UNIT_TRANSACTIONS (MUT). Individual applications like shipping and
receiving have additional tables to process transactions involving serial numbers. See
Appendix A for a list of tables used for serial number processing in Oracle Inventory
and Receiving.
Serial Number State or Status
Oracle Inventory assigns a current status to the serialized unit. This status determines
where the unit is and for what transactions it is available. This value is stored in
CURRENT_STATUS field of table MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS. The values in
CURRENT_STATUS field can be:
• 1 Defined, but not used
• 3 Resides in Stores
• 4 Issued out of Stores
• 5 Resides in Intransit
• 7 Resides in receiving
• 8 Resides in WIP

A serialized unit is available to be used for a particular transaction according to the

following criteria:

Table 2: Serial Number Availability

Current Available to be…
Status
…received into or issued out of stores in any transaction requiring
1 serialized units.
…issued out of stores in any transaction requiring serialized units
3
4 …received into stores in any transaction requiring serialized units

5 …received into stores by an intransit receipt transaction.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 9

 Accepted and Assigned Statuses
The type of transaction determines which statuses are valid for the transaction, and
which status will be assigned to the unit after the transaction. A transaction may
accept one or more statuses, but it only assigns one status. A transaction may accept
serial numbers that have not yet been defined (Dynamic entry).

Table 3: Issue Transaction Accepted and Assigned Statuses

Issue Transaction Serial Control Accept Status Assigned Status
Type

Any Issue transaction • No Serial Control - na - - na -

Sales Order Issue • Predefined • Resides in Issued out of Stores
• Dynamic Entry at Stores
Receipt
Sales Order Issue • Dynamic Entry at • Defined, but not Issued out of Stores
Sales Order used
• Resides in
Stores
• Dynamic Entry
Standard Issue • Predefined • Resides in Issued out of Stores
• Dynamic Entry at Stores
Receipt
Standard Issue • Dynamic Entry at - na - - na -
Sales Order
Subinventory Issue • Predefined • Resides in Resides in Stores
• Dynamic Entry at Stores
Receipt
Subinventory Issue • Dynamic Entry at - na - - na -
Sales Order
Intransit Issue • Predefined • Resides in Resides in In-transit
• Dynamic Entry at Stores
Receipt
Intransit Issue • Dynamic Entry at • Defined, but not Resides in In-transit
(Internal Sales Order) Sales Order used
• Resides in
Stores
• Dynamic Entry
Intransit Issue (Inter- • Dynamic Entry at - na - - na -
org transfer) Sales Order

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 10

 Table 4: Receipt Transactions Accepted and Assigned Statuses
Receipt Transaction Serial Control Accept Status Assigned Status
Type

Any Receipt • No Serial Control - na - - na -

transaction
Sales Order RMA • Predefined • Defined, but not Resides in Stores
Receipt (see also RMA used
Receipts for Serial Controlled
Item section) • Issued out of
Stores
Sales Order RMA • Dynamic Entry at • Defined, but not Resides in Stores
Receipt Receipt used
• Issued out of
Stores
• Dynamic Entry
Sales Order RMA • Dynamic Entry at • Defined, but not Defined, but not
Receipt Sales Order used used
• Issued out of
Stores
• Dynamic Entry
Standard Receipt • Predefined • Defined, but not Resides in Stores
used
• Issued out of
Stores
Standard Receipt • Dynamic Entry at • Defined, but not Resides in Stores
Receipt used
• Issued out of
Stores
• Dynamic Entry
Standard Receipt • Dynamic Entry at - na - - na -
Sales Order
Subinventory Receipt • Predefined • Resides in Resides in Stores
• Dynamic Entry at Stores
Receipt
Subinventory Receipt • Dynamic Entry at - na - - na -
Sales Order

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 11

 For intransit shipment receipts, serial control at both source and destination
organizations determines the accepted and assigned status of the serial numbers.

Table 5: Intransit Shipment Receipt Transactions Accepted and Assigned

Statuses
Serial Control Serial Control at Accept Status Assigned Status
at Source Org Destination Org
Predefined • Predefined • Resides in Intransit Resides in Stores
• Dynamic Entry at
Receipt
Predefined • Dynamic Entry at • Resides in Intransit Defined, but not used
Sales Order Issue
Predefined • No Serial Control - na - - na -

Dynamic Entry • Predefined • Resides in Intransit Resides in Stores

at Receipt • Dynamic Entry at
Receipt
Dynamic Entry • Dynamic Entry at • Resides in Intransit Defined, but not used
at Receipt Sales Order Issue
Dynamic Entry • No Serial Control - na - - na -
at Receipt
Dynamic Entry • Predefined • Resides in Intransit Resides in Stores
at Sales Order • Dynamic Entry at (only if receiving ISO
Issue shipment)
Receipt
• Defined, but not
used (only if receiving
inter-org shipment)
• Issued Out of Stores
(only if receiving inter-org
shipment)
Dynamic Entry • Dynamic Entry at • Resides in Intransit Defined, but not used
at Sales Order Sales Order Issue (only if receiving ISO
Issue shipment)

Dynamic Entry • No Serial Control - na - - na -

at Sales Order
Issue
No Serial • Predefined • Defined, but not Resides in Stores
Control used
• Issued out of Stores
No Serial • Dynamic Entry at • Defined, but not Resides in Stores
Control Receipt used
• Issued out of Stores
• Dynamic Entry

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 12

 No Serial
Control
When a serial number is used
in a transaction, the mark_id
fields get populated as soon
as the user identifies the
serial number they want to
use.
• Dynamic Entry at - na - - na -
Sales Order Issue
Explanation of MARK_Ids
MTL_SERIAL_NUMBER table has 3 mark_id fields: GROUP_MARK_ID,
LINE_MARK_ID, LOT_LINE_MARK_ID. These fields are used to ensure that that
serial numbers used by one user's session do not become available incorrectly to another
user. Oracle Inventory uses serial number marking and un-marking routines to update
these fields. When these fields are populated, the serial number is ‘locked’ and is not
available for any transactions.
When a serial number is used in a transaction, the mark_id fields get populated as soon
as the user identifies the serial number they want to use. These fields are made NULL or
un-marked, once the transaction is complete, thus ‘locking’ the serial number during its
processing.
There are known issues when some transactions fail to un-mark these fields due to
unexpected termination of the transaction. If the transaction is stuck and can be found
in Pending Transactions or Transaction Summary forms, then deleting the transactions
from the form should un-mark the serial numbers too. But if the related transaction
cannot be found in these forms, then the only way to un-mark these fields then is to
apply a datafix.
Profile option - 'INV: Restrict Receipt of Serials'
This profile option can be set to Yes or No. Default value for the profile is ‘No’. This
profile determines if users can receive into stores the serial numbers that have been
issued out of inventory and are in status 4 – Issued out of Stores. In case of receiving an
RMA, it may be required to receive the serial number that was shipped on the original
sales order. If this is required, then the profile value should be set to No.
When set to Yes, Oracle Inventory does NOT allow receipt of serial numbers that have
a status of 4 – Issued out of Stores.
Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 13

There is no validation for
revision, lot, or serial
numbers against inventory
tables in Order Management
at the time of RMA creation.
RMA RECEIPTS FOR SERIAL CONTROLLED ITEMS
Receiving utilizes the ‘Validate Serial Numbers on RMA Receipt’ option defined at
the inventory organization level to determine which serial numbers can be received
on an RMA receipt.
Purchasing Responsibility > Setup > Organizations > Receiving Options
Figure 4: Receiving Options
When this option is checked, the Serial List of Values (LOV), at the time of receipt, will
contain only the valid Serial Numbers that were entered on the RMA Line (Return Lot
and Serial detail form for RMA Line in Order Management). Manual entries are also
validated against the Serial Numbers that were entered on the RMA Line.
For example, if SN100 - SN109 is entered on the RMA Line, the Receiver cannot enter
any Serial Numbers other than SN100 - SN109 (SN100 - SN109 should be valid); if
Serial Number SN200 is entered manually, an error will be displayed.
But if no Serial Numbers are entered on RMA line or Validate Serial Numbers On RMA
Receipts is NOT checked, all the valid serial numbers for the item in that inventory
organization are displayed.
Note: The validation is based on the Serial Numbers entered on the RMA Line, not the
Serial Numbers referenced and Shipped on the corresponding Sales Order Line. There is
no validation for revision, lot, or serial numbers against inventory tables in Order
Management at the time of RMA creation.
In addition to above validation, system also checks the value of profile INV: Restrict
Receipt of Serials and will allow receipt of a serial number in status 4 – Issued out of
Stores only if the value of profile is No.
Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 14
INTER-ORG SHIPMENT CREATION FOR SERIAL CONTROLLED ITEMS

Inter-organization transfer is a process of transferring materials from one inventory

organization to another. Both inter-organization transfers and internal orders achieve the
same purpose.

The process of inter-organization transfer is initiated by the organization that needs

some goods either to continue its production line or to meet sales demand or any
other reason. The organization that initiates the process is referred to as the
“Destination Organization”. The organization to which the Destination Organization
requests to send the goods is referred to as the “Source Organization”.

Technical Details

An inter-org transfer entered in inventory or a ship-confirm to an internal sales order in

order management, initiates the process of inter-org shipment creation. These processes
populate the interface tables MTL_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE (MTI) and
MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS_INTERFACE (MSNI). MTI is populated with transaction
details and MSNI with the serial numbers that are being shipped. Inventory Transaction
Manager picks up these records from the interface tables and creates an issue transaction
in the source inventory organization.

See Figure 5 for a process flow diagram of the intransit shipment creation.
NOTE: There are other tables used in the process that are not listed here like MMTT,
MTLI etc. Figure 5 shows only those tables that are most relevant to the process being
described.

If the serial numbers do not already exist in the organization, then they are first created
and records inserted in MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS (MSN) table. The transaction lines
are recorded in MTL_MATERIAL_TRANSACTIONS (MMT) and related serial
numbers transactions are recorded in MTL_UNIT_TRANSACTIONS (MUT). The
status of the serial numbers is updated to “Resides in In-transit” (Status = 5) in MSN.
Please refer to Accepted and Assigned Statuses section for more details about the
serial number status for specific transactions.

Once the issue transaction is completed, Inventory Transaction Manager populates

Receiving Open Interface table RCV_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE (RTI) with the
shipment line details to create an internal shipment in the destination organization and
invokes the Receiving Transaction Manager in online mode. If the transfer type
between the two organizations is Direct, then RTI is populated to create a receipt
directly. If the transfer type is Intransit, then RTI is populated to create an expected
shipment that can then be received in the destination org. Receiving Transaction
Manager picks up the records from RTI and reads the serial details from MSNI and
creates the shipment in destination org depending on the transfer type.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 15

For Intransit:
RTI.TRANSACTION_TYPE = ‘SHIP’
RTI.AUTO_TRANSACT_CODE = ‘SHIP’

Shipment header and lines are created in RCV_SHIPMENT_HEADERS (RSH) and

RCV_SHIPMENT_LINES (RSL) respectively. For each serial number shipped, a record
in inserted into RCV_SERIALS_SUPPLY (RSS) with supply_type = SHIPMENT.
SHIPMENT_LINE_ID joins to RSL.SHIPMENT_LINE_ID to ensure that the serial
number is related to a specific shipment line.

Data in RSS is used by Serial Entry form at the time of deliver into inventory to ensure
that same serial numbers are delivered to stores as the ones shipped. If a serial number is
not present in this table for a shipment, it will not show on the Serial Entry form when
delivering the shipment. Once the serial number is delivered into inventory, a serial
transaction is recorded in RCV_SERIAL_TRANSACTIONS (RST) and the serial
number is removed from RSS.

The serial number transactions are recorded in RCV_SERIAL_TRANSACTIONS

(RST). Initial transaction at the time of shipment creation is recorded as SHIPMENT
transaction. When the serial number is delivered into inventory, the transaction type is
TRANSACTION.

RST.SHIPMENT_LINE_ID joins to RSL.SHIPMENT_LINE_ID and

RST.TRANSACTION_ID joins to RCV_TRANSACTIONS.TRANSACTION_ID.

NOTE: To see the serial control setup of the item and intransit shipment receipt
transactions accepted and assigned serial number statuses, please refer to Table 5.

For Direct:
RTI.TRANSACTION_TYPE = ‘SHIP’
RTI.AUTO_TRANSACT_CODE = ‘DELIVER’

The shipment is received and delivered at the same time that it is created in the
destination organization. The header and lines are created in RSH and RSL respectively.
At the same time, receive and deliver transactions are recorded in
RCV_TRANSACTIONS (RT) and RCV_SERIAL_TRANSACTIONS (RST). No
records are populated in RSS, since the serial numbers are delivered directly into the
receiving inventory.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 16

Direct transfer of serial controlled items between inventory organizations depends on
the serial control of the item in source and destination orgs. Table below lists the
allowed and disallowed combinations.

Table 6: Direct Inter-org Transfers Serial

Serial Control at Source
Org
Predefined
Dynamic Entry at Receipt
Dynamic Entry at Sales
Order Issue
Dynamic Entry at Sales
Order Issue
Serial Control at Destination Direct Transfer
Org Allowed?
• Predefined Yes
• Dynamic Entry at Receipt
• Dynamic Entry at SO Issue
• No Serial Control
• Predefined Yes
• Dynamic Entry at Receipt
• Dynamic Entry at SO Issue
• No Serial Control
• Predefined No
• Dynamic Entry at Receipt
• Dynamic Entry at SO Issue Yes
• No Serial Control

No Serial Control • Predefined No

• Dynamic Entry at Receipt

No Serial Control • Dynamic Entry at SO Issue Yes

• No Serial Control

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 17

 Figure 5: Intransit shipment creation process

MSNI

MTI
Create inter-org Populate
transfer Interface
tables and
Inventory
call Inv
Transaction
Ship confirm an Transaction
Manager
internal sales order Processor
Populate RCV
Interface and call Create Issue
RCV Txn Transaction
Manager

Receiving
Transaction RTI
Processor

MSNI

Expected Shipment Issue Transaction in Source

Transaction in Destination Inventory Org
Inventory Org

MMT
RSH

MUT
RSL

MSN
RSS

RST

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 18

DROPSHIP RECEIPTS FOR SERIAL CONTROLLED ITEMS
Drop Shipments is a method of fulfilling sales orders by selling products without the
order taker handling, stocking or delivering them. The seller buys the product and
the supplier ships it directly to seller’s customer.

Ships To
Supplier Customer

Invoice PO

PO Invoice

Seller
Shipment (Sales Order)
Notification

Drop shipments are created as sales orders in Order Management (indicated as drop
shipments when their source type is entered as ‘External’). The Purchase Release
Concurrent program inserts records in Requisition Interface. Requisition Import
program in Purchasing creates requisition. After requisition is approved, a Purchase
Order is created from it and approved and communicated to the supplier. Supplier
then ships the items to the customer and notifies the seller that goods have been
shipped (via Advanced Shipment Notification) or sends an invoice to seller. Seller
then creates a receipt for the PO, which creates inbound and outbound material
transactions for accounting purposes. Then an invoice is generated to send to the
customer.

In case of drop shipments where item is serial controlled, the serial control level of the
item determines how the serial numbers are processed at the time of inbound (receipt)
and outbound (issue) transactions of the drop shipment.

If the item serial number control is set to ‘Dynamic Entry At Receipt’ or ‘Predefined’,
then when doing an issue transaction, the serial numbers are retrieved from prior receipt
transactions for the same item, warehouse and locator combination. Since no inventory
is maintained for items used for drop shipments, the serial numbers are shipped as soon
as they are received.

If the item serial number control is set to ‘Dynamic Entry At Sales Order Issue’, no
serial numbers are required at the time of receipt entry. At the time of issue transaction,
one serial number per quantity is generated with appropriate prefix defined in the item
setup.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 19

Technical Details
The Order Management API that processes the drop shipments is
OE_DS_PVT.DropShipReceive (OEXVDSRB.pls). This API creates reservation,
updates drop-shipment workflow and shipped quantity. It is called from inventory
transaction processor to handle receipts with inventory destination.

The decrement_inventory procedure in oe_ds_pvt inserts records in following tables for

issue transactions. All the records inserted in the tables below for a particular transaction
have the same transaction_interface_id.

• MTL_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE: For every receipt line (corresponds to

records in RCV_TRANSACTIONS)
• MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS_INTERFACE: For every serial number in receipt
(serial controlled items.)
• MTL_TRANSACTION_LOTS_INTERFACE: For every lot in receipt (lot
controlled items).

See Figure 6 for a process flow diagram of the Dropship process for serial
controlled items.
NOTE: There are other tables used in the process that are not listed here like
MLN, MTLI etc. Figure 6 shows only those tables that are most relevant to
the process being described.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 20

 Figure 6: Dropship process for serial controlled items

RTI

MMTT
MSN
Save Dropship PO
Receipt
Receiving MSN
Populate Receiving Transaction
Interface tables and Processor
call Receiving
Populate Populate INV
Transaction Inventory
Receiving Interface and
call INV Txn Transaction
Tables
Manager Processor

Receiving Transactions Inbound Material Transaction

for Receipt

Create Receipt
RSH RSL Transaction
(increment inventory)
MMT MUT
RT RST

Is
interface Is this Call OM
No DropshipReceive
populated Return receipt for
for issue a dropship API
PO?

Yes Yes

MTI Populate INV

Outbound Material
interface for issue
Transaction for Issue
transaction
MSN (decrement_inventory)

MMT

Call OM
MUT process_order API to
update the sales

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 21

RECEIVING OPEN INTERFACE SUPPORT FOR SERIAL CONTROLLED ITEMS
Prior to 11.5.10, Receiving Open Interface (ROI) provided limited functionality to
import receipts and did not support lot and serial related receipts. Enhancements done
in 11.5.10 to ROI significantly improved the functionality supported via ROI. One of
the enhancements done was support for lot/serial related receipts.

In 11.5.10 and above, suppliers can include lot/serial information in an Advance

Shipment Notice (ASN). For lot/serial controlled items, lot and serial information can
be defined on all receiving transactions imported through ROI. These include receipts,
transfers, inspections, deliveries, returns and corrections. The lot/serial information is
optional throughout receiving and is mandatory only at delivery into inventory.

NOTE: If lot/serial information is provided for receive and/or accept transactions

transactions, then subsequent deliver transaction MUST be entered via ROI too. Users
cannot mix ROI and desktop receiving transactions for lot/serial controlled items.

To import receiving transactions for lot/serial controlled items, in addition to

RCV_HEADERS_INTERFACE (RHI) and RCV_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE
(RTI), following tables must be populated:
MTL_TRANSACTIONS_LOTS_INTERFACE (MTLI) - For lot controlled items
MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS_INTERFACE (MSNI) – For serial controlled items

MSNI.PRODUCT_TRANSACTION_ID links to
RTI.INTERFACE_TRANSACTION_ID.
MSNI.PRODUCT_CODE should be ‘RCV’.

See metalink note 301281.1 for sample scripts for inserts into ROI tables for
lot/serial controlled items. Also see metalink note 309896.1 for a list of ROI
sample scripts for various document types and transactions.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 22

APPENDIX A - LIST OF TABLES USED IN SERIAL NUMBERS STORAGE AND
PROCESSING

MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS – This table stores the definition and current status of all
serial numbers in Oracle Inventory. These serial numbers are also used in other areas of
Oracle Manufacturing.
The serial generation program populates this table, given the number of serial numbers
to create and the starting number and prefix.

MTL_UNIT_TRANSACTIONS – This table stores a record of every material

transaction of a serialized unit in Inventory. Records are inserted into this table
through the transaction processor.

Many serial numbers may be specified for a given transaction record.

TRANSACTION_ID joins to
MTL_MATERIAL_TRANSACTIONS.TRANSACTION_ID when only under serial
control. TRANSACTION_ID joins to
MTL_TRANSACTION_LOT_NUMBERS.SERIAL_TRANSACTION_ID when also
under lot control.

MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS_TEMP – This table holds temporary serial number

transaction records for a parent record in
MTL_MATERIAL_TRANSACTIONS_TEMP. Data in this table will eventually reside
in MTL_UNIT_TRANSACTIONS after processing by the transaction processor.
TRANSACTION_TEMP_ID joins to TRANSACTION_TEMP_ID in
MTL_MATERIAL_TRANSACTIONS_TEMP when under serial control. If also under
lot control it joins to
MTL_TRANSACTION_LOTS_TEMP.SERIAL_TRANSACTION_TEMP_ID.

It is possible to have child records in this table without a parent record due to the
autocommit feature of the Serial Number Entry form. Periodic deletion of irrelevant
data from this table is desired.

MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS_INTERFACE - This is the open interface table of

serial information corresponding to material transactions posted to Oracle Inventory.
The records in this table will be picked up and validated by the Transaction Manager and
then transferred to their respective temporary table for processing.

MTL_CC_SERIAL_NUMBERS - This table is used to store serial numbers

associated to a cycle count entry involving a serialized item. This table is used only when
the user has selected the serial control option "Count: Multiple Per Request" in the
corresponding cycle count header.

RCV_SERIALS_INTERFACE – This table holds temporary serial number

transaction records for a parent record in RCV_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE.
Data in the RCV_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE table will eventually reside in

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 23

RCV_SERIAL_TRANSACTIONS after they are processed by the transaction
processor.
.
It is possible to have child records in this table without a parent record due to the
automatic save feature in the Lot Entry and Serial Numbers forms. The receiving
transaction processor deletes orphan rows during normal processing.

RCV_SERIALS_SUPPLY – This table stores information about the serial numbers

that are currently available to transact for intransit shipments.
.
If you perform an intransit shipment between two organizations that are both under
serial control, the receiving transaction processor maintains information about the serial
numbers and the lots in which they were issued when the items were shipped. The Lot
Entry and Serial Numbers forms use this information to ensure that the same serial
numbers that were used for the intransit shipment are also used when you deliver the
items to stores in the destination organization.

RCV_SERIAL_TRANSACTIONS – This table stores information about the serial

numbers that are used when entering receiving transactions or intransit shipments.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 24

APPENDIX B - TROUBLESHOOTING SOME COMMON ISSUES

1. When attempting to use a serial number in a transaction, following error occurs:

APP-INV-05577: The serial numbers are not available for use in this transaction

This error occurs when the MARK_ID fields in MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS

table are populated and not cleared when the transaction using the serial number
terminates. See
Note 309710.1 for more details on this issue.

2. Unable to see lot/serial information when viewing receiving transactions using

Receiving Transaction Summary form.

Currently there is no visibility to lot/serial information from Receiving

Transactions Summary form. Enhancement Request 6729677 is logged with
development for the same.

3. When attempting to deliver an intransit shipment, following error occurs:

FRM-40212: Invalid value for field FM_SERIAL_NUMBER

Most common reason for this error is missing record in

RCV_SERIALS_SUPPLY for the serial number. To check if a record is present
in RSS for this serial number, execute the following query:
SELECT * FROM RCV_SERIALS_SUPPLY WHERE SERIAL_NUM =
‘&Serial_No’ AND SHIPMENT_LINE_ID = &Ship_Line_id;

&Ship_Line_Id is RCV_SHIPMENT_LINES.SHIPMENT_LINE_ID and its

value can be found on the Receipts form by placing cursor on a line and
selecting (M) Help > Diagnostics > Examine

If a record is present in RSS, but the error still occurs, then check the current
status of the serial number. The serial number must have status of ‘Resides in In-
transit’. See Table 5

If the status is also correct, then verify that the Mark_Id fields are NULL (or –1).

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 25

APPENDIX C - SHORTNAMES OF THE FORMS RELATED TO SERIAL NUMBER SETUP
AND ENTRY

INVSDOIO.fmb – Inventory Organization Parameters form

INVIDITM.fmb – Inventory Master Item Form
RCVSTDRO.fmb – Receiving Options form

INVTTESR.fmb – Enter Serial Numbers form. This form is called from all transaction
forms that require serial number entry.
INVSLENT.pll – Form Library for serial number entry form INVTTESR.fmb

INVITSNU.fmb – View Serial Numbers form. This form can be used to view the status
of the serial number and its related transactions, if any.

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 26

APPENDIX D - AT A GLANCE….

Serial Number Uniqueness (Org Level Setup)

Code Meaning
1 Unique within Inventory Items
2 Unique within Organization
3 Unique across Organizations
-1 None

Serial Number Generation (Org Level Setup)

Code Meaning
1 At Organization Level
2 At Item Level
-1 None

Serial Number Control (Item Level Setup)

Control Code Description
1 No serial number control
2 Predefined serial numbers
5 Dynamic entry at inventory receipt
6 Dynamic entry at sales order issue

Serial Number Current Status (MTL_SERIAL_NUMBERS table)

Current Status Meaning

1 Defined, but not used

3 Resides in Stores
4 Issued out of Stores
5 Resides in In-transit
7 Resides in Receiving
8 Resides in WIP

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items Page 27

Inventory Receiving Processes for Serial Controlled Items
April 2008
Author: Sonia Ahmed

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