Oracle Inventory Module Interview Questions & Answer - Part I

1.       What are different planning methods in Inventory

There are 5 different planning methods in oracle Inventory

·         Subinventory Replenishment Planning

·         Min Max Planning

·         Re-order point planning

·         Kanban Planning

·         Periodic Automatic Replenishment         

2.       What are the setups for Min-Max planning method

·         Define the item in master org and assign the item to the org for which Min-Max planning is used

·         Define the Attribute in Inventory Tab Planning method: Min-Max

·         Min-Max Quantity should have been defined

·         Safety Stock method should be non MRP Planned

·         Determine what should be the status of the Requisitions created for the     planning

·         Define the profile option INV: Minmax Reorder Approval

·         IF ASL has been enabled, then Requisition will populate the supplier data from the ASL setup which is assigned to the item

·         Sourcing rules to be defined

·         Then need to assign sourcing rule to the item

·         In Inventory responsibility, under Planning run the Min Max planning report with required parameter

3.       What is the concurrent program for the planning

·         Min Max planning report under planning menu in Inventory responsibility

4.       What are the setups for expense item?

·         Should not be Inventory Item

·         No Stockable

·         No Transactable

·         No Costing,

·         Not an Inventory Asset

5.       How many key flexfields are there in Inventory?

Seven KFF are there in Inventory

·         Account Alias

·         Item

·         Item Category

·         Item Catalogues

·         Stock Locators

·         Sales Order

·         Service Items

6.       What is the use of sales order KFF?

·         This is used during material transaction when source is Sales Order

·         Segments are Sales order Number, Sales Order Type & Sales Order Source

7.       How we can have the item key flexfield with 2 segments, is it possible, if yes then how, if no then why?

·         This can be modified using Flexfield > Key > Segments

·         Query the System Items, then you can modify the existing structure, or you can add a new one.

8.       How will you inactivate the Inventory locations

·         Define Inactive date in the Location form

9.       What are all the setups done in inventory organization implementation

·         Location

·         Calendar

·         Organization

·         Parameter

·         Cost Group

·         Subinventory

·         Stock Locator

·         Receiving Options

·         Shipping Networks

·         Intercompany Transaction flows

·         Cost Subelements

10.       What are the valuation accounts used in Inventory

·        Material An asset account that tracks material cost. For average costing, this account holds your inventory and intransit values. Once you perform transactions, you cannot change this account.

·        Material Overhead An asset account that tracks material overhead cost.

·        Resource An asset account that tracks resource cost.

·        Overhead An asset account that tracks resource and outside processing overheads.

·        Outside processing An asset account that tracks outside processing cost.

·        Expense The expense account used when tracking a non-asset item

Other Accounts

·        Sales The profit and loss (income statement) account that tracks the default revenue account.

·        Cost of Goods Sold The profit and loss (income statement) account that tracks the default cost of goods sold account.

·        Purchase Price Variance The variance account used to record differences between purchase order price and standard cost. This account is not used with the average cost method.

·        Inventory A/P Accrual The liability account that represents all inventory purchase order receipts not matched in Accounts Payable, such as the uninvoiced receipts account.

·        Invoice Price Variance The variance account used to record differences between purchase order price and invoice price. This account is used by Accounts Payable to record invoice price variance.

·        Encumbrance An expense account used to recognize the reservation of funds when a purchase order is approved.

·        Average Cost Variance Under average costing with negative quantity balances, this account represents the inventory valuation error caused by issuing your inventory before your receipts.

11.       What is ABC Analysis and why it is being used

·        ABC Analysis is an Inventory categorization method to categorize items into 3 different classes A being the most valuable and C being the least valuable ones.

·        Using this Analysis, it will be easy to monitor and keep on track of the valuable items like frequently doing cycle counts on A class items, etc.

12.       What are the process of cycle count

·       Create a cycle count header with required data

·        Assign the items to be counted

         ·        Then run the required cycle count report

·        Using the report do the cycle counts

·        Then go and Approve the cycle count

13.       What is the different in MO Issue and MO Transfer

·        MO Issue will move out the stock from inventory against an account

·        MO transfer will move the stock from one subinventory to other

14.       What is the Picking rule in Inventory

·        Picking Rule is used to determine the list of items for sales order/ shipping based on the revision, Lot, Subinventory and Locator.

·        Assign the required Picking Rule to the item in Order Management tab.

15.       What are the criteria in Cycle count

·        Depending on the requirement, we can trigger cycle count.

·        We can define regular cycle count of high values items.

·        If back ordered or pick denied, we can trigger cycle count for those items. 

16.       What are the diff in Lot and Serial

Lot control is to control a whole batch of items. Example in drug industry we have batch number which can be controlled using lot where we can track the complete batch using specific data.

Serial control is to monitor and track every single quantity of an item like electronic devices where we track by serial number.

17.       What is move order in OM

Move orders generated as part of Pick Wave are the ones from Sales order

18.       How a MO is differ from Subinv transfer

MO generally are the request of movement of items in one organization. It may be of from 3 sources, MO requisition, Replenish MO, Pick Wave MO. MO can be MO Issue which will issue the item from the location and MO transfer which ll transfer the item to another location.

19.       What is nettable in Subinventory setup

This will determine whether to consider the onhands of the subinventory as available for planning tasks.

20.       What are the status attributes in Item and how many of them

We can define different status for an item combination these attributes as per the business need following are the attributes

BOM Enabled

Build in WIP

Customer order enabled

Internal Order enabled

Invoicable

Purchasable

Stockable

Transactable 

21.       What is the use of status attribute

We can define different status for an item combination these attributes as per the business need

22.       Why master org is required

We can have an item maintained at master level with common attributes and then we can use the same item across multiple organization instead of defining it again and again. 

23.       Inventory Master org is mandatory?

Yes. If you will not create any specific master org, then system will consider the same inv org as its master org.

24.       What are the Lot control setups

Lot control can be setup at item attributes at organization level.

As No Control or Full Control

25.       How lot number generates

You can generate new Lot numbers during transactions

26.       What is serial controlled and what are the setups

Serial control can be setup at item attributes at organization level.

27.       How serial numbers are generated

Serial control can be setup at item attributes at organization level.

No Control, At Receipt, At Sales Order issue, Predefined

28.       What is the predefined locator in Subinventory and how it works in business

We can setup locator control in 4 diff ways for each subinventory

None: There will not be any locator information required during any transaction

Prespecified: System will ask you to select locator combinations which already been defined in the subinventory during the transaction

Dynamic Entry: Either you can select any locator during transaction or you can create a new combination

Item Level: This will take the locator which has been defined at item attribute level

29.       What are the transaction managers

Transaction manager is the interface managers which carry out all transaction once submitted by the users

30.       Can we change the item name after it created?

Yes we can change the name in master level.

31.       How WMS is helpful compared to Inventory

Warehouse Management (WMS) enables companies to maximize their utilization of labour, space and equipment investments by coordinating and optimizing resource usage and material flows. Specifically designed to support the needs of distribution, manufacturing, asset-intensive, and service businesses, Oracle WMS provides a single-platform across your entire global supply chain.

32.       What is the use of WMS Rules Workbench

The Rules workbench enables you to assign strategies, rules and cost group values directly to any number of objects in an assignment matrix

33.       Why strategy used

After you define your rules, you must set up a strategy and then associate the applicable rules. After you assign rules to a strategy, the rules engine can execute the strategies on any objects to which the strategy applies. The rules engine executes each subsequent rule in your strategy until an allocation is completely filled.

34.       How many types of bar codes are there

Mainly 2 types Linear (1 dimensional) and Matrix (2D)

Oracle Order Management Interview Questions - Part II

1) What are the Base Tables and Interface Tables for Order Management?

Base Tables: OE_ORDER_HEADERS_ALL: Order Header Information
OE_ORDER_LINES_ALL: Items Information
OE_PRICE_ADJUSTMENTS: Discounts Information
OE_SALES_CREDITS: Sales Representative Credits.

Shipping Tables: WSH_NEW_DELIVERIES
WSH_DELIVERY_DETAILS
WSH_DELIVERY_ASSIGNMENTS
WSH_DELIVERIES

Interface Tables: OE_HEADERS_IFACE_ALL,
OE_LINES_IFACE_ALL
OE_PRICE_ADJS_IFACE_ALL,
OE_ACTIONS_IFACE_ALL
OE_CREDITS_IFACE_ALL (Order holds like credit check holds etc)

2) What is Order Import and what are the Setup's involved in Order Import?

A) Order Import is an open interface that consists of open interface tables and a set of API’s. It imports New, updated, or changed sales orders from other applications such as Legacy systems. Order Import features include validations, Defaulting, Processing Constraints checks, Applying and releasing of order holds, scheduling of shipments, then ultimately inserting, updating or deleting orders from the OM base tables. Order management checks all the data during the import process to ensure its validity with OM. Valid Transactions are then converted into orders with lines, reservations, price adjustments, and sales credits in the OM base tables.

B) Setups:
· Setup every aspect of order management that we want to use with imported orders, including customers, pricing, items, and bills.
· Define and enable the order import sources using the order import source window.

3) Explain the Order Cycle?

i) Enter the Sales Order
ii) Book the Sales Order (SO will not be processed until booked (Inventory confirmation))
iii) Release sales order (Pick slip Report is generated and Deliveries are created)
(Deliveries – details about the delivery. Belongs to shipping module (wsh_deliveries, wsh_new_deliveries, wsh_delivery_assignments etc) they explain how many items are being shipped and such details.
iv) Transaction Move Order (creates reservations determines the source and transfers the inventory into the staging areas)
v) Launch Pick Release
vi) Ship Confirm (Shipping Documents (Pickslip report, Performa Invoice, Shipping Lables))

4) Explain the Order to Cash Flow?

I. Enter the Sales Order
II. Book the Sales Order (SO will not be processed until booked (Inventory confirmation))
III. Release sales order (Pickslip Report is generated and Deliveries are created)
(Deliveries – details about the delivery. Belongs to shipping module (wsh_deliveries, wsh_new_deliveries, wsh_delivery_assignments etc) they explain how many items are being shipped and such details.
IV. Transaction Move Order (Selects the serial number of the product which has to be moved/ shipped)
V. Launch Pick Release
VI. Ship Confirm (Shipping Documents (Pickslip report, Performa Invoice, Shipping Lables))
VII. AutoInvoice (Creation of Invoice in Accounts Receivable Module)
VIII. Autolockbox (Appling Receipts to Invoices In AR)
IX. Transfer to General Ledger (Populates GL interface tables)
X. Journal Import (Populates GL base tables)
XI. Posting (Account Balances Updated).

5) What are the Process Constraints?

 A. Process Constraints prevent users from adding updating, deleting, splitting lines and canceling order or return information beyond certain points in the order cycle. Oracle has provided certain process constraints which prevent data integrity violations.
Process constraints are defined for entities and attributes. Entities include regions on the sales order window such as order, line, order price adjustments, line price adjustments, order sales credits and line sales credits. Attributes include individual fields (of a particular entity) such as warehouse, shit to location, or agreement.

6) What are different types of Holds?
1)GSA(General Services Administration) Violation Hold(Ensures that specific customers always get better pricing for example Govt. Customers)
2)Credit Checking Hold( Used for credit checking feature Ex: Credit Limit)
3)Configurator Validation Hold ( Cause: If we invalidate a configuration after booking)

7) What is Document Sequence?

A) Document sequence is defined to automatically generate numbers for your orders or returns as you enter them. Single / multiple document sequences can be defined for different order types.
Document sequences can be defined as three types, Automatic (Does not ensure that the numbers are contiguous), Gapless (Ensures that the numbering is contiguous), Manual Numbering. Order Management validates that the number specified is unique for order type.

8) What are Defaulting Rules?

A) A defaulting rule is a value that OM automatically places in an order field of the sales order window. Defaulting rules reduce the amount of information one must enter. A defaulting rule is a collection of defaulting sources for objects and their attributes.
It involves the following steps
· Defaulting Conditions - Conditions for Defaulting
· Sequence – Priority for search
· Source – Entity, Attribute, Value
· Defaulting source/Value

9) When an order cannot be cancelled?

A) An order cannot be cancelled if,
· It has been closed
· It has already been cancelled
· A work order is open for an ATO line
· Any part of the line has been shipped or invoiced
· Any return line has been returned or credited.

10) When an order cannot be deleted?

A) You cannot delete an order line until there is a need for recording reason.

11) What is order type?

A) An order type is the classification of order. It controls the order work flow activity, order number sequence, credit check point and transaction type. Order Type is associated to a work flow process which drives the processing of the order.

12) What are primary and secondary price lists?

A) Every order is associated to a price list as each item on the order ought to have a price. A price list is contains basic list information and one or more pricing lines, pricing attributes, qualifiers, and secondary price lists. The price list that is primarily associated to an order is termed as Primary price list.
The pricing engine uses a Secondary Price list if it cannot determine the price of the item ordered in the Primary price list.

13) What is pick slip? Types?

A) It is an internal shipping document that pickers use to locate items to ship for an order.
· Standard Pick Slip – Each order will have its own pick slip with in each picking batch.
· Consolidated Pick slip – Pick slip will have all the orders released in the each picking batch.

14) What is packing slip?

 A) It is an external shipping document that accompanies the shipment itemizing the contents of the shipment.

15) What are picking rules?

A) Picking rules define the sources and prioritization of sub inventories, lots, revisions and locators when the item is pick released by order management. They are user defined set of rules to define the priorities order management must use when picking items from finished goods inventory to ship to a customer.

16) Where do you find the order status column?

A) In the base tables, Order Status is maintained both at the header and line level. The field that maintains the Order status is FLOW_STATUS_CODE. This field is available in both the OE_ORDER_HEADERS_ALL and OE_ORDER_LINES_ALL.

17) When the order import program is run it validates and the errors occurred can be seen in?

A) Responsibility: Order Management Super User
Navigation: Order, Returns > Import Orders > Corrections

How to Make a DFF Field as Non Editable

To make the marked DFF Fields as Non Editable Field in Shipping Transaction Form. 

below steps are to be followed:

1. Create a new value set with the details as shown in the screenshot. 

•     Provide a suitable value set name
•     Make sure the 'Validation Type' is selected as 'Special' 
•     Save the value set 
•     Click 'Edit Information'

2. Define Event & Functions as below:

3. Query the 'Additional Delivery Detail Information' DFF Segment

4. Disable the 'Freeze Flexifield Definition'

5. Assign the newly created Value Set to the DFF Fields:

6. Enable the 'Freeze Flexifield Definition'

Query and check the DFF in Shipping Transaction Form.

Thus the DFF Fields are made as Non Editable / Readable Fields.

Short Notes on Request Group and Request Set

Request Groups and Request Sets:

• Reports and programs can be assembled into Request group and Request Set.
• Request group is a collection of reports or concurrent programs. System Administrator defines report groups in order to control user access to reports and concurrent programs. Only a System Administrator can create a request group.
• Request Set define run and print options, and possibly, parameter values, for a collection of reports or concurrent program. End users and System Administrators can define request sets. System Administrator has request set privileges beyond those of an end user.
• Request security group defines the concurrent programs, including requests and request sets that may be run by an application user under a particular responsibility. When a request group is assigned to a responsibility, it becomes a request security group.
• You can run the same set of concurrent requests regularly by defining a request set and then submitting the request set from the Submit Request form. As System Administrator, you can include any Standard Request Submission report or concurrent program in the request sets you define. When end users define a request set, they can only select from reports and programs that belong to their responsibility’s request security group.

Individual Request and Request Sets

• Reports or concurrent programs that are not included in a request security group on an individual basis, but that do belong to a request set included in a request security group, have the following privileges:
• Users cannot use the Submit Requests form to run single requests and request sets that are not in their responsibility’s request security group.
• Users can, however, run request sets that contain requests that are not in their request security group, if the request set is in their request security group.

Oracle Order Management Interview Questions - Part 1

1.  What are the various order management processes supported by oracle OM

·         Standard orders: This method supports Make to Stock business model where the products are made and kept in stock. The products are then shipped to the customer based on his order.

·         Configure to orders: this method supports Assemble to Order business model. The product configuration is chosen at the time of sales order entry. WIP job is created based on the requirement of the sales order

·         Drop ship orders: In this method, your supplier will ship the goods to   your customer on your behalf

·         Internal sales orders: Internal sales orders are created across two    different organizations of the same business group. Internal requisition is raised first and is converted to an internal sales order where the items are shipped based on the quantity specified in the internal sales order.

·         Back to Back orders: Back to Back Order flow applies to the scenario where Customer Orders a Product which

1. Seller do not Stock

2. Seller do not Manufacture

2.  Describe the order flow in Order to Cash life cycle

1.       Enter the sales order

2.       Book the sales order

3.       Pick release

4.       Ship confirm

5.       Auto Invoice generation

6.       Creating receipt

7.       Transfer to GL

3.  Describe the processes involved after entering sales order?

1.       The items specified on the order are validated in Oracle Inventory

2.       The price of the items are calculated using the pricing engine

3.       The availability of the items are checked and may be reserved

4.       The items are then pick released and shipped to the customer.

4.  What are the different types of sales orders available?

1.       Standard

2.       Mixed

3.       Return

5.  When is an item eligible for customer order?

When the attributes ‘Customer Ordered’ and ‘Customer order enabled’ are checked in the order management tab of Master Items.

6.  Describe the Header status during the sales order process?

Entering the sales order                               Entered

Booking the sales order                                Booked

Pick release the order                                   Booked

Ship confirm the order                                 Booked

Running interface trip stop                          Booked

7.  Describe the line status during the sales order process?

Entering the sales order                               Entered

Booking the sales order                                Awaiting shipping (when sufficient quantity is available)

  Supply eligible (when sufficient quantity is not available)

Pick release the order                                    Picked

Ship confirm the order                                  Shipped

Running interface trip stop                          Closed

8.  Differentiate available quantity and on-hand quantity?

Available quantity + Reserved quantity = On-hand quantity

9.  Differentiate Supply Eligible Status and Supply Partial Status?

Supply Eligible

When there is no sufficient quantity available.

Example: When user tries to book a sales order for Item ‘TestItem’ for a quantity of 10 but the item contains zero quantity. Then the Sales Order Line Status change to ‘Supply Eligible’.

Supply Partial
when the quantity is partially available.
Example: When user tries to book a sales order for Item ‘TestItem’ for a quantity of 10 but the item contains only 4 quantities. Then the Sales Order Line Status changes to ‘Supply Partial’.

10.  Describe scheduling in sales order?

It is a process of communicating the balance between customer demand and a company’s ability to fulfill an order from current inventory and supply sources

11.  What are the various ways of scheduling the sales order?

Setting Profile option – OM: AutoSchedule to yes

From Tools Menu-> Check Autoschedule Checkbox in Sales Order Screen.

Right Click on Sales Order Line ->Scheduling-> Schedule.

Schedule Order Concurrent Program.

12.  Differentiate ship set and arrival set?

In the ship set process, the user would like to ship group of order lines from same warehouse to same location. If Order Lines are grouped under ship set, then until all lines in the ship set satisfy the demand, you cannot ship the goods to customer.

In the Arrival Set process, the customer requests specific order lines to arrive together

13.  What are the Process Constraints?

Processing Constraints allow Order Management users the ability to control changes to sales orders, at all stages of its order or line workflows to avoid data inconsistencies and audit problems.

14.  At what stage an order cannot be cancelled?

An order cannot be cancelled when it is Pick confirmed.

15.  What are picking rules?

A user-defined set of criteria to define the priorities Order Management uses when picking items out of finished goods inventory to ship to a customer. Picking rules are defined in Oracle Inventory.

16.  What are Defaulting Rules?

While creating the order, you can define defaulting rules so that the default values of the fields pop up automatically instead of typing all information.

17.  What are validation templates?

A validation template names a condition and defines the semantics of how to validate that condition. Validation templates can be used in the processing constraints framework to specify the constraining conditions for a given constraint.

18.  What is pick slip?

Pick slip is a shipping document that the pickers use to locate items in the warehouse/ inventory to ship for an order.

19.  What is packing slip?

It is a shipping document that is sent along with the shipment which details the contents that are sent in that shipment.

20.  What is shipping exceptions report?

Shipping exceptions report prints the exceptions messages during ship confirmation.

21  Explain Bill of Lading?

It is a legal document between the shipper of a particular item and the carrier detailing the type, quantity and destination of the good being carried

The bill of lading also serves as a receipt of shipment when the good is delivered to the predetermined destination. This document must accompany the shipped goods, no matter the form of transportation, and must be signed by an authorized representative from the carrier, shipper and receiver.

22.  What is Interface trip stop?

ITS is triggered at the time of shipping if the option ‘defer interface’ is not checked. When this report is run, it performs two main things:

Update the order management (OE_ORDER_LINES_ALL)

Trigger the inventory interface (TO UPDATE Inventory tables)

23.  When is drop ship order created?

1.       Customer requires an item that is not stocked normally

2.       Customer requires large quantities of the item that is not available with you

3.       It is more economical when the supplier sends the item directly to the customer

24.  What is Autoinvoice?

It is a concurrent program which is used to perform the invoice processing. Once the order or lines are eligible for invoicing, the invoice interface workflow activity interfaces the data to receivables

25.  Explain the difference between a credit memo and an invoice?

Credit memo is raised to partially or fully reverse an original invoice amount

An invoice is generated in receivables which show the amount owed by the customers for the purchase of goods or services. It may also contain tax and freight charges

26.  What is FOB?

The term FOB means Freight (or free) on Board is commonly used when shipping goods to indicate who pays loading and transportation costs, and/or the point at which the responsibility of the goods transfers from shipper to buyer.

“FOB shipping point” or “FOB origin” indicates the buyer pays shipping cost and takes responsibility for the goods when the goods leave the seller’s premises. “FOB destination” designates the seller will pay shipping costs and remain responsible for the goods until the buyer takes possession.

27.  What are the different RMA Order Types?
RMA with Credit is used when the customer returns the physical product and also receives credit as a result of the return.
RMA no Credit is used when the customer will return the product but will not be receiving a credit as a result of the return.
RMA Credit only is used when the customer will receive a credit, but the physical return of the product is not required.

28.  What are the necessary setups to perform Internal Sales Order?

1.                   Internal Order and Internal Ordered Enabled set to ‘Yes’.

2.                   Shipping Network(Intransit or Direct) must be defined.

3.                   Internal Customer must be defined

29.  What are Modifiers and Qualifiers?

Modifiers are discount, surcharge or special charge that may be applied to the base price and may alter the value of the item. It can be applied either at order level or at the line level.

A qualifier helps you define who is eligible for a price list or modifier. A qualifier can be a customer name, a customer class, an order type, or an order amount that can span orders.

30.  What are the possible reasons for Interface trip stop to complete with Error?

Few reasons may be

1) Order is on Hold

2) Tax is not applied properly

3) On-Hand qty is not available in the Inventory

4) Inventory Period is not open

5) Make sure Schedule Ship Date or Requested Date is within the range of order Date