Executing the Cycle Counting Inventory Method 

Purpose

Cycle counting in the Warehouse Management (WM) application component makes it possible for you to separate materials into classes (such as A, B, C...) and take inventory for each class separately several times throughout the year.

Prerequisites

Before implementing cycle counting, you must make the following changes to your system:

  1. See the section on "Cycle Counting" under Physical Inventory in the Inventory Management IMG documentation to define the cycle counting indicators (material classes) and the number of times per year that inventory counts are to be taken for each material class.
  2. Enter the cycle counting indicator (for example, A, B or C) into the "Storage" view of the material master record for each material that will be counted using the cycle counting task.
  3. Under the path Activities ® Inventory ® Define types per storage type section of the Warehouse Management IMG, change the Inventory data field to CC (cycle counting) for the storage types where cycle counting is to be implemented.

When using cycle counting, the system only suggests materials within a storage type that are marked with a cycle counting indicator. In order to take inventory for the rest of the materials (that is, the materials that do not have a CC indicator) for a storage type, the " Inventory method" data field must be changed temporarily to " PZ". Afterwards, you can perform standard continuous inventory in IM. (See step 3 above).

Process Flow

To implement cycle counting in WM, you need to carry out the following steps in the order shown:

  1. Create a warehouse inventory list and activate the inventory documents.

To create a warehouse inventory list using the cycle counting inventory method

    1. Choose Physical Inventory ® Physical Inventory Document ® Create ® Cycle counting from the WM menu bar.
    2. Enter the warehouse number, storage type, and the time interval (in the "Inventory Period" field) for the inventory. Choose Execute.

The system proposes a series of storage bins for physical inventory. All bins where inventory can be performed are selected.

If one of the quants in a bin is blocked, the storage bin is displayed with the remark "blocked" but is not selected for the inventory.

If you have mixed storage, all quants are checked and proposed whenever only one of them has a valid cycle counting indicator. Also, the remark "several quants" appears.

If desired, you can sort the proposed bins by date. You can also display one of the storage bins by choosing Environment ® Display storage bin.

  1. Print the warehouse inventory list.
  2. Take the physical inventory count in the warehouse.

    3. To plan the inventory count for the suggested bins, choose List ® Create documents.

    To activate the inventory documents immediately, choose Activate documents.

    See also:

    Using Batch Input for Entering Inventory Count Results

  3. Entering Count Results
  4. Closing Inventory
  5. Process differences in WM and record them in IM.

 

This report searches for all materials in a storage type that are marked for cycle counting within a given date interval, and it creates a list of storage bins for which inventory is to be taken.