Inventory Management experts - P4021 question!

[ksm]

I have a request to modify the P4021 - Supply & Demand Screen so that if a user enters the Item and branch, not only will the grid display the relevant info in the grid for that item, but also look at similar/related items (found in the item x-ref file) and display those records for those items in the grid as well. I'm not sure how to approach this, i've thought of somehow "fooling" the screen so that when user presses the find button to "loop through" the other related items, but that did not work. It looks as if the grid is not based on a view but instead is populated through bsfn's, not being an expert in Inventory mgmt, i'm not sure how to develop this enhancement without completely starting from scratch (a new application/screen where the grid is based on a bsvw - work table that gets populated by a UBE similar to R4051, running in the background, then the grid is populated based on this work file)? Not having much time, is there a simple solution that can utlize the base P4021 screen with a few mods to allow for this related items functionality without having to start from scratch and build a new custom screen? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

KM
E9.0, Release - 9.1.0.4, MS-sql server

 

[Larry_Jones]

I don't think there is a "simple" solution to what you want to do. I think your choices are:

1. Make the mod's to the existing app and BSFNs
2. Create a new app/form/bsfn that builds a work table and then presents the date sorted supply and demand entries.
3. At the database level create a View/query that joins all the related tables into one virtual table. Would be a tricky query but doable. Define the "virtual" table in JDE, create a BSVW, create your application/form around it.

The problems with #2 and #3 are:
1. Existing applications will have links to P4021, not your custom app.
2. Are you going to honor the P4021 Processing Options which govern functionality - like Supply & Demand Inclusion rules? S&D rules alone up the complexity level substantially.

The problems with #1 are:
1. Pretty substantial mods will be needed not only to P4021 but also to underlying BSFNs.
2. Some of the BSFNs are not specific to P4021.

Is the user's next request for you to modify MRP to behave similarly? That's the logical next step, but its a BIG step. You may want to revisit the scope of what they want before taking this first step.

Good luck,

 

[marilynt]

Larry's right it not easy as the screen retrieves real-time data from many tables and displays it. One suggestion which is probably not what the user wants, but you could create a exit to the x-ref and then the ability to select and return the other related items to S&D inquiry.