Enable workflow for consignment purchase order

[former_member599652]

Our workflow are based on PO values and when it comes to consignment PO, it doesn't carry any pricing detail. We have various levels based on the PO value for approval. How can we roll out workflow approval on Consignment PO ?

[Thomas_Jürgense · Accepted solution]

Hi,

There is *no* "consignment PO".

What does exist: A Normal Purchase Order which contains items that are used for consignment fill-up.

Consignment is a scenario, in which a company keeps a special stock under the ownership of the supplier. This stock is meant to only be used as a special storage location of the supplier close to my own plant. As a result, the buying company obviously does not own anything on that stock, till anybody in the buying company actually opens that storage location and takes off some goods. Only then the goods are coming into the ownership of the buying company. As a result it is legally incorrect to have the goods in these stocks maintained with a value, as this would result in wrong definition of how much my company is worth (whatever is on these consignment stocks may not be counted).

Technically thus the PO you are obviously referring to (as this is the only PO in the supplier consignment scenario) has to have the materials maintained at no value. Result: curing any workflows on such a PO, the net value that is maintained obviously is 0. Since the Fill-up places no commitment on you it doesnÄt make too much sense to do anything special here.

One could now think of having approvals anyway also for the fill-up based on what I assume the cost of the complete items that are to be stored on the supplier consignment stock. If that is of relevance to you, you would have to code your own way through by means of own step condition assessments.

Another possibility would be to request ability to have a workflow on the consignment withdrawal step. This however is initiated from Goods Movement alone (there is no PO for this). Thus: such a request would have to be directed towards the Goods Movement area. Nothing of the like exists today for any goods movements.

Regards Thomas

[former_member599652 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Thomas for the note. Unfortunately the reality is business leaders want to approve the quantity they are requesting the vendor to hold on consignment although it doesn't have financial obligation. The fact is they are obliged to communicate the quantity upfront and there is a financial implication for the decision which will be incurred later. Auditors are looking for leadership approval process and currently it is outside the system . There should be way to bring this information into the system to help furnish audit from one place.

Based on your response it looks to be a heavy customization to make this happen.

[Thomas_Jürgense · Accepted solution]

Hi Puru,

Well there is nothing that stops you from getting a workflow raised for the quantity. I do understand that you want now to use the value of what the fillup materials will be worth when taking them out of the consignment stock for determination of right approver as well as showing the financial implications down the road. Now this is however not the net value, and in reality the fill up PO even doesn’t know that value at all.

You can code this for yourself, for such requests the customer specific step conditions are created. You can of course start a request on customer influence portal as well for requesting from standard development; so far I haven’t seen such a request from other customers however making it look not too standard worthy.

Regards Thomas

[former_member599652]

There is a challenge only considering the quantity. I will raise an influence request as suggested by you. Thanks