Warehouses could use view locations as stock location

[Numérigraphe]

In the warehouse object, View locations can not be chosen as the stock location.
In Bug #882481 we changed the warehouse object to only accept internal locations, so as to also exclude other strange configurations (like using an inventory/production/customer/supplier location as a stock location).

But I think there is a case for allowing the stock location to be a view.
It should not be a problem for generated stock moves because the scheduler will automatically change the source location to an internal location where the product is available.

So the stock location should allow both internal and view locations.

Lionel Sausin.

[Numérigraphe (numerigraphe)]

Dear warehouse management experts, will you please confirm this change would be sane?
Lionel.

[Amit Parik (amit-parik)]

Hello Linoel,

I don't agreed with you, that stock location can be a view type of location.
Would you please provide a real time scenario/example on this. Or provide a proper use case where view type of location used as a stock location.

Thanks and waiting for your reply!

[Numérigraphe (numerigraphe)]

Dear Amit Parik,
In our factory, we have a very detailed location scheme with up to 5 levels of nested locations.
As a rule, we always only allow stock moves to be recorded for the "leaf" locations. All the locations at the higher levels are views.

So obviously our stock root is a view too but still, we need to let the warehouse use this as the stock location, so that the products available & virtual quantities are evaluated correctly.

That does NOT mean that we allow assigned/done stock moves to come from (nor go to) view locations.
However I think it's totally OK to let draft & confirmed moves from view locations, because the scheduler will change the source location anyway, and users can press "check availability" to have it do it.

Does that make sense to you?
Lionel.

[Amit Parik (amit-parik)]

Hello Linoel,

Still I have come confusion on this issue.

Because as per my "Opinion' view type of location shows that the location is only an organizational node for the hierarchical structure, and cannot be
involved in stock moves itself. The view type is not usually made into a leaf node in a structure – it usually
has children.

According to your scenario you can use the internal type of child location as warehouse's stock location.
Additionally we need to more discussion and suggestion on this.

That's why currently I am setting this as an "Opinion".

@Stock Experts: Would you please share your views on this.

Thanks and more suggestions are welcomed!

[Kyle Waid (midwest)]

Hello Numerigraphe,

I share your point of view. To me, the way OpenERP handles stock technically and visually, does not make sense. I wish to have the exact configuration you are describing. In all businesses I have seen they manage stock by location just as you have described. They never have a generic stock location. That doesn't make sense. We do not want to allow any stock movement to take place at the highest level, such as the warehouse stock location. We want it to be a view only. As you stated OpenERP does not support this configuration. There are multiple issues aside from what you have described. For instance. The location stock is a compendium of all child locations, but it also allows stock to be stored directly in this location. This means that it is difficult to keep proper management of stock. We NEVER want stock moves to take place in the view.

To demonstrate an example of this problem, Have quantity 5 in location stock. Have quantity 5 in a child location of stock. When you view the stock detail it will show 10 in location stock, even though there is actually 5 in this location. If I go to a periodical inventory and select location stock, it again will show me the total amount in this location and all child locations with the onchange event, even though the quantity in this location is less.This means it is impossible to determine the actual stock value in location stock. In my opinion this is an architectural design flaw. OpenERP is great software, but I believe it significantly lacks in basic quality stock management for an ERP software.

The other issues that I was mentioning are managing stock by location. OpenERP has almost no mechanism to see this visually or manage it properly. For instance, if I have 5k stock locations and I select from the product form "Stock by Location" It will show me (when it finally loads) ALL stock locations even if the quantity =0. These features we are talking about are core standard features that need to be addressed.