An Internal Request (IR) is a document used to express a requestor’s needs. It is the electronic equivalent of the paper Request Form and replaces the LogistiX “Document IN”. It should be used according to OC procedures.
The needs can come from a user at project or coordination level, it will trigger most procurement documents (if needed) to deliver the goods to the instance where the IR has been created and to the destination location indicated on the IR. The IR has to be reviewed and validated before going through the sourcing tool (and being confirmed).
Process flow of an Internal Request (internal requester)
This chapter covers the different types of orders available in UniField, as well as each different stage of sourcing and procurement. The process will start as an expression of needs, and this may be followed by procurement, sourcing from stock, loan, which may involve both internal (via synchronization) and external partners.
It is essential to understand how product orders and procurement are processed in UniField, as an order line may pass through several different stages until the product reaches its final destination. All these stages, up to the point of product reception, are covered in depth in this chapter.
This chapter also covers the relationship between projects and coordination and the role which the synchronization can play in the order flows between them.
This chapter is introducing gradually the different functionalities of UniField needed in procurement, starting with Internal Requests, continuing with the Orders Sourcing Tool before to focus on Field Orders and Purchase Orders. As these functionalities are highly interconnected within UniField, it was not possible to keep them completely separated; reason why some functionalities such as Field Orders and Purchase Orders are already introduced before their dedicated learning units.
As of UF7.0 (released in January 2018), documents used in procurement (Internal Requests -IR-, Field Orders -FO- and Purchase Orders -PO-) can be processed at header level (for the whole document) or at line level (for specific items in the document). This is a major change that has been introduced in UniField to allow -among others- partial sourcing and partial confirmation of orders.
Throughout this chapter, you will find many acronyms. They are mostly used to shorten English words but can be used in the English manual or the French manual (i.e. you may find the acronym PO in the French version of the manual). In the below table, you find the main acronyms used in this chapter with their meaning.
French acronyms, such as the names of the documents in French in a less extend, are barely used. English acronyms and documents names are usually preferred. In the software, references of documents are often built with the English acronyms of the documents (e.g. 18/IR00019, 18/HQ/MW101/FO00033, 18/HQ/MW101/PO00045…), independently of the language in which the software is used.
The language in which UniField is developed is English. The software is then translated in French. That’s the reason why, even if you are connected in French, you could still find some English terminology (on screens, in messages,) while working on UniField. The translation of the software in French is a work in process and some improvements are still needed on this side.
The task is available under Tools > Tools > Delete Old ESC Catalogues. It is deactivated by default, and if active, will run with a default interval of six months between executions.
The functionality will be extended with a new “Specific Partner” field, allowing users to delete ESC catalogues only from a selected supplier. This field is mandatory.
The deletion configuration is defined at instance level.
The list will display:
Source instance
Date of deletion
Number of catalogues deleted
Clicking on a record will show these details plus the Last Execution Message (including the catalogue names).
C. How to update a supplier product catalogue price list.
Go to: Partners/Suppliers
Click on the pencil icon next to the Supplier whose Catalogue list you want to update to open it in edit mode
You can add a new line to an existing catalogue. When a new line is added directly to an existing catalogue, this new line must have its ranking assigned unless there is already a ranking at header level
Click on the Catalogues tab
Click on the Edit Catalogue icon next to the version/name of the catalogue you wish to update, this will open the Supplier Catalogue in a new screen
Edit tab
Click on the pencil icon next to the product that you want to update and make the appropriate changes. (NB the system will keep a record of the original and all previous versions of this catalogue list)
Click on the floppy disk icon next to the product line to save and repeat for all products as required.
Click on the Save button to save all changes to this Supplier Catalogue.
Update records
The supplier catalogues are linked to the supplier and can be synchronized. The supplier in each instance must be active in order for the catalogue to be synchronized and directly activated. Any product added / changed, or any change of price can be synchronized this way.
It is possible to see Track Changes for Catalogues which are for external suppliers. This is available via the Action menu in an excel format. This includes entries for any changes to the rankings of the catalogue & its lines.
ESC’s catalogues are created by HQ and only synchronised to coordination. ESC partner must be activated as well as the catalogue by coordination. For catalogues for other external suppliers, these are synched down to project level, but the same rule applies for activating supplier and catalogue to have visibility of these.
N.B : It is not possible to add a product to a valid catalogue if the product is already included in another valid catalogue of the same supplier, otherwise you will receive a blocking warning message.
B. How to create a supplier product catalogue price list
In order to create a Supplier Catalogue Price List for a supplier, the user should follow the relevant MSF procedures outlined for gathering this sort of information, commonly known as market analysis (which may involve a Tendering process) before entering this data into the system. To make this inputting process as efficient as possible, it is possible to both enter this information directly into the Supplier/Product record as well as to import the data into the system via an excel file.
To enter the Supplier Catalogue Price List directly into the system, Go to:Partners/Suppliers
Enter the relevant search values in the header fields to find the Supplier you want
Tick the checkbox next to the supplier in the list view
In the Actions Menu on the right-hand side, click on New Catalogue. A screen displaying New
Catalogue will appear.
Product catalogue – 1
Enter the Name (how you want to call this Supplier’s catalogue)
The “From” field will automatically display today’s date but can be edited
Enter the “To” date using the calendar button. This should reflect the last day on which the information you are entering is valid (e.g. if the price is fixed how long it is fixed at this price according to the supplier’s bid). This field is not mandatory.
The currency will pull through from the currency entered for this supplier
Each new catalogue must have a ranking. A default “3rd choice” ranking is automatically assigned for catalogues created via synch or auto VI importbut can be changed.
The Partner field will display the name of the Supplier that for which you are adding the catalogue price.
The Active box will reflect the state from the Supplier record (i.e. this should have been ticked if we are considering using them and have asked for product pricing etc)
In the Import Line section, the Add Attachment button will allow us to browse and select the excel file that we want to import, and next to this is the “Import file” button which will import the data from the excel file.
To Add products individually to the catalogue, in the Products tab, click on the New button
Click on the magnifying glass icon to bring up the search products window and enter the relevant values to find the product(s).
Select all relevant products, and check that the default UoM is correct (or changing it if need be)
Enter the minimum quantity which the supplier had based their price on. If there is none then 1 can be entered. If you try to save a line with 0 as a minimum quantity, the system will display an error message
Enter the Unit Price (which should be related to currency selected)
Enter any SoQ Rounding figure (e.g. if Pens are the product, the UoM and price may be per pen (i.e. pce), but the supplier sells the pens in packets of 50, in which can the rounding would be 50.)
Enter the minimum order quantity – depending on the supplier, the lowest quantity of the goods they would accept to supply per order
Enter any other comment
Click on the floppy disk icon to save the line and either repeat the steps to add another product or click on the Save button to save the catalogue list.
When catalogue is complete and all lines are saved, user can confirm catalogue by clicking on the Confirm button. This means all data it contains will be used by system for relevant transactions.
Product catalogues – 2
N.B: It is possible to have 2 active catalogues for the same supplier in the same instance as long as the products are different in each catalogue. If one supplier has more than one catalogue for the same product, user will receive a warning message.
Please note that it is possible to create a Catalogue of the Coordination instance at coordination instance. This function has been added to enable the related projects, to which this catalogue is synchronized down, to have a Coordination Supplier Catalogue. This will help to get more accurate estimation prices for intra-mission orders.
One optional characteristic of the Supplier record is the supplier catalogue product list. This allows the user to view a list of the products which the supplier is able to supply, together with the prices and other relevant information of these products.
The advantage for users is that as soon as they request, or receive a request for any product which is listed in a supplier catalogue price list, the system will automatically be able to indicate which suppliers are able to source this product, at what price they offer it and other information such as standard packaging types, lead times etc, which can help the user to plan their supply activity more efficiently, as well as facilitating supplier management by providing current and historical information about supplier activities and pricing.
In the Products Search view, enter the appropriate values in the filters in order to view as many as possible of the products you want to add to the list.
Click on Search
From the results, select the checkbox next to each of the products that you want to add, or click on the checkbox at the top of the products lists to select all the products on the same page (but do NOT progress to any other pages)
In the Action Menu on the right-hand side, click on Import to list
Import to a product catalogue
The “Import to” list screen will open and display the list of products you have selected
In the List definition section, select from the options:
Existing list, if you want to add these products to an existing list
New list, to create a new list
Replace list, to replace a list which is already in existence
If you have selected either the Existing or Replace options, you will need to select the Existing list that you want to add to or replace.
If you have selected the New list option, enter the Name of the new list
And Enter the type
List, if for a list
Sub-list, if for a sub list which belongs to a “parent” list
Click on Import products button to import products to list
In the Product list screen enter all relevant details:
The fields Type and Name will have already been populated according to the information already in the system.
Import product list
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