Automatic Item Substitution by Vendors in EDI Purchase Orders Version

Contents

Overview

This feature implements automatic substitution of items on EDI purchase orders. When a hospital sends an electronic purchase order (EDI 850) for an item to a vendor, the vendor can substitute an approved, similar item. The EDI 855 PO confirmation document contains the item substitution information.

You can...

• Create item vendor records designated as approved substitutes. The vendor can then provide the substitute, instead of the ordered item.
  - Partial substitutions are allowed (for fill/kill vendors only, however).
• Copy a PO with a substituted item and have the original item on the new PO (and requisition, if one exists for the PO).
  
• Inquire on a requisition or PO line and see the substituted item and the original item that was substituted.

When an item is successfully substituted by the vendor in an EDI purchase order, the EDI 855 does not appear on the exceptions list. The EDI processing routines update the purchase order line with the substituted item. The PO inquiry displays the Substituted column which contains Yes for a substituted item. Also, any requisition line associated with the PO is updated to display the substitute.
If you wish to copy the purchase order and include the original (non-substitute) item, you can. The ERP application maintains the original item line and includes it on the copy. See below for details on copying.

Security: The user working with purchase orders is limited to asset locations, departments, and organizations specified in his/her Data Profile.

How to Designate Approved Substitutes

For each item that is a substitute for an original item, you must set up a new item vendor record (Figure 1). Both stock and non-stock items can have substitutes. Multi-sourced items can also have substitutes.  The Approved Substitution field (Figure 1) on an item vendor record designates the item as an approved substitute.

Figure 1 - Item Vendor Records for an Original Item and Its Substitute

When a vendor sends back a substitute item on an EDI 855 confirmation, the application checks to see if the Vendor Item Number on the 855 belongs to an approved substitute for the original item (in the same organization, asset location, vendor, and buy-from location).  Although the substitute item must also have the same UOM and conversion factor as the original item, the price does not have to be the same. If any of these values for the initial item and the substitute item do not match, substitution is ignored.

To set up substitute items,

For detailed instructions on working with item vendor records, see the online documentation topic "To edit an existing item catalog vendor record or add a new item vendor record." Below is a summary that creates substitute items using the item catalog menus. For multi-sourced items, you can also set up substitutes from the item inventory menus.

1. Open the Item Catalog and locate the item for which you will accept substitutes.
2. Select Menu > Item Vendor Records. The list of item vendors appears (Figure 1).
3. Click New.
4. The edit panel (Figure 2) opens for you to enter information for the new substitute item vendor record.
   
5. Check the Approved Substitute field (Figure 2) to identify the item. (The default setting is unchecked, so if the item is a substitute, be sure to select the field.)
6. Save/Submit the new item vendor record. It will appear when you Refresh the list of item vendor records for the item.

Figure 2 - An Item Vendor Record for an Approved Substitute

Substitution Rules

Substitutions returned in EDI 855 confirmations must follow these rules; otherwise, the EDI 855 is in exception.

• The UOM of the original item and the substituted item must be the same, and have the same conversion factor.
• The substituted item must have the same vendor, buy from location, organization, and asset location as the original item.
• The substitute item vendor number (VIN) must be unique, as with any item vendor number.
• The Quantity of the substituted item ordered must be the same as the original ordered quantity, unless the PO vendor is "fill/kill." In that case, the substituted item can contain a partial quantity. The remainder is "killed."
  Note: For fill/kill substitutions, the quantity is changed on the receipt line, but not on the PO line.
• The substituted item is not an approved substitute;

The substitute item can have a different price than the original item, as long as all its other values (UOM, conversion factor, etc.) are the same.

(The EDI 855 Confirm Exceptions panel displays unsuccessful substitutions. See the Exceptions section.)

Successful Substitutions - Reviewing the EDI 855 Document

When the vendor returns an EDI 855 confirmation for an EDI purchase order, the EDI 855 contains any successful item substitution.

• To display PO confirmation imports (EDI 855 documents), from the Materials Management main Contents, select Purchasing > PO Confirmation (855) Imports.
  You can sort the list, and/or use the search and quick filters to locate the PO of interest. Figure 3 is an example.
  
  Note: If the EDI 855 document for your PO is not on the list, it may be in exception, and substitution was not made. See the Exceptions section.

Figure 3 - The List of EDI 855 (PO) Confirmations Filtered for an Import Date

• To display lines on a PO, select Menu > View Import Details (Figure 3).
  The PO Confirmation Import Details panel appears (Figure 4).

On the panel, if an authorized substitution has been made...
- the Confirm Status is IS (Item accepted: Substitution made) (Figure 4 ).
- the Confirm Item No column contains the Vendor Item Number of the substituted item (Figure 4 ).

Figure 4 - An EDI 855 Confirmation Line with a Substituted Item

When an EDI 855 confirmation returns a valid substitute item, the Substitution field on the associated requisition inquiry is set to Yes, to be consistent with the same information on the PO. Similarly, the Substitution field on the PO line inquiry is also Yes.

The Substitution field is empty when no substitution has been made.

When a substitution is performed and a requisition is updated, the Substitution field is updated to Yes.

An example of the Substitution field on a requisition is in Figure 5.

Figure 5 - The Substitution Field on the Requisition Inquiry

- For an approved item substitution on an EDI 850 PO, you can see the original item and the substitute on the requisition line.

• When the Substitution column on a requisition line inquiry is Yes (Figure 5), the menu item View Substitution is available.
• Click Menu > View Substitution (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - The View Substitution Option on the Requisition Line Inquiry Menu

Item information for the substitute item is displayed (Figure 7).

Figure 7 - Substitute and Original Item Information on a Requisition Line

Similarly, on a PO line inquiry, you can also display the original item that was substituted.

• When the Substitution column on a PO line inquiry is Yes, the new menu item View Substitution is active.
  (If no item has been substituted, the View Substitution menu is grayed out, Figure 8.)

Figure 8 - The PO Inquiry Menu for Displaying Substitute Items: In this Case, No Substitutes

• Click Menu > View Substitution. If a substitute is available, the substitute and original line information for the PO line appear (similar to Figure 7).

Failed Substitutions -- Reviewing the EDI 855 Confirm Exceptions List

If a substitute item is not valid; for example, if it is not an approved substitute, or has a UOM, quantity, conversion factor, or other required attribute different from the original item, the EDI 855 is in exception, and is available on the EDI Confirm Exceptions list.

Exceptions for item substitution cannot be cleared from the exceptions list. You must handle them manually.

• To display EDI 855 confirmation exceptions, from the Materials Management main Contents, select Purchasing > EDI Confirm Exceptions. The list of EDI 855 exceptions appears (Figure 9).

Figure 9 - The List of EDI 855 Exceptions with Three Failed Item Substitutions

For each of the three POs with failed substitutions, you can see...

The vendor item number of the initial item ordered in the PO.

The Confirm Status of the 855 (IS) and the reason the substitution did not occur. There are two reasons in this list of POs: Quantity, UOM Difference and just UOM Difference (Figure 5, green arrows under ).

The vendor item number of the designated substitute item (Figure 5, blue box). Because of the exception, the item was not substituted in the PO.

You may need to review the UOMs and conversion factors for the initial item vendor record and for the substitute item vendor record to make sure that they match. You may also need to contact the vendor to help resolve any mismatch.

A partial substitution will fail unless the vendor is a fill/kill vendor. Also, EDI 855 documents with substitutions can only have one detail line for the substituted item.

Here is a situation, for example, where a substitution is not allowed.
- On a PO, the ordered quantity is 10. However, there are two confirmation detail lines with one line having a quantity of 8, and another with a with a quantity of 2 for a substitute item. One one line is allowed for a substituted item.

Reviewing the Item Vendor Record

When an EDI 855 is returned for a PO with a substituted item, if the substitution is not successful, review the record for the substituted item.

To display item vendor information in the Item Catalog,

1. From the Materials Management main Contents, select Inventory > Item Catalog. The Item Catalog list appears (Figure 10).

Figure 10 - The Item Catalog List Filtered for the Item of Interest

2. Select Menu > Item Vendors. A list appears containing vendors who supply the item. Figure 6 is an example using the item in the EDI 855 from Figure 4.

On the list for each item is the vendor number and name, Buy-From Location, Vendor Item Number, Manufacturer Item Number (Figure 11 ), Manufacturer, etc. for any item supplied by the vendor.

For each approved substitute, Yes appears in the Approved Substitution column (Figure 11 ).

Figure 11 - An Item Vendor Record for a Substitute Item

Selecting an Item for a PO

Figure 12 - Reviewing Item Selection Options for a Purchase Order

Copy a PO That Has Had an Item Substituted

The process for copying a purchase order with an item successfully substituted is the same as any PO copy. Because Materials Management retains the item lines from the initial PO---before any successful substitution--when you copy the PO, you get the initial lines.

Detailed instructions for copying purchase orders are in the online documentation topic "Copy a Purchase Order." Below is a summary.

1. From the Materials Management main Contents, select Purchasing > Purchase Orders (by PO) or Purchase Orders (by Create Date).
   The list of POs ordered by PO number or by create date (as you selected) appears.
2. Locate the PO of interest on the list.
3. Next to the PO, click Menu > Copy.
   You can assign the new PO a number in the To PO No field, or leave the field blank to let the system assign the PO number.
4. Click Submit. The Purchase Order panel appears with the purchase order lines. The lines are the initial item(s) from the PO. The substitute item(s)
   do not appear.
5. When you are finished, click Save. If there are no errors, click Authorize Now or Authorize Later.

Mass Item Maintenance: Designating Approved Substitute Items

You can upload and download items marked as "approved substitutes" as part of the normal item maintenance process.

The Excel Item Maintenance template contains the column – ApprovedSubYN --  on the Item Vendors tab. This column lets you identify item vendor records for approved substitute items. (Figure 13).

Figure 13 - Excel Item Maintenance Template, Item Vendors Tab with New ApprovedSubYN Column

• On the Item Vendors tab, enter 1 in the column ApprovedSubYN in the row of an item that you wish to designate as a substitute for another item.

Important: This feature is new in Update Release 7.2.2. If you plan to use the item maintenance feature to import/export records for substitute items, and have not downloaded the item maintenance template since the release, you will need to download it.

• From the Materials Management main Contents, select Imports / Exports & Financials > Excel Item Maintenance Download.

Item record downloads

The Excel item maintenance add-in lets you download item records from ERP (to make changes or deletions, for example). The download process requires setting up a Selection Profile. A Selection Profile filters item records, identifying those to download. Figure 10 is an example of setting up a Selection Profile.

You can include the ApprovedSubY/N item record field on selection profiles that you create, so that information appears on item data downloads to Excel. (Figure 14, green arrow).

Figure 14 – Setting Up an Item Selection Download Profile Including the Item Vendor Record ApprovedSubYN Field

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