Inventory Adjustments

DSCSA regulations require supply chain entities to send a transaction history (TH) for each item sold and shipped. At times there are mismatches between the number of THs and the number of physical products on hand. Often there is a valid reason for a shortage of THs and the wholesale distributor adjusts the number of THs in order to ship the items immediately. In this case, the wholesaler can resolve the disparity at a later time so that the shipment is not delayed.

Introduction of New Inventory Adjustment Model

In a prior version of Product Track US, the "New Model" inventory adjustment model was released. In the "Legacy Model" inventory adjustment model, when you incremented or decremented inventory quantities, TraceLink managed those operations in an internal bookkeeping table. It was difficult to trace adjustments on THs and resolve exceptions because you could not access the bookkeeping table in the Product Track interface.

With the new inventory model, Product Track generates an "adjusted TH" which allows you to trace quantity adjustments more easily. Inventory reports enhancements have also improved fidelity between TH inventory and product inventory, so that warehouse personnel can manage exceptions efficiently and prevent shipping delays. Organizations can generate more granular inventory reports to track inventory. See Inventory Reports for details.

Notes:

• The new inventory adjustment model is not enabled by default for existing TraceLink customers. Existing customers have the opportunity to learn about the new model and determine how to configure it to support their operations before they enable it. Customers that use XML transactions for data transfer need to migrate to the new quantity adjustment transactions before enabling the new adjustment model. See Inventory Configuration Options for details. Within a year, all TraceLink customers must transition to the new adjustment model, but TraceLink will support the legacy model until customers make the transition.
• New TraceLink customers are automatically configured to use the new adjustment model and cannot use the legacy model.

How does the new inventory adjustment model work?

When you adjust quantities using the Update Product Quantity operation, Product Track:

• Locates a transaction history (TH) that matches the NDC and lot number of the product.
• Makes a copy of the matched TH, called an "adjusted TH."
• Assigns the incremented or decremented quantity to the adjusted TH. The adjusted TH is non-pickable and serves as an artifact for tracing.
• Adjusts the TH quantity available for that NDC and lot by the quantity incremented or decremented during the Update Product Quantity operation.

This example illustrates the process Product Track uses to increment THs:

When you update quantities, you specify the quantity to be incremented or decremented or you can use the existing Replace option. If you replace the quantity, Product Track calculates the quantity to be incremented or decremented and generates the adjusted TH as shown in the diagram.

To ensure traceability for all shipped items, TraceLink annotates the adjusted TH with the details of the adjustment operation. You can search for and print these adjusted THs. See Adjusted Transaction Histories to learn what data is captured in an adjusted TH. See Searching for Adjusted Transaction Histories to learn how to search for one. To perform an inventory adjustment, see Updating Inventory Quantities.

Note: You can use the Update Product Quantity operation whether your company is configured to use the legacy or new inventory adjustment model; however, you should avoid using Update Product Quantity to make positive inventory adjustments if your system uses the legacy model with NDC-only picking. Your inventory report might include negative quantities in this case.