Forum Discussion

Qrew Member

3 years ago

Table-to-table relationships for Inventory ERP

Hello, I'm working on creating a new ERP system for our Supply Chain Inventory/Procurement purposes. I've set up the App to have a parent table: "Projects" with a child table "Products". So, one p...

Qrew Cadet

I don't know everything that you would want the pipeline to do, but from what you've described, the way I would trigger it is to have a checkbox that is called something like "Ready to Order." When the record is updated, if that checkbox is checked, the pipeline will run. Part of that pipeline will be to UNcheck the box, so you can use it for a trigger again if you need to.

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Edward Hefter
www.Sutubra.com
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Qrew Member

3 years ago

Oh, okay! Thank you!

That's so helpful and I love the idea of just checking the box to "place an order". Could I have uncheck the box to do something else too? Like remove the purchase order items?

If I uncheck the box but want to reorder again I'm struggling to think how I could attach the order to a different project number.

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Annie Ryden
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EdwardHefter
Qrew Cadet
3 years ago
The concept of a checkbox is really just a trigger, not a status. The pipeline should uncheck the box when it is done. This is the workaround I have done for not figuring out a button to press to start a pipeline, which is ultimately what I would want to do. If you want to have pipelines do multiple things, you can have multiple checkboxes.

I would think, though, that you may be able to get a lot done with the architecture that Don posted. You may not even need to use Pipelines - just make child records.

Do you have an overall process flow in mind for everything from when a project is created through figuring out what parts it needs, where they will be bought, how to record that they've arrived, etc.? That's a critical step in planning the Quickbase part, and will help you plan the tables you need and the user interface.

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Edward Hefter
www.Sutubra.com
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- AnnieRyden
  Qrew Member
  3 years ago
  Oh I see, I'm glad you mentioned it! I'm sure the checkbox and pipelines will be useful. I did just try your and Don's suggestion to make child records. I set it up so each Order has Many Products. Order being the parent table, products child. I just don't understand how I can make it so the Order's tab will still show outstanding orders. For example, if I have a Purchase Order where I'm still expecting 2 widgets, but I've received 1 so far, the total for products on the order page needs to be different than the total for products already received.
  
  Does that make sense?
  
  The process flow is broadly like this:
  
  1. We start with a BOM that has all the products we plan to order
  2. We place, record, need to track the orders
  3. When product arrives I'd like to be able to essentially be able to "scan" it in. I set up a URL to generate on each product line so that I could export each PO into Avery for barcode labels. Then I'm not sure how I'd set up actually "scanning" the product in. I'm wondering if Pipelines could be helpful there instead now.
  4. We have pallet racking and rolling carts for most storage. So I'd like to label each section and shelf. The idea would be: "Your widget is on Rack A, Shelf 23, Box 2b" or something to that effect.
  
  Is that helpful or is that not really what you're looking for? Currently the process already works and our widgets get manufactured. All vendors are determined, etc. It's just all done by manually tracking in excel spreadsheets. The previous process owner isn't very excel savvy so there's lots of manual entry.
  
  I really appreciate your help!
  Annie
  
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  Annie Ryden
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  - EdwardHefter
    Qrew Cadet
    3 years ago
    For multiple of the same products coming in, do you need to keep track of them separately? An example would be tracking serial numbers for electronic devices. If so, you can have separate lines for each individual product - 3 lines for three identical Dell laptops, and each one gets scanned in and stored in its own spot as it arrives. Another way is to have a child table to the products (grandchild? I was never good at the terminology!) that lists the attributes for each product received, to include whether it was even received yet. And third possibility, if there is nothing unique about the products, is to have a field called quantity ordered and another one called quantity received, so you know how many you are waiting for. This has the disadvantage of making it harder to keep track of when each product was received, though, so be sure you plan ahead to know what you'll need to track.
    
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    Edward Hefter
    www.Sutubra.com
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