Inventory Workflow

The purpose of the workflow is not only to update stock quantities. It is to make sure that material is received correctly, inspected when needed, made available only when it is approved for use, reserved or picked for maintenance, and traceable afterwards.

A good inventory workflow helps your organization answer three important questions at any time:

What do we have?
Can we use it?
Can we prove where it came from and where it went?

Why the workflow matters

Inventory in FlightLogger Maintenance supports maintenance execution. If inventory is not controlled, maintenance planning and workshop execution can become unreliable.

For example:

A part may physically exist but still not be available because it is quarantined, expired, reserved, or pending inspection.
A work order may require material that has not yet been received or approved.
A serialized component may need to be tracked individually from receipt to installation and later removal.
A batch may need to be traced if there is a supplier issue, expiry problem, or recall.
A stock count or adjustment may be needed before the system matches the physical warehouse.

The workflow is designed to keep these situations visible and controlled.

Overview of the inventory workflow

A typical inventory workflow follows these steps:

Review inventory status
Receive incoming material
Inspect and verify the material
Accept approved material into stock
Handle exceptions such as quarantine or rejection
Review availability
Reserve material for maintenance demand
Pick or stage material for workshop use
Record usage, transfer, return, or correction
Review traceability and stock accuracy

Not every organization uses every step in the same way, but the overall logic is the same: material should move through controlled states before it is used in maintenance.

Step 1: Review inventory status

A storekeeper or inventory user will often begin from the Inventory dashboard.

The dashboard helps identify areas that require attention, such as:

Pending receiving
Low stock
Out-of-stock items
Pending stock counts
Pending adjustments
Expired batches
Reorder alerts
Reserved items
Items on order

This gives the user an operational overview before opening individual records.

The dashboard is useful because urgent inventory work is not always located in one place. A maintenance delay may be caused by a pending receipt, an expired batch, a missing serial number, a reservation, or a stock discrepancy. The dashboard helps bring these pressure points together.

Step 2: Receive incoming material

Incoming material is normally registered through a receiving process.

Receiving may be connected to a purchase order, or it may be entered as an ad-hoc receipt depending on how your organization works.

During receiving, the user should capture the information needed to identify and control the material, such as:

Inventory item
Quantity
Supplier or purchase order reference
Location
Condition
Batch or lot information
Serial numbers, if required
Certification or documentation
Cost information, where relevant
Received date

The goal is to make sure the material is described correctly before it becomes part of usable inventory.

Step 3: Inspect and verify the material

Before material becomes available, it may need to be inspected or verified.

This is especially important when the material requires certificates, serial number tracking, batch traceability, expiry control, or condition control.

Typical checks may include:

Does the received quantity match the order or delivery?
Is the correct part number received?
Are required certificates attached?
Is the condition acceptable?
Is the expiry date valid?
Are serial numbers entered for serialized items?
Is the batch or lot information complete?
Is the material linked to the correct location?

If something is missing, the material should not simply become available for use. The issue should be handled through the appropriate workflow.

Step 4: Accept approved material into stock

When received material is accepted, FlightLogger Maintenance can create or update the related inventory records.

Depending on the material, this may include:

Stock quantity
Batch record
Serialized item records
Receiving inspection records
Certification records
Inventory documents
Inventory transactions

This is the point where approved material becomes part of controlled inventory.

For non-serialized items, the system can update quantity at the selected location.

For serialized items, each physical unit must be represented individually. This allows the system to track the exact serial number throughout its lifecycle.

For batch-controlled material, the batch record supports lot traceability, expiry tracking, condition handling, and later recall or investigation workflows.

Step 5: Handle exceptions

Not all received material should be accepted into normal stock.

Material may need special handling if it is:

Damaged
Missing documentation
In the wrong condition
Expired
Unclear in origin
Incorrectly delivered
Awaiting further approval
Not compliant with internal requirements

In these cases, the material may need to be rejected, quarantined, or otherwise prevented from being used.

Quarantine is especially important because it separates material that exists physically from material that is approved for normal use. Quarantined material should not appear as available for reservations, transfers, or workshop issue in the same way as approved stock.

This distinction helps prevent accidental use of material that still requires review.

Step 6: Review availability

After stock exists in the system, users need to understand what is actually available.

Quantity on hand and available quantity are not always the same.

Available quantity can be affected by:

Reserved quantity
Quarantine
Expired batches
Warehouse allocation
Pending receiving
Serialized item status
Pick list activity

For example, you may have ten units on hand, but if four are reserved for work orders and two are quarantined, the usable quantity is lower.

FlightLogger Maintenance is designed to help users see operational availability without manually calculating it each time.

Step 7: Reserve material for maintenance demand

When maintenance work requires parts, inventory can be reserved against downstream demand.

Reservations help make sure that material needed for a work order is not accidentally consumed elsewhere.

A reservation may involve:

Inventory item
Quantity
Batch, if relevant
Serialized item, if exact unit tracking is required
Work order or related demand
Location
Reservation status

Reserved material affects availability. This means the same stock should not be treated as freely available for other work.

Reservations are important for planning because they help connect inventory control with maintenance readiness.

Step 8: Pick or stage material for workshop use

Once material is reserved or required for maintenance, it may need to be physically picked from storage and staged for workshop use.

Pick lists support this process by helping warehouse or stores users identify what needs to be collected, from where, and for which demand.

A pick or staging workflow should preserve traceability, especially when the material is batch-controlled or serialized.

The user should be able to understand whether material is:

Reserved
Picked
Staged
Issued
Consumed
Installed
Returned
Still pending action

This distinction matters because picking material is not always the same as consuming it. Material may be staged before use, and unused material may need to be returned or corrected later.

Step 9: Record usage, transfer, or correction

Inventory changes should be recorded through controlled actions.

Common inventory movements and changes include:

Receipt
Issue
Transfer
Return
Adjustment
Breakage
Loss
Write-off
Initial balance

These actions create transaction history, which is important for auditability and stock accuracy.

If stock is moved from one location to another, the transfer should preserve item, quantity, location, batch, and serial information where applicable.

If stock is used for maintenance, the usage should preserve which item, batch, or serialized unit was used.

If there is a discrepancy between the system and the physical warehouse, users should use stock counts or adjustments rather than changing history informally.

Step 10: Reconcile stock accuracy

Inventory accuracy depends on regular review and correction.

Stock counts and adjustments help reconcile the system with the physical warehouse.

A stock count is typically used when users need to verify actual quantity in a controlled counting process.

An inventory adjustment is typically used when a known correction is needed, such as correcting a discrepancy, recording loss, or handling write-off situations.

Where approval is required, the correction should not become final until the correct approval or commit point has been completed.

For serialized items, reconciliation must be exact. The system needs to know which serial number is affected, not only that the total quantity has changed.

Traceability across the workflow

Traceability is one of the most important outcomes of the inventory workflow.

A complete inventory history may show:

When material was received
Which supplier or purchase order it came from
Which batch or lot it belongs to
Which certificates or documents were attached
Where it was stored
Whether it was quarantined or accepted
Whether it was reserved
Whether it was picked or issued
Which work order or task used it
Which serialized component was installed or removed
Which transactions changed the stock record

This traceability helps support compliance, troubleshooting, audit preparation, and safe maintenance operations.

Example workflow

A typical workflow could look like this:

A purchase order is sent to a supplier.
The supplier delivers the ordered parts.
The storekeeper registers the incoming material.
The received parts are inspected.
Certificates and batch information are added.
Accepted material is placed into stock.
A work order requires one of the parts.
The part is reserved for that work order.
The storekeeper picks or stages the part.
The technician uses or installs the part.
The system keeps the transaction and traceability history.

If the part is serialized, the exact serial number is tracked through the process.

If the part belongs to a batch, the batch remains traceable after use.

If the part is rejected or quarantined during receiving, it does not become normal available stock.

Good practices

Review the Inventory dashboard regularly to identify pending actions and stock risks.

Receive material with complete item, quantity, condition, location, and traceability information.

Do not make uncertain material available before inspection or approval is complete.

Use batches when lot, expiry, certification, or origin must be traceable.

Use serialized tracking when the exact physical unit must be tracked.

Reserve material when it is needed for maintenance work.

Use pick lists or staging workflows to keep warehouse handling controlled.

Use stock counts and adjustments to correct discrepancies through approved workflows.

Keep documents attached to the relevant receiving, batch, item, or serialized item records.

Review expired, quarantined, reserved, and allocated stock before assuming material is available.