Product supplies can be controlled:
At the vendor level: items can be purchased only from approved vendors.
At the manufacturer level: for critical raw materials, it is not enough to verify that the material is purchased by an approved vendor (intended as a distributor), but it is also necessary to verify that materials come from approved manufacturers.
At the vendor-manufacturer level: items can be purchased only for an approved combination of vendor and manufacturer (for example, purchasing a certain item from manufacturer “M001” is only approved if the material is distributed by vendor “V001”).
To control the product supplies at the vendor level, it is possible to define the list of approved vendors by item in the Approved vendor list form (Product information management > Products > Released products > Purchase tab > Approved vendor group > Setup). For each line, it is possible to define the period in which the vendor is considered approved by populating the Effective and Expiration dates.
It is possible to inquire the full list of approved vendors by items in the Approved vendor list by item inquiry (Procurement and sourcing > Vendors > Vendor/item relations > Approved vendor list by item).
Life Sciences Supply Chain Management also introduces the same feature for manufacturers to control the product supplies at the manufacturer level. This feature allows checking the approved items for a specific manufacturer or vendor-manufacturer combination.
As per the approved vendor list, users can define the list of approved manufacturers by item in the Approved manufacturer list form (Product information management > Products > Released products > Purchase tab > Approved manufacturers). If the control needs to be applied for a specific vendor-manufacturer combination, the user needs to populate both the Manufacturer and the Vendor fields. For each line, it is possible to define the period in which the vendor is considered approved by populating the Effective and Expiration dates.
Note
Only the records with a Vendor type enabled as a manufacturer can be selected in the Manufacturer field.
It is possible to inquire the full list of approved manufacturers by item in the Approved manufacturer list by item inquiry (Procurement and sourcing > Vendors > Vendor/item relations > Approved manufacturer list by item).
Once the list of approved vendors and manufacturers is defined for the item, it is possible to specify the control level to apply when purchasing the selected product. Users can configure the Approved vendor check method and Approved manufacturer check method in the Released product details form (Product information management > Common > Released products > Released product details > Purchase FastTab). The following options are available:
No check – During the purchasing transaction, the system will not check if the selected manufacturer is among the list of approved manufacturers for the item. This means the product can be purchased from any manufacturer.
Warning only – During the purchasing transaction, the system will check if the selected manufacturer is among the list of approved manufacturers for the item. If not, the system will return a warning message, but the user will be able to complete the transaction. This means the product should preferably be purchased from approved manufacturers, but it is not mandatory.
Not allowed – During the purchasing transaction, the system will check if the selected manufacturer is among the list of approved manufacturers for the item. If not, the system will return an error message, and the transaction will be aborted. This means the product can only be purchased from approved manufacturers.
During the purchase order processing, for products that require control over the manufacturer or vendor-manufacturer combination, it is possible to enter a value in the manufacturer field in the purchase order lines or during the material registration.
The Manufacturer field within purchase order lines is a dropdown list, allowing users to select the relevant manufacturer from a comprehensive set of options. By setting the Default manufacturer filter parameter to Approved (Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing parameters > General), a default filter can be applied to display only those manufacturers that have been approved for the selected item. Users retain the ability to manually remove this filter within the dropdown menu if necessary.
If the Approved manufacturer check method is Warning only or Not allowed for the purchased item, the system verifies the selected manufacturer against the list of approved manufacturers for the item. If the selected manufacturer (or vendor-manufacturer combination) is not approved for the item, the system returns a warning or a error message (that is, hard stop).
Example
Vendor type Distributor is available. Vendor type Supplier is available and enabled as a manufacturer.
The following vendors are available:
Vendor “V001” – Vendor type Distributor
Vendor “V002” – Vendor type Distributor
Vendor “V003” – Vendor type Supplier
Vendor “V004” – Vendor type Supplier
Item “RM001” has the following list of approved vendors:
Vendor “V001” – Approved from “1st Jan. 2022” to “1st Jan. 2023”
Vendor “V002” – Approved from “1st Jan. 2022” to “1st Jan. 2025”
Item “RM001” has the following list of approved manufacturers:
Manufacturer “V003” – Approved from “1st Jan. 2022” to “1st Jan. 2023”
Manufacturer “V004”, Vendor “V002” – Approved from “1st Jan. 2022” to “1st Jan. 2025”
The Approved vendor check method and Approved manufacturer check method are set to Warning only for item “RM001”.
Let’s consider the following purchase orders for item “RM001”:
Purchase order “PO001” is placed against vendor “V001” on date “1st Feb 2023” à The system returns a warning message since the approval period of vendor “V001” is expired for item “RM001”.
The material received from purchase order “PO001” is registered as follows on date “1st Feb 2023”:
The first batch was manufactured by manufacturer “V003” à The system returns a warning message since the approval period of manufacturer “V003” is expired for item “RM001”.
The second batch was manufactured by manufacturer “V004” à The system returns a warning message since manufacturer “V004” is approved only in combination with vendor “V002”.
Purchase order “PO002” is placed against vendor “V002” on date“1st Feb 2023” à No warning message is returned since vendor “V002” is approved for item “RM001”.
The material received from purchase order “PO002” is registered as follows on date “1st Feb 2023”:
The first batch was manufactured by manufacturer “V003” à The system returns a warning message since the approval period of manufacturer “V003” is expired for item “RM001”.
The second batch was manufactured by manufacturer “V004” à No warning message is returned since manufacturer “V004” is approved in combination with vendor “V002”.