Inventory merging (org setting)

This organizational setting drives the Merge Inventories function by automatically consolidating identical part inventories from multiple receipts and purchase orders into a single inventory record.

This feature can be switched on and off by navigating to your Organization Settings in ION and selecting 'Merge Inventories (V2)', as shown below:

This functionality was developed to address the following challenges:

• Manually managing separate inventory items for the same part across different POs and receipts
• Multiple barcodes for identical parts lot tracked/untracked parts
• Unnecessary inventory lines cluttering the system
• Digital processes don't match real-world warehouse operations

This feature provides the following:

• "Dump More Bolts in the Bin" - mirrors real-world warehouse operations where untracked and lot tracked COTS parts are naturally consolidated into single locations or bins,
• Single Source of Truth - One barcode, one location, one inventory record
• Seamless Consolidation - Automatically merge identical parts without losing traceability to purchase orders and receipts

Use Cases

✅ Use Case 1: Multiple Receipts, Different Purchase Orders

• Scenario: Same part received on different dates from different suppliers
• Example: 50 bolts received on Monday from Supplier A, 25 bolts received on Wednesday from Supplier B
• Result: Automatically merges into single 75-bolt inventory with one barcode

✅ Use Case 2: Multiple Receipts, Same Purchase Order

• Scenario: Same part received in multiple shipments against the same PO line
• Example: 100 widgets ordered, received in 3 shipments (40 + 35 + 25)
• Result: Consolidates into single 100-widget inventory while maintaining PO traceability

✅ Use Case 3: Non-PO Inventory Integration

• Scenario: Additional inventory received without purchase order association
• Example: Customer returns, engineering samples, or transferred inventory from other locations
• Result: Seamlessly rolls into total available inventory count

Details

Note: If Merge Inventories V1 is also turned on via the feature flag, and the the V2 org setting is switched on, inventory will be merged according to V2 logic (discussed below).

How to trigger merging:

• By making a change to a part inventory in the Inventories page. This workflow can be seen in the video below, along with a general overview of the merge functionality

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• By partially kitting an inventory item, as shown in the picture below. The fact that the selected amount (shown in the blue box below) is less than the available amount (shown in the green box below), indicates that a partial kitting operation will occur. The merge occurs on the remaining un-kitted inventory.

• By unkitting an inventory item
• Installing inventory (Partial)
• Uninstalling inventory
• Removing inventory from an Issue

Note: Currently, merging is only triggered by customer interaction with the UI and not by any actions from scanning.

Merge criteria

In order for inventory items to be eligible for merge, the inventory candidates must have:

1. Same underlying part id; part must be of type 'part' and not a tool
   1. Tracking type can be untracked or lot tracked, but cannot be serial tracked
   2. If part is lot tracked, lot IDs must match
   3. A part inventory with an assigned serial number will not be merged, even if the underlying part is not serial tracked
2. The same location, and location must be set (i.e. two inventories with no location assigned will not merge)
3. The same status, and status must be 'available' or 'unavailable'
4. The same unit of measurement
5. Merge candidate cannot be installed on another inventory's aBOM
6. Merge candidate cannot have installations on its aBOM
7. No related purchase order lines that are in 'canceled' status
8. No related runs
9. No related origin runs
10. No related issues
11. No related part kits
12. No related plan reservations
13. The quantity kitted and the quantity installed both should equal zero
14. Must not be a 'Part used to fix issue' on an issue related to another inventory

⚠️ Important Limitations:

Merge will NOT occur when the same part is referenced on different purchase order lines within the same receipt.

Relationships currently existing between merge candidates and the following objects may block a merge, resulting in an error (but no change in data) or may be lost during merge:

• build_requirements
• run_steps
• part_kit_items
• origin_mbom
• part_inventories
• made_on_assembly_child_part_inventories
• made_on_assembly_parent_part_inventory

Additionally, foreign key references for part inventory id will not be updated in the following places:

• part_inventories_attributed_parts
• part_inventories_attributed_users
• part_inventories_requirements
• build_requirement_reference_designators

On inventories created through a merge from inventories that have related purchase orders with different suppliers, the supplier on the inventory will be equivalent to one of the multiple suppliers associated with the merge candidates. Not all of them will be reflected on the merged inventory itself, as shown in the query below. Also in the query below it can be observed that all supplier ids associated with a merged inventory can found by looking at related purchase order lines:

If a part inventory was created by a split from an inventory that ended up being a merge candidate, but the inventory in question was later excluded from merge candidacy (i.e. moved to a different location, having an issue opened against it etc.), that inventory will be excluded from merge, but when looking at its transaction history post-merge, it will appear that the inventory has been merged when it has not:

Additionally, there may be other incorrect or incomplete transaction history line items related to an inventory being merged in this UI.

Finally, looking up transaction history on an inventory that has been merged (and thus deleted) will show an error in the UI, though the transaction history for that inventory will be available.

Differences from Merge Inventories set through Feature Flag:

1. Criteria for assessing merge candidates for a given inventory has changed (see above)
2. Upon merge, a new part inventory is created and the part inventories to be merged are deleted
   1. Each custom attribute that has the same value across all merge candidates will have the value copied over to the new part inventory
   2. Comments, file attachments and labels are copied over
   3. No transaction history will exist prior to the merge for the newly created merged inventory (traceability to related PO lines and receipts is maintained)
3. Old barcodes for the inventories that were merged in will now point to the new merged inventory