Answered
Assembly packages
Hello all HVAC companies. Just wondering how everyone handles bundling inventory items into a package especially when trying to keep track of inventory. I know how assemblies work. What I am asking is how have others handle this? Do you keep creating assemblies every time you put together a package with several items or are you able to use the same assembly over and over again even if the packages are different? Does everyone just bill out the individual items or are you bundling them together? Just looking for a little discussion on this topic.
Comments
I can tell you, as a dESCO Employee, this is a fantastic conversation to pose to the community. I hope we get some dialog between companies going on. We get this question pretty frequently, but the problem is that there are a bunch of hypothetical ways you -could- do this. So hearing how you actually approach this is extremely valuable to us. -THANK YOU-
Adam,
Our database is loaded with the Callahan Roach pricebook. The Callahan Roach data shows both the component (stock) part number and price as well as the assembly part number and price. The difference between the two really just boils down to the labor associated with the task. For "stock" parts, there is a cost and a price with no labor charges included. The "assembly" parts are the sum of component price plus labor price - component price is calculated by cost x our markup; labor price is calculated by hours to perform task x our labor rate. I haven't come across assemblies with 1) multiple components and/or 2) multiple hours to perform tasks within the assembly. My goal is to eventually build such assemblies for installations and larger service jobs but I'm not there yet. Hope this helps.
Assemblies could be of great value to all in the dESCO family, but they clearly need improvement.
Here are my insights..
Presently, Assemblies are a set group of parts which you sell for a set price on desktop or mobile.This works fine for certain situations..Example selling a toilet, Part# for Bowl, Part # Tank = Part # assembly for compete toilet. Great!
Were it doesn't work is when you create your own custom group of parts. Presently an assembly group is not easily adjustable. In reality the group of parts would need to be adjusted to actual usage to match what was received by the customer. Otherwise your inventory would be incorrect. The advantage to assemblies is one large group of parts which parts could be subtracted and quantities adjusted. Of course totals should then adjust and this needs to be functional in the field as the tech are invoicing work. Presently that is not possible on mobile. It is all about speed in the field.
Other functionality for assemblies include... Moving the order of the individual parts, Inserting a line for a part, Preference of not displaying the total only and posting to the job as an itemized list. Manually adjust the part sell prices at will.
Its 2016! Let's think about how it works in the real world.
Interesting. I'd never tried bringing up an assembly in mobile. On the desktop, it comes up itemized and you can edit the parts. Not so on mobile. Which is interesting as you can't actuall transfer an assembly part # to a warehouse, you have to transfer the component parts.
We use assemblies a bit differently, and not all that much, but I can see where the current mobile implementation could be an issue.
Thanks for bringing this up, I don't actually see much of the mobile use, being stuck in the office most of the time. The only time I have to deal with it is when a tech has a question or problem.
Please sign in to leave a comment.