Understand lot attributes

Lot attributes are used to implement multiple hold reasons for an item lot. During production, the produced items, organized by lot number, are assigned to an item grade and state through the use of an item reason. This grade and state information is used to determine if that lot meets the defined minimal shipping requirements. At the same time, attributes may be added to the production lot. An attribute of type Item Reason allows the assignment of another grade and state to the same lot. Both grade and state combinations are considered before shipment of an item from which production lot is permitted. If used as a Hold Reason, whenever the Hold situation is corrected, the lot attribute can be changed or removed, thereby allowing the grade and state originally assigned to the lot to take precedence.

For example, a lot can be produced with the item reason of Good Production, which is linked to an item grade of Approved and an item state of Finished Goods. Both of these values have a preference of 1. The lot attribute Hold Reason can be assigned to the lot and given the value of Hold for Customer, which is linked to an item grade of Hold-Good and an item state of Finished Goods. The Hold for Customer state has a preference of 10. If the minimal shipping grade of this item is defined as 2, the lot attribute prevents this lot of the item from being shipped. When the customer is ready for the shipment, the lot attribute can be removed and the item grade of Approved becomes relevant.