Parts and Inventory Management

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Parts and Inventory Management is a Key Pillar of Any ERP System and it Must be Robust

Unlock powerful inventory management with Vista-Suite Enterprise, expertly engineered for the aviation industry. Take control of your operations by assigning specific warehouse and bin locations to your inventory, allowing for precise tracking and efficient management. Vista-Suite Enterprise offers essential features such as clear identification of part relationships, interactive historical data views, and dedicated fields for managing serial numbers and unit-specific details. With time and cycle data tracking, you will have complete visibility into your inventory's lifecycle.

Vista-Suite Enterprise's user-centric interface is crafted by aviation professionals to meet the needs of both experienced users and newcomers, ensuring smooth navigation with clean, organized screens. Enjoy immediate access to labels and documents with one-click batch printing of all selected. With real-time tracking of costs and pricing, integrated dashboards for actionable data analysis, and unlimited user-defined fields for customizing information, Vista-Suite Enterprise equips you to make decisive moves and effectively manage your inventory with confidence.

Parts and Inventory Management

Warehouse management can be challenging when you need the right inventory management system. Vista-Suite allows you to assign specific bin and warehouse locations to inventory records which are used throughout the system on documents and for other functions. The ability to print location barcodes will enable you to take advantage of the powerful mobile app features to validate inventory locations, move Inventory, allocate Inventory, and other time-saving features.

Vista-Suite has powerful inventory stocking management tools that allow you to create min, max, and re-order points for different groups of inventory conditions for your different warehouses. Available reports and browses give you the data you need to make replenishment decisions quickly and easily.

Did you make a mistake and receive an inventory on the wrong part? Or maybe the Inventory has been upgraded, and now there is a new part. No matter that reason, Vista-Suite gives super easy inventory part transfer functionality. It records the activity in comprehensive audit logs so you can easily see the who, what, and when of any inventory activity.

Managing Inventory can be challenging, especially when it is consumables or similar multi quantities inventory records. With Vista-Suite, you can easily split single inventory records into multiple lines, print new labels, and manage the records as new independent lines. All this activity is tracked in the audit logs to trace back to the original event.

Vista-Suite is a real-time inventory costing system, so the ability to track costs and suggested pricing is crucial. We recognize that each inventory record can be unique, and no cost or price fits all. These costs and prices can update orders as the Inventory is allocated, making it easy and quick to build transactions.

Managing units of measure, especially for liquids, can be a huge headache. That's why Vista-Suite's inventory module allows you to identify the preferred unit of measure on the part master record and the UOM at the inventory level—not more guessing if an inventory record is a box or can by trying to figure out the quantities. You no longer have to set up new part master records just because you want to track the same product under different UOMs. Vista-Suite makes this easy and intuitive.

Obsolete parts? Lost paperwork? Damaged? Whatever the reason, you can quarantine inventory records and provide notes supporting the decision to quarantine a given item. When items are quarantined, it illuminates a signal. Hence, users know the status of the Inventory immediately, and it prevents the use of quarantined items in transactions so you can avoid costly mistakes.

Scraping Inventory is often overlooked by inventory management systems, but with Vista-Suite, you can quickly scrap items with a single click. Upon scrapping any quantity of the Inventory, the application will record the quantity you scrapped, make entries in the audit logs and adjustment logs, and keep track of when and who performed the action.

A powerful feature available throughout Vista-Suite is the capability of unique user-defined fields. You can create as many user-defined fields as you need to track data elements, from notes to selection lists, currency, numbers, or even dates. Presented in a spreadsheet-like fashion promotes fast data entry, and the fields can be pulled into reports for powerful data analytics. Colored tabs provide quick identification of UDF values being filled in partially, entirely, or not at all.

Audit logs are a necessity for Aviation Software. However, unlike most systems on the market, Vista-Suite takes the audit logs a step further. We provide a primary log that shows the date, time, and user that modified the records, but we also show you a secondary audit log that tracks other activities like adding a note or applying an alternate part. Other software vendors often overlook these "secondary" activities, but not us. That is what makes Vista-Suite the preferred aviation software platform.

Inventory Pools ( Lots )

Inventory lots, or pools as we call them, is a common and complex inventory management technique. Vista-Suite shows you the pools to which any given inventory record is assigned and provides tools to move items in and out of different pools. But we understand some of the pitfalls of managing inventory pools, so we alert you during specific events to prevent mistakes and let you manage the costs of those items against the pools. To learn more, refer to the Inventory Pools section.

Consignments and Customer-Owned Inventory

Today's modern aviation parts trading companies utilize many different business models. Among them are inventory consignments. Vista-Suite has powerful consignment management tools that quickly and easily identify consigned Inventory, alert you when using consigned Inventory for piece parts, and can even calculate consignment commissions. Learn more about this in the Inventory Pools section.

Dealing with Inventory that you do not own can be complex and cumbersome. Vista-Suite lets you identify the owner of the goods and illuminates a particular signal visible throughout the system. But we don't paint you in a corner with customer-owned property by restricting you from doing transactions with it. We understand you have to work with that Inventory like any other, so we give you the flexibility to send it on repair or issue it to the customer's work order. Simple, flexible, and effective.

Master Part and Inventory Details

Managing salesperson and agent assignments can be as complex as managing the Inventory itself. If you are looking for a way to assign groups of parts to be managed by specific sales staff, or external sales agents, Vista-Suite has the solution. We allow you to not only assign these staff members but also automatically add them to transactions to track sales and commissions. Ask your sales representative about the powerful salesperson and agent management tools to learn more.

Part master records and inventory records can have an image applied to the record for easy and quick identification of the goods. We call these banner images. Is it too much work to photograph all of your parts and Inventory? The powerful mobile application makes it super easy to start identifying each part and inventory record on the fly when you take photos: no more file transfers or flash drives.

The manufacturer's list price is often used as the primary reference to establish your sell price or buy cost. This list price can be tracked at the part master level, and you can record the date and even the currency the price was in. This list price information is then made available in different parts of the system for easy reference when making critical buy or sell decisions.

The inventory application provides separate cost-tracking audit logs for quick and easy financial tracking. Anything that impacts the inventory cost, such as a quantity or cost adjustment up or down, is recorded in an audit log for easy access. To simplify it, Vista-Suite shows you the cost impacts of each adjustment and not just an audit log entry, leaving you to do the math yourself. This makes identifying critical inventory cost impacts super easy.

Are you tired of manually adjusting inventory cost to apply freight costs? You may have other costs that you want to apply to the inventory records. Vista-Suite allows you to apply charges directly to inventory records so you can show the auxiliary costs associated with the Inventory and have it automatically adjust the costs—a long-awaited and desired feature in the aviation industry.

Users can create condition levels, or condition code groups, for similar condition codes, such as new (NE) or Factory New (FN), to a group. This is great for reporting, allocations, replenishments, and other inventory activities.

Tracking part relationships in the aviation industry is a mush. Vista-Suite provides a flexible and powerful tool to manage any part relationship, such as alternates, higher or lower assemblies, superseded parts, or other types of relationships. With easy-to-use and user-defined categories, you create endless types of cross-references.

Dedicated fields to manage critical data elements are essential in any credible inventory management system. Those dedicated fields allow you to search, sort, report, and act on these important characteristics that are so important to aviation companies.

Recording accurate and relevant data for aircraft parts is one of the things that sets Aviation ERP and MRO software apart from other industries. Vista-Suite provides a wide variety of industry-specific fields and tables so you can record the essential and unique data elements that aircraft parts require.

Vista-Suite can track inventory expiration dates and let you mark part master records as requiring data upon receipt of Inventory. Still, we recognize that an expiry date is not the only way to track shelf life. Many components have expiry dates based on the original manufacturer's date. Vista-Suite lets you define those manufacturer expiration days and automatically calculates the expiration date for you. This is supported by expired signals and helps you avoid costly mistakes by restricting the use of expired goods.

Aircraft parts have many unique data elements that are used for various purposes. For example, Intensely Managed Units (IMU) are a common identifier for flight-critical parts. Or you manage Parts Manufacturer Approval ( PMA ) parts. These unique characteristics can be tracked, searched, and reported on within your inventory system. In many cases, these identifiers can drive specific behavior of the part or inventory records or turn on or off signals.

Time and Cycle management tracking of Inventory for aircraft parts is crucial. The value of Inventory is often driven by the times or cycles remaining, as well as repairs and overhauls. Vista-Suite allows you to specify max limits for times and cycles on the part master record, then calculates the remaining times and cycles for you at the inventory level. These fields can be displayed on all your inventory browses system-wide.

Aviation has some unique data elements that need to be tracked, and not all companies are the same. Vista-Suite has industry-unique data fields to help you track that critical information for part sales, repair, overhaul, or even aircraft maintenance.

Hazardous material is often a part of business in aviation. Whether batteries, squibs, or oxygen cylinders, you can record all the critical hazmat identifiers in a dedicated area of your part master records. Combining this with the hazmat signals throughout the system, dangerous goods forms, and the ability to attach MSDS sheets to the part records, you can feel confident in your hazmat management capabilities.

Advertising your Inventory on the industry marketplaces is essential. Vista-Suite lets you quickly identify which Inventory you wish to advertise with flags and displays that status using signals on your inventory grids.

With the powerful mobile app features, you can validate an inventory record against a location as a confirmation that the Inventory was in a specific bin at a particular time and verified by a human. The validations are reset if an inventory record is moved to a new location to avoid giving you misleading data.

Each inventory record shows you the original order details, the last order details, its previous inventory location, and the date and time the inventory record was last validated. This convenient historical snapshot makes researching Inventory fast and easy, often avoiding the granular audit log research.

Quotes, Repair Orders, and Other Transactions

Aviation parts trading and repair and overhaul businesses are, in fact, parts-centric businesses. In many cases, your starting point is in the parts and inventory areas of the system. We allow you to launch customer quotes and repair orders directly from the part and inventory records, so you don't have to leave the screen to create those transactions. Intuitive features let you quickly add to existing orders or create new ones to build those transactions right from within the parts application.

There are many reasons why you might want to place an alert on a part that displays when a user creates a transaction with that part. You may want unique text to be applied to your transaction documents each time that part is applied to a transaction. You can do both in Vista-Suite with its powerful clauses and warning system.

Each part number can be assigned default values for inventory receiving, quotes, purchasing, sales, and more. This convenient feature makes data entry consistent and fast. Data integrity is critical, and this can help you ensure you maintain good discipline across your inventory and part records.

Does your software require you to go to a global menu, then historical browses, and then stock reservations just to see what Inventory is reserved or allocated? With Vista-Suite, you can see a historical snapshot of all allocations against an inventory record with just one click. This helpful view shows you every order that touched the Inventory and even lets you manage the current allocations, all in one place.

Transactions can be complex, requiring Inventory to be shipped out, received, issued, removed, credited, or returned. Managing the ins and outs of Inventory on transactions can be confusing and cumbersome. Vista-Suite helps you track these activities by separating the Inventory associated to transactions with Outbound, Inbound, Stock On and Stock Off tabs. This makes it easy to see the movements of Inventory driven by different types of transactions.

Work Orders and Kits

Many companies bundle multiple parts into a single part ( or SKU ), making it easier for their customers to get what they need. Kit building is a common practice, and Vista-Suite lets you identify the parts you have designated as kits and track all of the items required to assemble the kit. These "kit lists" are easily applied to a special kit work order for quick assembly and turn into Inventory.

This unique and powerful feature we call "auto add" allows you to create pre-build transaction line items to be added to a transaction when you add the part. This is useful when you want to automatically add hazmat charges or multiple pricing options for different types of transactions or services. This time-saving tool helps you save money by not missing those import fees or required secondary parts such as wiring harnesses or mounting brackets.

Reports and Analytics

Vista-Suite comes with dozens and dozens of ready-to-use forms, reports, and dashboards. Parts and Inventory are no exception. In some cases, we can even give you automated reports, notifications, or business-related documents to help streamline your processes. We have provided a few samples to showcase this powerful part of Vista-Suite, but don't worry if you don't see what you are looking for. You can build your own or ask our talented staff to create what you need.

Many systems on the market have integrated dashboards. But those systems require you to access a completely different software section or use a third-party tool. Vista-Suite gives you an integrated dashboard viewer that is smartly positioned with your other historical data. You can create endless dashboards to help you analyze part-specific data, making your real-time decisions easier and more informed.

Digital File and Data Management

Vista-Suite has the most powerful file management system on the market. You can attach critical information against your part or inventory records using the mobile app or by directly attaching files. The best part of the Vista-Suite file management system is that these records are available for easy access in various places. Furthermore, we centralize this data in a master file library so you can search your file attachments system-wide.

Data is everything, and that's why we built tools to help you access that data. You may have different divisions or a sister company and want to see their data on your Vista-Suite screens. You may have your own collection of data for reference when making business decisions, and you want that visible on your screens. Vista-Suite can connect to ODBC-compliant data sources to pull that data into your part master and company screens or even a data research center. We recognize that not all data can or should be stored in your ERP / MRO software. It's just a fact of life. Now, you have options to make that data accessible to your users!

Vista-Suite allows you to transfer historical records from one part to another. Often, duplicate records can be created, and this tool helps you manage those situations. Unlike other systems, the history transfer tool lets you select what groups of transactions you want to transfer from one part to another.

System Navigation and Research

Our system is designed by aviation professionals who have used nearly every popular system in the aviation aftermarket sector. Our screen designs are tailored to fill the generational gap, making them easy for the new generation to adopt and familiar to the older generation. We put the industry standard fields in front of you in organized ways that make sense. That's why Vista-Suite was nominated as a finalist in the prestigious UX/UI design awards in 2023.

Vista-Suite offers a proprietary signaling system throughout the software to alert users to certain conditions. Eleven different signals for parts and Inventory quickly show you the status or disposition of a given part or inventory record. These signals can be displayed or hidden depending on your preference.

We put everyday actions right on the browse grids for quick access. Reducing one or two clicks can add up over the year and cost you money, so understanding how our users operate in their jobs daily is critical to providing efficient software. Letting you perform common actions without opening the records reduces clicks, saves you time, and, most importantly, saves you money.

Vista-Suite embeds inventory records in one browse that allows you to turn on or off the visibility of alternate stock, Inventory that is pending receipt, and even the primary stock record for inventory pools (also called lots ). This helps avoid opening multiple screens to get the inventory data you need.

Vista-Suite's powerful browse grids offer quick visibility to child records. For example, when searching for parts, you don't even have to open the part record to view its Inventory. Just click the sub-browse and have full access to all the Inventory on the spot.

Viewing parts of history quickly and easily is one thing, but to have interactive search grids is a game changer. This powerful feature allows you to research historical data while maintaining focus on your part record. Historical data is provided across the system for crucial data in convenient places to bring it to you where and when you need it

Most software is clunky and restrictive when it comes to finding data. Vista-Suite uses powerful browse grids that let you search and sort by nearly any column on the browse. With options like contains, starts with, ends with, equals or greater than, less than, and more than, you can refine your search results quickly and easily. No more "F for Find" or "S for Search". It's all right there in the grids!

Various user-defined tables are available for both parts and Inventory, allowing you to create meaningful groups or tiers of your parts and Inventory so you can quickly find what you want. These part and inventory identifiers can combine for powerful research and reporting to help you manage your Inventory. Group by aircraft, rotatable or expendable, slow-moving, or exchange and outright. It's up to you how you want to organize your data; we give you the tools to do it.

Internal Notes System

Vista-Suite's proprietary pinned notes system lets you "database" your notes and assign your pin categories to them. This note system is so powerful it automatically records when and who entered the note, gives you keyword search capabilities, and even attaches files to a specific note. It is the most powerful, comprehensive note management in aviation software today.

Want to identify certain inventory records on your browses? You may want to highlight slow-moving inventory records or quarantined records. With Vista-Suite's unique inventory pins, you can create as many colored pins as you want and then "pin" the Inventory with colors so it stands out in your inventory browses.

Customs and Export Compliance

Importing large packages can be a nightmare. It gets hung up in customs, and you must provide a source of origin documentation on all those parts. Well, we have experienced that too. That's why Vista-Suite lets you record a manufacturer's complete address details and then assign those manufacturers to the parts. We offer import customs clearance documents, so you no longer have to build tedious spreadsheets. Just print the approved forms and send them to your customs broker.

Most inventory systems take import and export controls as an afterthought. Not Vista-Suite! We have worked in warehouses, so we know the importance of having dedicated import and export data by part number. That includes both commercial ECCN and military ITAR classifications, Schedule B and Harmonized Tarif codes, and Customs Values for different types of transactions, and you can even track your source of classifications to help with compliance program management.

Barcode, Printing, and Labeling

Have you ever been annoyed by other software requiring you to drill into multiple system layers to print a label or document? Well, we have too. That's why we put quick print icons on the browse grids, allowing you to print your default documents with a single click.

Vista-Suite provides out-of-the-box labels for your location bins and your inventory records. But we know not all inventory items are the same. So, we give you standard labels, consumable labels and compressed labels. These all work in tandem with our robust mobile applications. Still, we went even further. With Vista-Suite, in most cases, we can recognize your old inventory barcode labels with the mobile, too. That means you won't have to relabel your Inventory to take advantage of the powerful mobile tools.

Part Master View

Immediate access to essential fields and flags means easy navigation with no confusing menus.

Part Master Inventory Lines

Each inventory line has a quick-action menu and signals that indicate line item characteristics.

Inventory Add/Edit View

The open card style layout makes data entry and other changes easy to accomplish.

Standard Reports Include:

Master Parts and Inventory

Part and Inventory Combination Report: Displays master part numbers along with all associated inventory lines and details.
Parts List Export Report: Exports a complete list of master part numbers and their details.
Part History Report: Details a specific part's transaction and usage history.
Part Expiration Tracking Report: Identifies parts nearing or past their expiration date.
Inventory Detail Report: Provides an in-depth list of inventory items and attributes.
Zero-Dollar Inventory Report: Lists inventory items recorded with no dollar value for cost analysis.
Intensely Managed Unit (IMU) Inventory Report: Details the inventory designated with the IMU attribute.
Marketplace Advertising Inventory Report: Lists inventory items designated for advertising on online marketplaces.

Labeling and Other Activities

Item Inventory Barcode Label: Generates a label for inventory item identification with essential details and space to track up to two location/bin changes.
4x3 Inventory Label Template: Generates a larger 4x3-inch label for inventory identification with more details and space to track up to six location/bin changes.
Item Location Label: Creates a list of location/bin labels for all selected inventory items.
Fillable Part Removal Tag: A template for tagging and documenting removed parts.
Fillable Parts Discrepancy Form: Documentation for discrepancies in part condition, quantity, documentation, etc.
Authorized Release Certificate: FAA Form 8130 and 8130-3 Air Worthiness Approval Tags are prepopulated and printable.
Aircraft Part Destruction Report: Lists destroyed inventory to help conform with FAA Order 8120.11, guiding the proper disposal of aircraft parts.
Physical Inventory Audit Report: Lists inventory alongside a checklist for conducting a physical inventory count.
48-Hour Receiving Activity Report: Tracks all inventory received within the past 48 hours.

Samples:

Detailed Inventory Label

The layout is both informative and useful; complete with QR code, unique signal icon, and space to keep track of location changes.

Print an FAA 8130 Certificate

Multiple documents can be selected for batch printing such as a prepopulated FAA Form 8130-3 Air Worthiness Approval Tag.

Hazardous Materials Inventory Report

As an included standard report, all hazardous materials designated as hazmat inventory are listed to help ensure regulatory compliance, workplace safety, and mitigation of dangerous conditions.

Zero Dollar Inventory Report

All inventory with a zero dollar cost is listed to identify potential issues like incorrect or missing cost information.

Stock Expiration Report

Optimize inventory utilization by monitoring inventory that is approaching its expiration and proactively plan for possible liquidation or removal items.

Mobile App for Aviation Parts and Inventory Management:

Parts and Inventory Management:

Move inventory from one location to another
Move the entire location from one location to another
Validate inventory locations
Display location contents
Search parts and inventory
Print inventory labels and forms
Review audit logs
Research parts transaction history

Photo Capture and Digital File Management:

Photo capture
Upload photos as single files or single pdf
Select photos for banner images
Crop, straighten, and combine photos
Take photos on tasks or work order
Browse photos and files on tasks

Shipping and Receiving:

Browse all shipments or pending shipments
Mark inventory as picked, inspected, and packed
Change shipment status
Initiate shipment
Record notes against a shipment
Browse files on a shipment
Retrieve shipments with a barcode scan

Customer Quote:

Manage existing customer quotes
Create new customer quotes
Research all quotes
Print and email customer quotes

Work Order Management:

Browse all work orders
Manage work order tasks assigned to me
Complete work order checklists
Update work order tasks
Create work order non-routines / squawks
Record mechanics notes on tasks
Record internal notes on tasks
Review required equipment on a work order
Review technical manuals attached to work orders
Create a bill of materials
Allocate and issue a bill of materials
FAA compliant digital sign off on tasks
FAA compliant digital sign off on work orders

Labor Recording and Management:

Labor recording
Labor browse
Record labor manually or via barcode
Record labor on any record
Record labor on common tasks

Samples: