Inventory Display with Assembly Items

 

If an item is an assembly item, WebAlliance can provide your users some further detail about its availability, based on the availability of its components. These components are checked by WebAlliance through the assembly item's "virtual inventory".

WebAlliance Assembly Items

You can easily check to see if WebAlliance considers an item an assembly item by checking it in the Item Explorer tool from Site Manager in the Admin panel.  Search for the item and look for the IsAssembly label.

If an Assembly is In Stock

By default, if an assembly item itself is In Stock, the item appears in the same way as an In Stock non-assembly item. You can, however, configure a unique In Stock assembly text if you choose.  When an assembly item is In Stock, WebAlliance does not check the availability of the components of the assembly item.

If an Assembly is Not in Stock

If the assembly item is Not in Stock, then WebAlliance will be able to check it's "virtual inventory". The displayed message for this scenario can be customized for your website. That message can become a clickable link, which then displays a pop-up box showing a calculation of how many "assembly" items could be made based on the availability of the assembly's component items at the user's default location.

Regarding component inventory, items marked as "Other Charge" are not considered. So if you have, for example, "Labor" as an "Other Charge" item, but the other 2 component items are in stock, then assembly availability will be shown.

 This calculation is made from the availability of components in the user's default location, NOT global inventory.

At checkout, if the assembly is Not in Stock, the Inventory Warning will still be triggered, because the item is not available for immediate shipment or pickup.

An example

Item ABC123-DOG  is an assembly. It's not kept in stock, because it's always made to order. To make it, we'll need:

  • 1 of ABC123-BODY
  • 4 of ABC123-LEGS
  • LABOR (this is an OTHER charge)

and we have in inventory (at location 101):

  • 3 of ABC123-BODY
  • 8 of ABC123-LEGS
  • 0 of LABOR

So, on analysis, LABOR is ignored in the calculation (because it's an "Other Charge"), and we find out we can make 2 of ABC123-DOG (2 of ABC123-BODY and 8 of ABC123-LEGS). The "virtual inventory" box would say that 2 of ABC123-DOG are available if the user's default location were location 101.

Settings

You can add or remove the assembly feature, or edit the display through the Inventory Display Configurator.

You will find the default Assembly Inventory Scenario in the Not in Stock path.  The trigger is:  "Is Assembly equals true".