StockItem Index

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Stock Item Creation

Stock Item creation can vary airline to airline so this page will detail the basic overview of stock item creation; for airline specific setup please refer to documentation which would have been supplied to your airline.

A brief Overview of Stock Items

Stock Items within SkySuite are the products you order from suppliers, distribute and use onboard your fleet of aircraft, catering units or in lounges / stationery locations. Because of this these items require detailed setup to ensure the smooth operation of ordering and distributing the item into your network.

Once items are created only certain fields will be editable, so please ensure that the data entered is correct, if you experience any issues while setting up items please contact the SkyLog support via the ticketing system (located in the drop down of your user profile).

Setup of New Stock Items

To start the process of creating a stock item within SkySuite you will need to navigate to the main 'Stock Item' page in SkySuite, here you will be able to view and edit existing items or create a new one. In some airlines the creation of items is done in the airline master data system and the details are then sent via interface to SkySuite. Usually items created via an EDI interfaces will initially have a "Provisional" status because not all the information needed by SkySuite is available in the Interface. To complete the set up and set the Item to "Current" status you should click on the click on the pencil/edit icon . For Airlines where there is no interface for the creation part parts, to create the new stock item click the add icon ;

One clicked the following page will be displayed, we will detail these fields in due course and how each one effects the stock item in regards to planning.

Note: As you can see some fields are optional but these do depend on whether your airline requires them so please check before leaving them blank.

Break down of Fields

• Item Code – This is the Stock Items SKU, this must match the warehouses and the Airline's financial system item code setup

• Item Description – A brief description of what the item is for ease of searching, identifying etc. Note: Maximum characters that can be used is 50.

• Technical Description – A detailed description of the item which could include manufacturing information.

• Search Code – For ease of searching for the item in SkyLog a generic search code can be used.

• Item Status – This will be defaulted to 'Provisional' during setup, and is not able to be edited until the item is fully created.

• No-Fly Item – Used by some airlines this identifies items which are required onboard and if not the flight is grounded thus stock of this item are paramount.

• Item Group – The main group the item identifies under, these could be Alcohol, Chinaware etc. but these are generic and maintained by SkyLog and are not airline specific.

• Item Category – More detailed than the 'Item Group', these categories are defined by your airline (Item Categories Setup) and could identify the specific alcohol type.

• Item Class – Which cabins the item will be loaded into while onboard.

• Item Type – Another airline specific field which can be used as an example to identify dummy or real items.

• Item Loading Group – Your airline will define different groups in which items are loaded onto the aircraft but is also used by some airlines to split outbound orders for customs reasons.

• Disposable – Does the item get thrown away after use?

• Perishible – The shelf life of the product, note that this is not just food or drink this could be items such as toothpastes.

  > Shelf Life (Days) - If you selected 'Yes' for "Perishible" then you will need to identify how long the item can be kept for before disposal.

• Climate Requirements – Some items will be required to be kept at certain temperatures thus they can be detailed here.

• Country of Origin – The country that the item was manufactured in, note this may be used by your airline for proforma invoices thus is required to be accurate and also not the country goods were shipped from.

• Stock Unit – When at the warehouse, station and supplier which unit of measure is the item identified as.

• Loading Unit – When loaded onto the aircraft which unit of measure is the item identified as.

  > Conversion Factor - This is the conversion factor from the specified stocking to loading unit you have selected for forecasting purposes. 

• Stocking Unit Weight – The item weight when stored at the warehouse and station (this could include packaging weight).

  > Weight Unit - The unit weight used.

• Free Of Charge – Airline specific in regards to finance.

• GL Account Category – GL Account Categories are used when there are interfaces between SkyLog and the Airline’s financial systems thus the correct category is required to be selected.

• Item Cost – The cost of the item (Note: This price will be used in purchase orders if a contract price is not defined)

  > Currency - The currency linked to the item.

• Buyer – Responsible user that purchases the stock from a supplier.

• Material Controller – Responsible user that controls the movement of the item in the network.

• Bonded – Identifies whether the item is dutiable or not.

• Item Replaces – If this item is new and will completely replace an already existing item you can select it here.

Submitting the new Stock Item

Once all the about fields are filled in correctly you can then save the item, any fields that were not filled in by accident but are mandatory will be flagged to you when attempting to save, but if successful the following will be displayed;

When saved the item still cannot be used for planning as additional data is required which will be presented once the 'Save' button is clicked.

Additional Setup

Item Packs

Item packs are how your stock item is packed by your supplier and shipped to your stations or warehouses, setting this data up enables SkyLog to take the measurements and weights to calculate order weights and size when mixed with other items.

Depending on what 'Stock Unit' you selected in the above 'Break down of Fields' section this will be your pre-populated first record as shown in the screenshot above.

To add the remaining packs simply click the new record button and fill in the required data, but for a detailed break down on how item packs work please see the Item Packs Wiki page here.

• Item Pack Structure – Depending on how your airline purchases and distributes items they could have multiple pack combinations, this drop enables you to distinguish between them. It is possible that the same item is being procured from different supplier, and pack structures are different per supplier. In that case you will use for example A for the default supplier and B for the alternative supplier.

• Lower Level Qty – This is the quantity in the pack size below this i.e. an each (a single unit) would have a lower level quantity of 1 but for a case it could be 12 because 12 eaches create a case. But then for a pallet the lower level quantity might only be 10 as it is the number of cases in the pallet, not the number of eaches.

• Default For Issue - Only one of the item packs can be the default for issuing stock to a destination thus when orders are raised the quantity would be rounded to this pack size.

• Pack Weight - The weight of the pack including packaging.

• Pack Volume - Pack dimensions are required to be filled in so a cubic volume is calculated.

Please see below example of a complete item pack setup;

Note: The blue pin icon can be used to quickly change the 'default for issue', the red cross will remove that certain pack level and the pencil icon lets you edit the existing record.

Item Warehouses

This setup is for the warehouse the stock of this item is delivered to by a supplier or returned to from a station, as per the previous tab for item pack data to create a new record select the new record button.

You are presented with fields requiring more data,

• Warehouse – The relevant warehouse stock can be delivered too, you will need to make multiple records if the stock is delivered to other warehouses.

• Direct Delivery – Stock is delivered to this warehouse directly from the supplier.

> Parent Warehouse Code - If stock is not delivered directly to this warehouse and instead it is first delivered to a consolidation point or another warehouse then you will need to select the parent warehouse.

• Security Stock (Days) – Minimum number of days of stock required at the warehouse, also know as buffer stock.

• Is the Item Contracted – Is the item associated with a contract.

• Minimum Order Quantity – Minimum amount of stock that can be ordered from the warehouse.

• Economic Order Quantity – The ideal order quantity that should be purchased to minimize inventory costs such as holding costs, shortage costs, and order costs. This then become the round up/down integer when stock is ordered.

• Targeted Days Between Orders – If a supplier delivers regularly then this field can be populated with the days between when stock is delivered.

• No Days Total Lead Time – The time taken from the supplier to the warehouse.

• Item Status – Separate status to the stock item status but cannot be updated until setup is complete.

• Buyer – Same as the stock item setup.

• Material Controller – Same as the stock item setup.

• Warehouse Demand Forecast Source – This is how the item for this warehouse would be calculated for the forecast, there is three options which will greatly affect planning if the wrong one is selected so please ensure you select the one that your airline currently uses.

• Auto-Calculated demand forecast based on historical transactions - As per the name this option uses historic transactions to calculate how much stock is required for the future.

• LogistiX Flight Schedule Network Analysis - The state of the art forecast algorithm developed by SkyLogistiX which takes your airlines flight schedule, passenger numbers, bill of material data and other complex data to accurately predict how much stock is required to be ordered.

• Third Party forecast loaded and editable by user via the portal - A manually crafted forecast can be created in CSV and uploaded into SkyLog for the item to forward plan.

Once all these fields are populate it can be saved and you can move onto the supplier setup.

Suppliers

Next is to setup the supplier that deliver stock of this item to either a warehouse or directly to a station, simply navigate to the 'Supplier' tab and click to create a new record.

• Supplier – Suppliers for your airline should be setup prior to an item being created so can be selected from the pop up.

• Supplier's Item Number – Your supplier may have a separate internal code for this item and if enetered here would be referenced on purchase order documents for supplier ease.

• Manufacturer – The manufacturer of the item might not be the supplier, who may instead just be a broker, thus for customs reasons the manufacturer should be selected.

• Manufacturing Lead Time (Days) – The number of days required by the supplier to completely manufacture this item from start to finish.

• Over-Receipt Threshold – Depending on if over receipting is enable for your airline then this threshold enables you to provide a maximum amount that can be over receipted.

• Supplier Held Buffer Stock – Your airline may have agreed with a vendor to hold in the supplier premises a specific number of units for this item as an emergency backup if required urgently.

• Current – Depending on whether the item is currently being supplied by this supplier it should be selected whether it is an active link or not.

Once this is filled out and saved, you are then required to complete further setup in the 'Item Suppliers' page for the record that now exists. Navigate to 'Reference Data' -> 'Stock Item' -> 'Item Suppliers' and search for your item and supplier combination, and click the pencil edit button.

Please follow the Item Supplier setup page here for a complete guide on this.

Images

SkyLog allows you to upload multiple pictures of your item, this can help identify stock for caterers in the 'Item Catalogue' page. To upload an image simply click the new record button and select a picture from your PC, you can then provide a description for the picture, and also set it to be the default if you are uploading multiple images.

Customs Data

As the name suggest this data is used to fulfill requirements from customs autorities, and for airlines generating the proforma invoice in Skylog, the information would be used. you are able to confirm which exercise type the item falls under (if any).

• Excise Type – The tax type that is associated with the item, you will need to select the most relevant from the drop down.

• Alcohol % – Percentage of alcohol per single item.

• Sugar % – Percentage of sugar per single item.

• Sugar Weight – Weight of sugar per single item.

• Items Per Unit – The amount of items/components that are associated with the item.

• Item Size – Size of the item that could be relevant with customs authorities.

• Commodity Code – This would be a tax code associated with the item, most airlines record here the HS (Harmonized System code)

• Additional Customs Info – If there is any additional information that customs may require you can detail it here.

Once complete you can click save and the item is ready to be activated.

Activating the Stock Item

Now you have setup all the data associated with the stock item in SkyLog you will need to set the relevant status, if the item is not yet in circulation or does not require to be ordered from a supplier yet the status can stay as 'Provisional', but if the item needs to be purchased and distributed within the network immediately you can set the status to 'Active'.

Note: There is two other statuses which are covered below in "Updating a Stock Item"

Updating a Stock Item

Once an item is active you can still update most information in regards to it, as and when data is required to be updated due to different circumstances.

One of these circumstances could be that the item is not going to be ordered anymore and replaces with another item, in this case if you still have stock at your warehouse to distribute but do not want to purchase more of it from a supplier you can set the status to 'Phase Out', but once the stock has run out at the warehouse and not being used anywhere in the network you can set the status to 'Obsolete'.