Why do we need Oracle Inventory?

Oracle Inventory meets the following business needs of an organization:

Building the enterprise structure
Creating item numbers
Monitoring inventory on an ongoing basis
Maintaining accurate on-hand balances
Planning material replenishments
Forecating demand
Building the Enterprise Structure
Before you use Oracle Inventory, you need to setup one or more organizations.
Organizations represent distinct entities in your company and can include separate
manufacturing facilities, warehouses, distribution centers, and branch offices.
How the blocks come together in 11i
In Release 11i, an organization structure would essentially consist of the following building
blocs.
Set o Books
!his entity is defined in Oracle "eneral #edger. !he $et of Boos is defined by the three %s
& %urrency, %alendar and %hart of 'ccounts.
!egal Entity
!his is defined as an organization of type "R()#egal (ntity using the Inventory
Responsibility. !his is a legal company for which you prepare fiscal or ta* reports.
!he #egal (ntity has to be assigned a predefined #ocation. It must then be associated to an
e*isting $et of Boos. $o the $et of Boos has to be defined before a #egal (ntity.
Operating "nit
!his is defined as an organization of type Operating +nit using the Inventory Responsibility.
!he Operating +nit is an organization that uses Oracle, %ash ,anagement, Order
,anagement and $hipping (*ecution, Oracle -ayables, Oracle -urchasing and Oracle
Receivables.
!he operating unit may be a sales office, a division or a department. !he Operating +nit has
to be assigned to a #egal (ntity and a $et of Boos.
Inventory Organi#ation
!his is defined as an organization of type Inventory Organization using the Inventory
Responsibility. 'n inventory organization can be a physical entity lie a warehouse where
inventory is stored and transacted or it can be an organization that manufactures and
distributes products or both. 'n inventory organization can also be a logical entity lie an
item master organization which only holds items with no transactions.
!he Inventory Organization has a costing method, a worday calendar, and a list of items.
It stores information from Oracle Inventory, Bills of ,aterial, .or in -rocess, $upply %hain
-lanning and -urchasing receiving functions.
!he Inventory Organization has to be assigned to an Operating +nit, a #egal (ntity and a
$et of Boos. !he inventory organization would have subinventories and locations defined
underneath it.
Surprises in $elease 1%
!here is no $et of Boos/
Instead there are #edgers and #edger $ets. 0iscussions on these are beyond the scope of
Inventory. 1owever, an understanding of how #edgers relate to #egal (ntities and Operating
+nits would definitely help. Because, as an upcoming Inventory module e*pert you would
want to now how the building blocs in the organization structure come together/ $o, let2s
loo it up in the pages that follow.