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Inventory is ION’s record of physical material: what sits on a shelf, in a kit cart, at a workstation, or installed in a unit. A part is the library definition; inventory is what physically exists against it. One inventory record is a single serialized unit, a lot of fungible material under a lot code, or an untracked quantity at a location. Whether a part is serial tracked, lot tracked, or untracked is set on the part, not on the inventory. See Serial and lot tracking. Every floor action against material is an inventory transaction. Receive, move, split, merge, scrap, kit, install, and consume each record a timestamp, an actor, and a location, so you can always ask how many of a part you have and where. An inventory record always sits at a location, and that location’s availability setting decides whether the material counts as consumable. To add, move, adjust, and review records, see Manage inventory records.
Use importers for bulk bring-up and corrections, and rely on scanning for the day-to-day record.

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Statuses

Every inventory record carries a calculated status. ION derives it from the record’s quantity, location, and links to runs, kits, installs, purchases, and holds. You never set it directly. The statuses evaluate in the order below, and the first that applies wins. For example, a record that is both installed and kitted shows as Installed.

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Merge and split

Merging consolidates identical records from different receipts and purchase orders into one, so a part you stock in a single bin shows as one barcode, one location, and one quantity. Only untracked or lot-tracked records that match on part, lot, location, status, unit of measure, and intent are eligible, and a record in use elsewhere never merges. Merging is an org setting. See Merge inventory. Splitting is the inverse. It decreases the original record’s quantity and creates a new record for the difference, linked back to the original so traceability holds. ION also splits automatically whenever you act on part of a quantity, such as kitting one unit of a quantity-two record, so the affected quantity carries its own status and location. See Split inventory.

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Scrap

Scrapping makes inventory unavailable for use. Scrap the full quantity and the record’s status becomes Scrapped; scrap part of it and ION splits the record so the scrapped quantity becomes its own line while the remainder keeps its status. Lot traceability stays linked to the scrapped line. Scrap directly on the inventory page, or scrap as the resolution of a quality issue. See Scrap inventory and Scrap inventory from an issue.

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Automatic movement

ION moves inventory to the right location as work happens, so locations stay accurate without manual updates. Kitting moves the kitted inventory to the kit’s location, while installing parts and starting a run step move parts to the assembly and move the WIP assembly and everything installed on it to the step’s location.

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Line-side consumption

Line-side inventory is stock you keep at or next to a work center so an operator grabs it without a trip to the stockroom, such as fasteners, adhesives, and lubricants. You model the line-side bin as a real location, stock it with real inventory, and deploy the Auto-consumption ION automation so running a step at that work center deducts the consumed parts and records the installs automatically. Line-side does not replace kitting for parts traced through the aBOM. See Line-side inventory.