Customer Furnished Material in Infor LN: Ownership, Cost and Receiving
customer furnished material in infor ln
Also searched as
- free issue material infor ln
- customer owned inventory infor ln
- customer supplied material job work erp
- CFM handling infor ln defense
Short answer
Customer furnished material (CFM, also called free issue or customer supplied) is stock your customer owns but you hold and consume on their job. In Infor LN you must keep it out of your own inventory value, receive and issue it with full traceability, and be able to prove quantities on hand. The exact mechanism depends on the LN functionality you adopt, so decide the pattern first and test it end to end.
Applies to: Infor LN 10.x for job-work, aerospace and defense manufacturers. Specific sessions and parameters depend on your version and enabled packages; confirm in your LN documentation.
Set up a CFM pattern
- 1Write down the contract requirement: who owns the material, how it must be segregated, what records the customer or government inspector expects.
- 2Pick the pattern: a dedicated item flagged as customer-owned, a dedicated warehouse or location for customer stock, or LN's consignment or customer-owned stock functionality if it fits.
- 3Make sure the stock carries zero or no ownership value in your cost and balance sheet, so inventory valuation excludes it.
- 4Receive the material against a document that records the customer, contract and quantity, with lots or serials if the part is controlled.
- 5Issue it to the production order through the normal bill of material so consumption is recorded against the job.
- 6Handle scrap, yield loss and return of unused material with defined transactions and approvals.
- 7Reconcile CFM balances per customer on a schedule and be ready to produce the report for audits.
The three questions every CFM design must answer
Who owns it: the customer, so it must never inflate your inventory value or be sold. How is it kept apart: by location, warehouse or ownership attribute, so no one issues it to another customer's job. How is it consumed: through the bill of material, so job records show real usage without a purchase cost.
If a design cannot answer all three in LN's sessions and reports, adjust it before go-live. Retrofitting CFM after mixed stock exists is painful.
Costing treatment
Customer material should enter a job at no cost to you, but the job still needs visibility of its value for pricing and for the customer's own records. A common approach is to hold a reference value separately from your standard or actual cost, so margins are not overstated or understated.
Agree the treatment with finance before configuration. Whether and how to show the value of free-issue material on invoices and cost reports is a contract and accounting decision, not a system default.
Defense and aerospace specifics
Contracts often require that government or customer property be identified, protected and reportable, and many also restrict who can see data about it. Netray does not certify compliance. Your design should let you meet your own contract clauses: segregation, traceability to lot or serial, and an auditable trail of every receipt, issue and return.
Plan a reporting view: all CFM on hand by customer, contract and location, with age. Auditors ask for it first.
CFM reconciliation checklist Received - issued - scrapped - returned = on hand On hand by location matches physical count No CFM item has inventory value in valuation report Every issue ties to a production order
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Infor LN Batch Job Schedule Register
An editable register of scheduled and batch jobs in Infor LN with owner, frequency, dependencies and last run status.
Common pitfalls
- !Receiving CFM as normal purchased stock, which inflates inventory value and may mix with your own stock.
- !Using the same item code for owned and customer-owned material without an ownership separator.
- !No process for yield loss and scrap, so balances drift from the customer's records.
- !Cost rolls that treat free-issue material as zero value and misprice quotes.
- !Forgetting to restrict who can transact customer-owned stock.
How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this
CFM audits turn into hunts across receipts, issues and counts. A private assistant over your LN data can list balances by customer and contract, flag items where valuation is not zero, and show each issue linked to its job, read-only and on your premises. It is useful for defense and aerospace sites that cannot send data to a public cloud.
Frequently asked questions
What is customer furnished material?
It is material the customer owns and supplies to you for use on their order, also called free issue or customer supplied material. You hold and consume it, but it is not your asset and must not be valued in your inventory.
Does Infor LN have a built-in CFM feature?
LN offers functionality such as consignment and customer-owned stock and flexible warehouse and item settings that can be combined to support CFM. The right pattern depends on your version and needs, so test the options and confirm with Infor documentation.
How do I keep CFM out of inventory value?
Use an ownership attribute, a dedicated item or a segregated warehouse so valuation reports exclude the stock, then verify with the valuation report after a test receipt. Agree the treatment with finance before configuring.
How should unused CFM be returned?
Use a defined return transaction that reverses the on-hand quantity and references the customer and contract, with approval and shipping documents. Reconcile after the return so the balance is zero or accurately reported.
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