Retiring a Tool
Often tools are lost, misplaced, stolen, or have become unusable. Align allows users to “retire” or place them in Manage Retired Tools. Retiring tools removes them from active inventory, and removes them from your total asset count. Retiring tools is preferred to deleting because retired tools can be reinstated if found, fixed, etc.
Additionally, deleted items are permanently removed from the system and cannot be reinstated; instead, they must be recreated from scratch, which is less efficient and could lead to data integrity issues.
Open the Item Browser.
Using Categories or the Advanced Search option, locate the tool(s) that are to be retired
Select one or multiple tools and either:
Select the Retire Tool option from the Actions dropdown menu
Right-click and select Retire Tool
A Retire Tools window opens In the "Retired Tools" window, you can also specify the "Retired At location" field to indicate where the tools are being retired.
Fill in details using dropdown menus: Retired At; Reason*; Status
*Only Reason is a required field
The preset Reason options are: Destroyed; End-Of-Life; Lost; Sold; Stolen
These preset Reason options cannot be customized Additional tips for bulk retirement: Organize tools by category in the Item Browser to make the process faster and easier.
Click OK at the bottom right of the Retire Tools window
A window will pop up summarizing the total number of tool(s) being retired. It will remind you about Cost Center and Cost Code defaults
Click Yes to finish retiring tool(s) or click No to return and fill out Cost Center and/or Cost Code
Upon clicking Yes, the tool(s) have been retired from inventory, including any upcoming Service Events and/or Purchase Records
Reinstating a Retired Tool
Sometimes a retired tool has been found and/or fixed if it was broken and needs to be put back in inventory.
Under Inventory in the navigation panel, click on Manage Retired Tools to open the Retired Tools browser.
Enter search criteria, e.g., Item No., Date Retired, etc.
Select Search
To select the tool(s), click on the tool’s line, and it will be highlighted in blue
Select Reinstate Item at the top left of the screen
A window will pop up itemizing the tool(s) to be reinstated In this window, you can also select the target location for the reinstated tools before confirming.
Confirm the information and click Yes to reinstate the tool(s) Alternatively, you can add retired items to a transfer ticket, and the system will reinstate them automatically upon confirmation.