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Basic stock management is the on-going accounting of medical commodities, stock, that is with someone and/or at somewhere (e.g. # of vials of a particular vaccine in my clinic's refrigerator) over time. This document attempts to establish common abstractions and terminology, define the outer edges and relate it back to existing OpenLMIS concepts.
Many of the concepts and ideas presented here borrow heavily from Martin Fowler's writings on Accounting.
Existing OpenLMIS concepts are often used with a capital letter for recognition here. e.g. Facility in OpenLMIS is a concept, and not necessarily what a country or public health professional considers a facility.
First cut on Stock Management Class Interfaces
Where
Stock is accounted for on a stock card by Product. A stock card is located at a place, e.g. a rural health clinic, a national warehouse, a particular refrigerator within a regional hospital's storeroom. In theory it could also be with a person such as a delivery truck driver in route or a field coordinator out making rounds topping up other stocking locations. For now stock cards should be tied back to an OpenLMIS Facility. i.e. a place. In the case of a physical building, such as a hospital, having multiple administrative units or even buildings, each that has stock, each unit or building would be entered into OpenLMIS as its own Facility which allows for the accounting of stock through stock cards. e.g. a large hospital might also serve as a regional vaccine warehouse, the hospital's stock room would be a Facility, and the regional vaccine warehouse would also be a Facility. In this way the regional vaccine warehouse could transfer stock to the hospital's stock room as well as other facilities served in the district.
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