# FAQ ## Capabilities & Functionality **Q: What does the Material Replenisher do?** A: The Material Replenisher is a Digital Worker that handles part requests from field technicians and maintenance teams. It interprets incoming requests from multiple channels, identifies and validates the correct part, checks inventory across connected sites, and either reserves the part, creates a material requisition, or routes the request to a planner depending on what the inventory check finds. The ERP and relevant stakeholders are updated automatically throughout the process. **Q: What types of requests can it interpret and act on?** A: The Digital Worker can interpret requests submitted via Microsoft Teams, email, work orders, IoT fault alerts, and customer calls or portals. It extracts part needs, urgency, and equipment context from the request, including from minimal or informal descriptions, and determines the appropriate action without requiring technicians to fill in forms or log into systems. **Q: How does it handle incomplete or vague part requests?** A: When a request does not contain enough information to identify a part with confidence, the Digital Worker asks a targeted clarifying question to gather what it needs. It does not reject the request or require the technician to start over. If multiple candidate parts match the description, it presents the options and asks the technician to confirm the correct one before proceeding. **Q: What happens when a part is in stock versus out of stock?** A: When a part is confirmed in stock at an accessible location, the Digital Worker reserves it and notifies the technician with the part details and location. When a part is not available locally, it conducts a multi-site inventory search across all connected locations. If the part cannot be found anywhere in inventory, the Digital Worker initiates a material purchase requisition (MPR) or material movement requisition (MMR) and guides the technician through the details needed to complete it. **Q: Can it identify and recommend similar parts?** A: Yes. The Digital Worker can suggest similar or equivalent parts based on minimal descriptions, historical usage data, and situational context. This reduces the risk of a request stalling because a technician does not have an exact part number. ## Control & Collaboration **Q: Does a human need to be involved in every request?** A: No. Requests with a clear part identification and available stock are handled automatically without planner involvement. The Digital Worker reserves the part, updates the ERP, and notifies the technician. Human input is required only when information is missing or ambiguous, when stock is unavailable and a requisition needs to be created, or when a request involves a judgment call that falls outside automated resolution. **Q: How does the Digital Worker involve planners when exceptions occur?** A: When a request cannot be resolved automatically, the Digital Worker routes it to a planner with the full context of the request, including the part details, equipment information, site, and the reason it requires review. Planners receive enough information to act quickly without having to investigate from scratch. **Q: How do technicians interact with the Digital Worker?** A: Technicians interact through natural conversation in Microsoft Teams. They can submit a request using plain language, respond to clarifying questions, confirm part selections, and provide requisition details, all within the same channel. No forms, no system logins, and no separate tools are required. **Q: What happens after a requisition is created?** A: Once a material requisition is created, the Digital Worker provides the technician with confirmation and next steps. It can also notify additional stakeholders if needed. The requisition details, decisions, and any approvals are recorded in full for audit purposes. ## Integration & Technology **Q: What systems does the Material Replenisher integrate with?** A: The Material Replenisher integrates with ERP and FSM systems for inventory checks, reservations, and work order updates. It connects to email platforms, collaboration tools including Microsoft Teams and Slack, and document platforms. This allows it to receive requests from existing channels and update records in the systems your teams already use. **Q: What channels can technicians use to submit requests?** A: Requests can be submitted via Microsoft Teams, email, work orders or work tasks in FSM and ERP systems, IoT fault alerts, and customer calls or portals. The Digital Worker monitors all of these simultaneously and processes requests in real time regardless of which channel they arrive through. **Q: How does it interact with the ERP?** A: The Digital Worker reads inventory data, validates parts against the catalog, creates or updates reservations, initiates MPRs or MMRs, and updates work order and work task records directly in the ERP and FSM. All updates are written back automatically without manual data entry. **Q: What is an MPR or MMR and how does the Digital Worker handle them?** A: An MPR (material purchase requisition) is created when a part needs to be sourced externally because it is not available in any connected inventory location. An MMR (material movement requisition) is created when stock needs to be transferred between sites. The Digital Worker initiates the appropriate document type based on the inventory check outcome, collects the required details from the technician, and creates the record in the ERP automatically. ## Security & Reliability **Q: How does the Digital Worker prevent duplicate orders or incorrect part selection?** A: Parts de-duplication is a core agentic skill. The Digital Worker checks whether a request duplicates an existing reservation or order before creating anything new. When multiple parts match a description, it presents all candidates for technician confirmation rather than selecting one automatically, preventing incorrect reservations from entering the system. **Q: How is traceability maintained across requests?** A: Every request, part validation, inventory check, reservation, MPR or MMR, and approval is recorded with full traceability. This means planners and auditors can review the complete history of any request, including what information was provided, what decisions were made, and what actions were taken. **Q: How are exceptions handled consistently across sites?** A: Exception routing follows the same logic regardless of which site a request originates from. When a request cannot be resolved automatically, it is escalated to a planner with standardized context. This means all sites operate on the same intake process with no local variations in how exceptions are handled. ## Customization & Performance **Q: Can it operate across multiple sites?** A: Yes. The Material Replenisher checks inventory across all connected sites simultaneously and applies the same intake and validation logic at every location. Organizations managing replenishment across many sites benefit from consistent processes and consolidated visibility without additional configuration per site. **Q: What agentic skills does the Material Replenisher use?** A: The Material Replenisher is built on five agentic skills: Request Interpretation, Part Identification & Validation, Multi-Site Inventory Lookup, Fulfilment Decision Logic, Parts De-duplication, and Requisition Creation. Together these skills cover the full path from an incoming technician request through to ERP update or requisition creation. **Q: Can it be configured to reflect our specific parts catalog and business rules?** A: Yes. The Digital Worker validates parts against your catalog in the connected ERP and applies fulfillment logic based on your inventory structure and site configuration. This means part identification and requisition creation reflect your organization's actual data rather than generic rules. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://kb.theloops.io/digitalworkers/ifs-loops-digital-workers/digital-worker-guides/material-replenisher/faq.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.