How do other companies set up VMI or consignment with Vendors?

Hi,

I was hoping to start a discussion and find out further information of how other companies set up vendor managed inventory.  In my experience, we have used receipt routing to 'partially' receive the items before it goes into stock.  The requirement is normally that the item isn't paid for until it is issued, so we need to tied the inventory that's in routing to the finished receipt to the issue.  This process has required modifications to the issue program and if the process isn't followed, things goes off the rails.  Are there companies using VMI?  If so, what is the