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Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

Infor LX | Infor LN | BPCS | Baan | Infor M3

Mitigating Risk With Your Infor ERP

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

MARCH… "in like a lion and out like a lamb"

Problems = Risk

Boy, it sure seems like we’ve seen our fair share of March “LIONS” over the past few years, wouldn’t you agree? Those lions have manifested mostly as external global problems outside of the control of any given person or manufacturing operation. As we know, problems = risk.

So, how do businesses respond to risk, specifically when it comes to their ERP system? We all deal with risks in our jobs every day. It is our response to the risk that makes all the difference. Creating short-term, midterm, and long-term response strategies ensure that a company can not only handle a fast-changing situation or emergency but also make the investments needed to seize opportunities and become more resilient.

To create these response strategies, manufacturers should examine:

  • How did we get here?
  • Where are we now?
  • Where are we headed?
  • What to do about it?

In order to really dig into each of these areas, our customers have successfully partnered with us to review a particular part of their business that they feel is at risk and sometimes have asked us to review everything…soup to nuts. This review is done through an ERP Utilization Review. In this review, we can dig into such things as:

  • How does data flow from one department to another?
  • Are we relying on outdated processes and procedures?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we eliminate or streamline processes to become more efficient?
  • Are we making bad business decisions because one department doesn’t have access to real-time data or data from another department?
  • Are we losing money because we can’t track our costs accurately?


Or more specifically by department...

Finance:

  • Do I have the right visibility into our ERP data to be able to do proper financial planning, forecasting, and reporting?
  • Can I reduce the amount of time it takes to do a monthly close?
  • Is my ERP system covering all of my tax compliance requirements?
  • Are we losing money because we can’t track our costs accurately?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we eliminate or streamline processes to become more efficient?

Manufacturing:

  • Is there a way to gain better real-time visibility into my operations?
  • Can we increase OEE?
  • Are we accurately capturing our time and labor on the shop floor?
  • Are we properly planning to maximize our production efficiency?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we automate some of our processes to become more efficient?

Materials:

  • Do we have full visibility into our supply chain?
  • Is planning negatively impacted because of how we communicate with our suppliers?
  • Are we managing our inventory properly?
  • Are we able to fully analyze our sales in order to maximize profitability?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we eliminate or streamline processes to become more efficient?


Why live with risk one moment longer than you need to? Whether your Infor ERP investment was made one year ago or twenty, your business deserves the opportunity to maximize the investment that was made and put the strategies in place that will allow your business to mitigate risk and thrive no matter what “LIONS” try to stand in your way.

Crossroads RMC offers a variety of Infor ERP Utilization Reviews allowing companies to achieve a greater return on their Infor ERP investment, maximize efficiency and improve overall employee satisfaction.

Utilization Review for Infor LX (ERP LX)
Utilization Review for BPCS
Utilization Review for Infor LN (ERP LN)

Utilization Review for Baan

Learn more about our Types of Utilization Reviews:

Infor LX (ERP LX) & BPCS

  • Manufacturing Application Utilization Review
  • Financial Utilization Review
  • Supply Chain Utilization Review
  • IBM i Infrastructure Performance Review
     

Infor LN (ERP LN) & Baan

  • Automotive Exchange / ION Utilization Review
  • Technical Systems Utilization Review
  • MRP Utilization Review
  • Supply Chain Utilization Review
  • Finance Utilization Review
  • Utilization ReviewManufacturing 


Visit our Utilization Review FAQ section for Infor LX (ERP LX) & BPCS.
Visit our Utilization Review FAQ section for Infor LN (ERP LN) & Baan.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Understanding: What Was Issued to the Shop Order

The shop order inquiry program provides several function keys. By using the function key for the material, the display will present what components have been issued under the issued quantity column. You are also presented with the required quantity. While viewing the quantities you may see that more was issued than what was required. Possibly there was scrap and more material was required to be issued. Perhaps there was an over issue and the balance of the material is slated to be returned to stock.

A red flag should go up if the Shop Order quantity finished is equal to the required quantity for the end item and all the components have not been issued. You may want to investigate why.

Understanding: The quantities required, finished and remaining at the operation and in total for the Shop Order

The shop order may require 1,000 pieces but only 950 are reported as finished in total for the shop order. The quantity required is what is planned on the SO and it may be a higher number than what is finished, factoring in that there can be scrap. If a 1,000 pieces are required to be produced, and there is always is scrap of 10 pieces, then plan for scheduling a quantity of 1,010.

The quantity finished for the end item is what is reported in the inventory application with a production order receipt transaction. At the operation level, if the quantity is reported at the operation, there will be a value in the PCS Complete field on the operation detail screen showing the pieces completed through that operation.

If you want to get a handle on the difference between the required quantity and the finished quantity, you may want to look into reporting quantities at the operation level as well as examining how scrap is controlled and reported.

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Tips: LN | Baan

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