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Infor LX Tips, Infor LN Tips, BPCS Tips, Baan Tips, Infor M3 Tips & Infor ERP News

Crossroads Connections

Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

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

Crossroads RMC Returns to inPOWER 2026 as Platinum Sponsor

September 14-17 2026 | Pewaukee, WI

Frank Petrasio 0 277 Article rating: 5.0

inPOWER 2026: Join Us in September!

📅 Event Dates: September 14-17 📍 Location: Ingleside Hotel, Pewaukee, WI

Join us at the highly anticipated inPOWER 2026 conference, where LX and BPCS customers connect to solve real problems and shape what's next for their ERP environment.

Stop by the Crossroads RMC booth

Crossroads RMC is proud to return this year as a Platinum Sponsor of inPOWER. As the trusted Infor partner with the largest Infor LX and BPCS practice in the United States, we've spent 40+ years helping manufacturers like you get the most from your ERP investment.

Whether you're planning a move to the cloud or looking to extend what you already have, our proven add-on solutions, deep consulting expertise, and growing network of partner integrations are designed to reduce costs, improve quality, and drive growth across your entire operation.

  • LX/BPCS/IBM i Support Services – Scale your business with expert ERP assistance.
  • Cloud Migrations and Upgrades – Learn best practices for smooth transitions.
  • Infor OS Consulting – Unlock the full potential of your Infor OS environment.
  • Paperless Shop Floor Solutions – Streamline and digitize your shop floor.
  • Real-Time Dashboards – Gain clear visibility into your operations.
  • Inventory Tracking – Take control with cutting-edge tracking solutions.
  • AI Readiness – Prepare your organization for the future with AI strategies.

We bring everything you need under one roof, because we focus on you so you can focus on what you do best.

See you at inPOWER!

👉 Register today!

Infor ERPs: Helping Operators Get it Right the First Time

Shane Grumbles 0 438 Article rating: 5.0

Getting It Right the First Time: How Digital Work Instructions Are Changing the Shop Floor

For manufacturers running lean crews and tight schedules, small process breakdowns rarely stay small. A misread step, an outdated instruction sheet, or a new hire without enough guidance can lead to rework, scrap, or a missed deadline. The question isn't whether these issues will happen. It's how much they cost when they do.

Visual Job Execution (VJES) was built to close that gap.

What VJES Does

VJES delivers real-time work instructions, images, and videos directly to the shop floor, giving operators exactly what they need at each step of a job. Rather than relying on printed instructions that can go out of date or get left at the wrong workstation, operators always see the current, approved version of the job in front of them.

VJES works as a stand-alone system, but integrating it with your Infor ERP takes it further, turning it into a full data capture and traceability tool. Every step, every completion, and every performance metric ties directly back to your ERP, giving you visibility into shop floor operations you didn't have with paper.

Why It Matters

Getting a job right the first time isn't just about avoiding mistakes. It's about consistency across shifts, faster ramp-up for new employees, and confidence that the work being done matches the standard it's supposed to.

That shows up in the numbers. Manufacturers using VJES have seen:

  • Training time reduced from 1 week to 3 days
  • Quality scores improved from 68 to 93
  • 100% first-pass yield maintained for 8 consecutive months

These aren't small gains. A new hire who's productive in days instead of weeks changes how a plant handles turnover. A quality score jump like that reflects fewer defects, less rework, and fewer surprises downstream.

Built for Infor Environments

For manufacturers running Infor LN, Baan, LX, or BPCS...

Industry Insights: Why More Manufacturers Are Replacing Paper Work Instructions

Shane Grumbles 0 925 Article rating: 5.0

For years, paper work instructions have been a standard part of manufacturing. They were easy to distribute, simple to update, and familiar to operators.

But manufacturing has changed. Products are more complex, customer expectations keep rising, and as experienced employees retire, new hires often need to become productive faster than ever before. As a result, many manufacturers are rethinking how information is delivered on the shop floor.

The Challenge with Paper

Paper work instructions create several common challenges:

  • Multiple versions of the same document
  • Outdated instructions remaining at workstations
  • Time spent searching for the correct information
  • Longer training periods for new employees
  • Inconsistent processes between operators

On their own, none of these seem like a major problem, but together they add up to real quality and productivity issues.

A Shift Toward Digital Work Instructions

One trend we're seeing across the manufacturers we work with is a move toward digital work instructions. Rather than relying on printed documents, operators receive the latest approved instructions directly at their workstation, along with supporting images, videos, and other visual aids. This helps ensure every operator is working from the same information, every time.

Manufacturers making this shift are also gaining new capabilities they didn't have with paper: capturing production data directly from the shop floor, improving traceability, and supporting standardized work across shifts and facilities.

What Manufacturers Are Reporting

Industry Insights: Planning Your Cloud Journey Together

Crossroads RMC 0 1165 Article rating: 5.0

Cloud migration can feel overwhelming, especially for organizations that have invested years in building and refining their ERP environment.

Infor's Leap program was designed to help organizations evaluate modernization opportunities through cloud readiness planning, industry-specific best practices, and a structured implementation approach.

The most successful cloud journeys begin with a clear understanding of your business objectives, integrations, reporting requirements, and long-term growth plans.

Whether you're actively evaluating cloud options or simply planning for the future, Crossroads RMC can help you assess your current environment and understand the available paths forward.

Learn more about Infor Leap

→ Contact Crossroads RMC to discuss your modernization strategy

Is Your ERP Environment Ready for What's Next?

Crossroads RMC 0 1913 Article rating: 5.0

For many manufacturers, ERP has been the foundation of their business for years. It manages orders, inventory, production, purchasing, and financials. But as technology and business demands continue to evolve, many organizations are beginning to ask a different question:

Is our ERP environment ready for what's next?

For some, that conversation includes cloud migration. For others, it's about integration, visibility, analytics, or supporting future growth.

The good news is that modernization doesn't have to start with a major migration project.

Start with the Business, Not the Technology

One of the biggest misconceptions about modernization is that it begins with selecting a new platform.

In reality, the most successful projects begin by understanding the business challenges you're trying to solve.

Questions worth asking include:

Integration Services: Connecting What Matters

Kathy Barthelt 0 985 Article rating: 5.0

Disconnected systems don’t just create inefficiencies, they limit visibility, increase risk, and slow growth.

Across Infor LN/Baan and LX/BPCS environments, we help manufacturers connect their ERP with key business platforms so data flows accurately and in real time.

Quick Insight

Integration challenges are rarely about tools, they’re about how systems are connected and how data flows between them. When integration is built around your ERP, it creates a reliable foundation for efficiency, visibility, and scalability.

Real-World Example

A leading U.S. based pharmaceutical manufacturer needed to connect their Infor ERP with external platforms to eliminate manual processes and support growing volume.

Crossroads RMC implemented an ION-based integration that automated data exchange and created a secure, bi-directional flow of information.

The result:

  • Eliminated high-volume manual entry
  • Reduced errors and improved accuracy
  • Increased visibility into key processes
  • Enabled scalable growth without adding resources

→ Read the full case study


If you’re looking to connect systems more effectively or support growth without added complexity, we’d be happy to share what’s working.

Talk with our team 1.800.762.2077

Industry Insights: Simplifying Integration Across LN and LX with Infor ION

Kathy Barthelt 0 2641 Article rating: 5.0

Why this matters

Many integration challenges come from systems that don’t communicate effectively. Data is often duplicated, delayed, or manually transferred between applications, creating inefficiencies and limiting visibility.

What this solves

Infor ION provides a structured way to connect applications and enable consistent data flow across your environment, helping reduce manual processes and improve how information is shared.


How it works

Infor ION acts as a central integration layer, allowing systems to communicate using standardized messages.

In Infor LN, ION is natively integrated, enabling streamlined data exchange across applications.
In Infor LX environments, ION can be used as part of an integration strategy to connect ERP with external systems and platforms.

This enables:

Case Study: Driving Real-Time Performance with NextTrack Insights

Kathy Barthelt 0 2054 Article rating: 5.0

NextTrack Insights

Where teams struggle:

  • Limited visibility into production performance
  • Delayed or inconsistent reporting
  • Difficulty tracking scrap and efficiency
  • Data spread across systems

Quick insight
When production and scrap data are visible in real time, teams can identify issues earlier and take action before they impact performance.

Real-World Example
Manufacturers using NextTrack Insights are improving visibility, reducing delays, and driving performance across production.

→ Read the full case study

If improving visibility is a priority, we’d be happy to help.

Talk with our team 1.855-410-2334

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for EXECUTIVES

FINANCE: Using Dimensions

You can independently define dimensions and use them to prepare analyses of ledger account transactions and balances. You can use up to 12

dimension types. You can define a name and an entire structure of dimension codes for each of these dimension types. There is no relationship between the dimension types.

For example, you can set up these dimensions:

  • Dimension Type 1 = Cost center
  • Dimension Type 2 = Item group
  • Dimension Type 3 = Business unit
  • Dimension Type 4 = Geographical area
  • Dimension Type 5 = Activities

You can separately define the dimension structure for each of these dimension types, in other words, you can set up a dimension structure for the cost centers, a structure for item groups, and so on.

You can define the number of dimension types that you use in the Group Company Parameters (tfgld0101s000) session. If you have several financial companies in a company group, the dimension types used apply to all the companies in the group.

You can name the dimension types and define linked objects in the Dimension Type Descriptions (tfgld0102m000) session. You can then define the dimension codes to be used in each company in the Dimensions (tfgld0510m000) session. You can also make multilevel dimension structures with totals and subtotals. You can build a dimension hierarchy of up to ten levels.

In the Dimensions (tfgld0510m000) session, you can define the dimensions for each dimension type, and link the dimensions to parent dimensions and child dimensions.

Dimensions are always used together with ledger accounts. For each ledger account, you can define which dimension type or types are linked to the ledger account in the Chart of Accounts (tfgld0508m000) session. For each dimension type, you must select whether the dimensions type is MandatoryOptional, or Not Used by the ledger account.

When you enter a transaction, you must first state the ledger account. Then you must enter a dimension for each Mandatory dimension type that is linked to the ledger account, and you can enter a dimension for each Optional dimension type.

For example, the sales revenues ledger account is linked to dimension type 2 (item group) and dimension type 4 (area). The dimension type 1 (cost center) and dimension type 3 (business unit) are not used for the ledger account. The freight costs ledger account is linked to only dimension type 1 (cost center). The other dimension types are not used for the ledger account.

For each dimension type, you can define one dimension with an empty dimension code. If the dimension type is Optional for a ledger account, LN posts transactions for which no dimension is specified to this dimension. In this way, differences between the ledger history and the dimension history can be avoided.

In the Cross Validation Rules (tfgld0151m000) session, you can define the ranges of allowed dimensions by ledger accounts. You cannot change the dimension range for a ledger account that occurs in an unfinalized batch.

You can create transactions for Financials from the integration with other LN packages. You can enter these transactions into ledger accounts and into dimensions. You can define the assignment to ledger accounts through the Mapping Scheme (tfgld4573m000) session.

You can use the dimensions to split the transactions on the customer and supplier control accounts by departments, persons responsible for the revenues, costs, properties, debts, and so on.

The dimensions also provide the basis for the cost allocation in the Cost Accounting module. In CAT, you can allocate the costs (and any revenues) within a dimension type from one dimension code to another and from one dimension type to another.

TECHNOLOGY: High Contrast Skin

The high contrast skin can be activated by users who experience low vision, color-blindness, or similar visual impairments.

If the high contrast skin is active, LN UI is colored so that all controls comply with the WCAG AA norms for accessibility.

Guideline 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. For level AA, these exceptions apply:

  • Large text: large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1.
  • Incidental: the following text or images of text have no contrast requirement:
    • Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component.
    • Text or images of text that are pure decoration.
    • Text or images of text that are not visible to anyone.
    • Text or images of text that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content.
  • Logotypes: text that is part of a logo or brand name has no minimum contrast requirement.

OPERATIONS: Blocking Operations

Note: The Blocked Operations (tisfc0540m000) session displays the blocked operations.

Introduction

Sometimes a problem occurs that must be solved before an operation proceeds. Examples of such situations are:

  • The quality of an intermediate product must first be inspected.
  • A machine is in repair.
  • A supplier cannot deliver an essential component in time.
  • A customer is late with its payments.

In these situations the operation can get the operation status Blocked.

An operation can be blocked:

  • Manually.
  • Automatically by Quality.

Blocking reasons

Every blocked operation must have a blocking reason. The blocking reason of a blocked operation has two purposes:

  • To indicate why the operation is blocked.
  • To determine which actions you can no longer perform on the operation.

Types of blocking

The following actions can be blocked by means of a blocking reason:

  • Reporting a quantity completed.
  • Reporting a quantity rejected.
  • Reporting a quantity to be inspected.
  • Reporting an operation completed.

You normally carry out these actions in the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session.

You can define blocking reasons in the Blocking Reasons (tisfc2100m000) session.

Manual blocking

Use the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session to block an operation. When you block an operation, you must also enter a blocking reason. If Quality has already blocked the operation, you can only enter a blocking reason, which is more restrictive than the blocking reason of Quality.

Blocking by Quality Management

Quality uses the blocking reasons specified in the Quality Management Parameters (qmptc0100m000) session, to block operations. For details, see the Using QM for manufacturing operations topic.

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Kathy Barthelt

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