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

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Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

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

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Month End Miscellaneous To-Do’s

Kathy Barthelt 0 91485 Article rating: No rating
  • Print Sales Order History Information - all invoices processed through sales
  • Check Inventory Valuation - this should tie out to your inventory accounts
  • Print Integration Information - see all postings from WIP to finished goods
  • Print G/L Transaction Information - print specific transaction types for any GL account
  • Print Lot Control Information - will show where serial numbers were used

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

5 Steps to Getting Everyone On Board With Change

Anthony Etzel 0 33239 Article rating: 4.0

In almost every project, in every industry, I found that the management team or the project team felt that change was necessary. However, talk is cheap when the rubber meets the road. Getting people to embrace change is very challenging.

In an attempt to help realize why change is sometimes necessary for a business to survive and thrive, here is my view on change, presented for your consideration:


C: ChaosLoss of control, no clear definition of what is about to happen. How will things change? For what reason(s) do they need to change? Yes, for a period of time, you may feel like the ground beneath you isn’t solid.

H: Hostility- Will you have more work? Will you lose your job? You will be stressed, which may lead to anger?

A: AloneWhy is this happening to you? Why do you feel like you are the only one who isn’t embracing the change?

N: Nightmare - Most people are afraid of the unknown, and dread uncertainty. They go to great lengths to stay where they are to avoid going down a new path. A new path is scary.

G: Grief

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Accurate Job Costing

Anthony Etzel 0 54093 Article rating: No rating

Standard costing is really a ‘best guess’ at labor costing -- these numbers are often inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

Accurate job costing requires the capture of all tasks associated with a specific product or job, including direct and indirect labor in setup, production, and customer service.

Inaccuracies in the collection of time allocated to machinery and the use of materials can result in the inability to properly pass those charges through to the customer, reducing company profitability.

Basically, you can’t manage what you can’t measure -- and you can’t measure what you can’t track. So the inability to track time-to task ultimately inhibits maximum utilization of the workforce. Unproductive activities remain hidden from sight -- managers don’t have the information needed to understand where wasted time exists, and therefore cannot create an action plan to remove it.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Accurate Job Costing

Kathy Barthelt 0 83447 Article rating: No rating

Standard costing is really a ‘best guess’ at labor costing -- these numbers are often inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

Accurate job costing requires the capture of all tasks associated with a specific product or job, including direct and indirect labor in setup, production and customer service.

Inaccuracies in the collection of time allocated to machinery and the use of materials can result in the inability to properly pass those charges through to the customer, reducing company profitability.

Basically, you can’t manage what you can’t measure -- and you can’t measure what you can’t track. So the inability to track time-to task ultimately inhibits maximum utilization of the workforce. Unproductive activities remain hidden from sight -- managers don’t have the information needed to understand where wasted time exists, and therefore cannot create an action plan to remove it.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Tip of the Week: Ways to Manage the Pain of Losing a Key Employee Before it Ever Happens

Anthony Etzel 0 59765 Article rating: No rating
  • Sit down with your IT team. Decide how the information will be captured and where it will be stored so that employees have access to it. What software tools need to be used to capture the information? How does it need to be organized? Create a repeatable process to make this easy for your staff.
     
  • Interview the person. Have them talk you through his/her job. What are the things they do every day? What are their biggest challenges? How do they overcome them? 
     
  • Have someone shadow the person for a week. Watch what they do and how they do it. Ask questions. Who does he/she interact with in their department? Outside of their department? Why?
     
  • Find out what tools he/she uses to perform their job? Are there spreadsheets?  Reports within your ERP / outside of your ERP? Separate stand-alone databases? Drawings? Websites? Why does he/she use them?
     
  • Video record how the person does their job. Is their technique critical to “doing it right” the first time and not ending up with a bunch of scrap that you can’t reuse?
     
  • Figure out if the person does anything special on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis that might not come up during the observation period or interview. 
     
  • Map how he/she uses your business system and how that impacts the rest of the company. Understand both the “what” and the “why”. Without this, new employees may end up figuring out what they need to do, but never understand why they need to do it.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Tip of the Week: Ways to Manage the Pain of Losing a Key Employee Before it Ever Happens

Kathy Barthelt 0 75109 Article rating: No rating
  • Sit down with your IT team. Decide how the information will be captured and where it will be stored so that employees have access to it. What software tools need to be used to capture the information? How does it need to be organized? Create a repeatable process to make this easy for your staff.
     
  • Interview the person. Have them talk you through his/her job. What are the things they do every day? What are their biggest challenges? How do they overcome them? 
     
  • Have someone shadow the person for a week. Watch what they do and how they do it. Ask questions. Who does he/she interact with in their department? Outside of their department? Why?
     
  • Find out what tools he/she uses to perform their job? Are there spreadsheets?  Reports within your ERP / outside of your ERP? Separate stand-alone databases? Drawings? Websites? Why does he/she use them?
     
  • Video record how the person does their job. Is their technique critical to “doing it right” the first time and not ending up with a bunch of scrap that you can’t reuse?
     
  • Figure out if the person does anything special on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis that might not come up during the observation period or interview. 
     
  • Map how he/she uses your business system and how that impacts the rest of the company. Understand both the “what” and the “why”. Without this, new employees may end up figuring out what they need to do, but never understand why they need to do it.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: How to Move From Good to Great - Manufacturing Optimization

Anthony Etzel 0 58413 Article rating: No rating
  • Are you tracking downtime? Is it done manually, or with some type of automation or application that gathers information in real-time, or is it based upon history?
  • If you are measuring team effectiveness by shift, you know there are significant differences between them. Have you figured out why?

One of our automotive customers was experiencing significant inefficiencies and difficulties with their receiving operations. After analyzing their operation, we discovered a disconnect between how they were tracking their incoming goods and what their ERP system thought was on hand.

This disconnect created time-consuming steps to process incoming material and determine where the material was needed. The manual process slowed production, caused additional staffing needs and hindered their ability to effectively get needed material to the assembly line. They chose to implement our data collection solution to automate the process.

Since implementing the solution, receiving and moving material was quicker, more accurate and efficient. This enabled the addition of another assembly line, increasing production volume – without adding staff.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: How to Move From Good to Great - Manufacturing Optimization

Kathy Barthelt 0 71699 Article rating: No rating
  • Are you tracking downtime? Is it done manually, or with some type of automation or application that gathers information in real-time, or is it based upon history?
  • If you are measuring team effectiveness by shift, you know there are significant differences between them. Have you figured out why?

One of our automotive customers was experiencing significant inefficiencies and difficulties with their receiving operations. After analyzing their operation, we discovered a disconnect between how they were tracking their incoming goods and what their ERP system thought was on hand.

This disconnect created time-consuming steps to process incoming material and determine where the material was needed. The manual process slowed production, caused additional staffing needs and hindered their ability to effectively get needed material to the assembly line. They chose to implement our data collection solution to automate the process.

Since implementing the solution, receiving and moving material was quicker, more accurate and efficient. This enabled the addition of another assembly line, increasing production volume – without adding staff.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Improves control over PO costing changes during invoice entry by replacing passive warnings with an intentional override action.

  • In ACP500D3 (Invoice Entry PO Costing), users previously could unintentionally accept changes by pressing ENTER, even when quantity to cost or amount to cost values had changed.

  • A new “F14 to Override” warning message replaces the old message:
    “Details have changed. Press enter again to accept data.”
    This ensures users acknowledge and confirm significant changes explicitly.

New System Parameter:

  • “Apply GRN Costing Tolerance for PO Costing” (optional):

    • Within tolerance: Displays the original message —
      “Details have changed. Press enter again to accept data.”

    • Outside tolerance: Triggers the new override requirement —
      “F14 to Override”

Benefits:

  • Enhances oversight and reduces unintentional cost acceptance.

  • Enables better control of PO costs when invoice details differ from expectations.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for OPERATIONS: Blocking or Unblocking Warehouses

You can block a warehouse for inbound procedures, outbound procedures, or both. For example, you can block inbound and outbound procedures for a warehouse if the warehouse must be closed temporarily for inspection.

You can impose these types of blockings:

  • Full block: Full block on warehousing procedures.

  • Interactive block: Override blocking allowed except blocks on confirm shipment or confirm receipt.

If you impose a full block on inbound procedures, the receipt and inbound inspection procedures are not allowed for the warehouse.

If you impose a full block on outbound procedures, the outbound, outbound inspection, and shipment procedures are not allowed for the warehouse.

An interactive block on inbound procedures blocks the confirm receipt step. For the other inbound steps (for goods already received), a warning is displayed and you are prompted to cancel the procedure or to continue.

These are the other inbound steps:

  • Generate and release inbound advice
  • Print and confirm storage lists
  • Put away stock

If you perform the outbound steps of a warehouse transfer and an interactive inbound block is imposed on the receiving warehouse, you are warned that the receiving warehouse is blocked.

An interactive block on outbound procedures blocks the confirm shipment step. For the remaining outbound and shipment steps, a warning is displayed and the user is prompted to cancel the procedure or to continue. Assembly, internal inventory movements and inventory adjustments are also allowed.

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