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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: Invest in Your Employees

Kathy Barthelt 0 77510 Article rating: No rating

Employee empowerment is important if you want to retain the skilled workforce you have and attract new talent.

Here are 5 ways you can motivate your employees to give their best every day

  1. Train your employees
  2. Give your employees the right tools
  3. Automate processes
  4. Give your employees real-time feedback
  5. Provide incentives to do more

Can you do it? Of course you can!
You don’t have to do it all by yourself. Companies like Crossroads RMC can assist. We provide training services which can be completely tailored to your business. We also provide software solutions to help automate many of your manual processes, and dashboard solutions to provide real-time feedback on performance.

If you choose to do this, the benefits to your company will be amazing. You will have a happy, loyal and prepared workforce, ready to come to work each day to make the company wildly successful.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Tip of the Week: The Key to Increasing Efficiency

Anthony Etzel 0 51655 Article rating: No rating

Want to increase your efficiency across your organization?

Is access to real time data important to you?

Take a look at how and where your information is stored. Do you have employees keeping separate spreadsheets or databases outside of your ERP?

Separate data silos means that information is not being shared between departments. This can hamper growth, and cut down on overall efficiency. Take a look at why these silos exist. Can something be done within your ERP system to avoid having to store the information elsewhere? Can an integration be cre

ated to allow the ERP to have exposure to other databases, or allow updates to occur between systems?

Need help figuring out where to start? Contact us. We’d be happy to help.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Tip of the Week: The Key to Increasing Efficiency

Kathy Barthelt 0 79679 Article rating: No rating

Want to increase your efficiency across your organization?

Is access to real time data important to you?

Take a look at how and where your information is stored. Do you have employees keeping separate spreadsheets or databases outside of your ERP?

Separate data silos means that information is not being shared between departments. This can hamper growth, and cut down on overall efficiency. Take a look at why these silos exist. Can something be done within your ERP system to avoid having to store the information elsewhere? Can an integration be created to allow the ERP to have exposure to other databases, or allow updates to occur between systems?

Need help figuring out where to start? Contact us. We’d be happy to help.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Tip of the Week: Month End Miscellaneous To-Do's

Anthony Etzel 0 50974 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!

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

Kathy Barthelt 0 94667 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 33516 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 54590 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!

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Tip of the Week: 10 Ways to Succeed at an OEE Project Where 90% Fail

  1. Collect the requirements. Learn from everyone with the intent of developing a phased approach to implementing on your shop floor with OEE being Phase 1. 
  2. Create your list. Capture all of required functions, taking into account what the “output” of the system will be. What does the plant manager need to see in real-time? What KPI’s does each line need displayed in real-time? What reports are required?
  3. Insist Upon Real-time. In the moment data for the right OEE is the right approach. If it’s possible, collect the data automatically. Remember that real-time feedback to line operators results in an automatic increase in OEE.
  4. Evaluate your lines. Focus where production counts can be monitored automatically. If the data is in your PLC’s, can you get it out? OPC communication is the right way to go here. If not, the approach is to install a new dedicated PLC with sensors installed on each line.
  5. Find Your Data Points. If automatic production monitoring is not applicable, what will be your collection points and how will you collect the data?
  6. Calculate the Load. Determine how to load the “job” you’re reporting on into the OEE system. This will typically be the order/operation or the product from the ERP.
  7. Recognize Great Data. Do not accept “manual collection of data” as a viable approach because it produces false results and is labor-intensive.
  8. Be Tough. Evaluate systems based on OEE specificity to start and expandability to future phase functions as determined by your requirements. Plan to justify the OEE purchase on its own merits.
  9. Go Easy. Make sure the system is easy to implement. Software installation and configuration should take no more than 2 weeks.
  10. Be Simple. Put together a detailed but simple project plan indicating who will do what, how long it will take, and how you will monitor progress.
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Kathy Barthelt

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