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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 78299 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 52419 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 80304 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 51959 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 97273 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 33979 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 55336 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

Infor LX & BPCS: Why You Need MES

You know your plant better than anyone, and most likely you'd admit that there is room for improvement. Perhaps too many defects are causing costly issues down the road, or maybe your production is behind and orders are shipping late? Do you know what needs to be improved? Do you know about the root causes of the problems that you’re experiencing? Is it fair to say, you don’t know what you don’t know … yet?

MES helps you dig into the problem and better yet, SOLVES the problem!

What Is MES and How Does It Work?

Many companies still enter data manually or share work instructions on paper. Most of them, however, know there’s a better way to organize the mass of activity happening on the plant floor. MES provides visibility to that activity as well as the underlying data and uses that data to improve how that activity is done and makes it repeatable. MES connects multiple sites, integrates with equipment, and raises the effectiveness of business applications all to better optimize operations.

The 3 Pillars of MES:

  1. Establishing a plan and staying on schedule. The system takes your input — production shifts/times, production goals, etc. — and calculates the rate at which you need to complete production in order to meet customer demand. Operators see real-time progress on dashboard graphics, knowing the progress at every moment.
  2. Enforcing a repeatable process. Knowing your process is being followed exactly as defined provides the ultimate peace of mind. Every target, from fastening to product routing, is achieved just as you defined it time after time.
  3. Creating a rich data set. Capturing data is one thing; being able to act on that data is really the key to driving improvement initiatives. Use your analytics, explore your data set, and identify and solve your hidden inefficiencies.

All three of these MES pillars are used to help you reach productivity and quality goals by:

  • Solving production scheduling challenges
  • Discovering and sharing your best operators’ insights
  • Uncovering inefficiencies in your process and fixing them
  • Reducing the exhausting task of putting out fires
  • Establishing a continuous improvement philosophy
  • Increasing operator engagement and dedication

And if you need another reason... according to Forbes.com, MES ranks in the Top 5 Key Areas to Affect How Goods Are Made in 2023 - Five Predictions For Manufacturing And Logistics In 2023.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/02/13/five-predictions-for-manufacturing-and-logistics-in-2023/?sh=1155863f1f76

So, what's next? Work with Crossroads RMC, an experienced MES partner who has seen situations just like yours and who has guided companies in your position. And best of all, Crossroads RMC doesn’t just know MES, we have a team of experts who are knowledgeable about manufacturing best practices, your Infor ERP, and MES and can bring all of that knowledge together to help you formulate the right plan for your company’s success.

Contact Anthony Etzel at Crossroads RMC today. He can provide you with a free MES ROI calculator to give you some concrete numbers to help you see what MES can do for your business. 800.762.2077

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