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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: Are you Doing These Things For Month End?

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Accounts Receivable:

  • Check A/R Aging Balance with Trial Balance.
  • Check for Detailed Customer Transactions.

Accounts Payable:

  • Check A/P Aging Balance with Trial Balance.
  • Check Open Purchase Orders for Potential Accruals and A/P Reconciliation.
  • Check for Registered Purchase Invoices (Not Matched or Approved).
  • Print Listing of all Purchase Invoices Entered for Period.

Tip of the Week: Tips to Attain Greater Inventory Accuracy

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  1. Record data regarding your inventory as soon as the items arrive at your door/receiving dock. With information, you can make decisions. Without it, you waste money, time and effort.
  2. Leverage data collection, label generation and RFID solutions to make your life easier.
  3. Set inventory accuracy goals for the business and for employees.
  4. Train your employees so they know what is expected of them, and how to best perform their job and therefore how best to maintain accurate inventory counts.
  5. Count the inventory – and do it regularly. Find a method that works best for your employees, and for your business.

Tip of the Week: Tips to Attain Greater Inventory Accuracy

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  1. Record data regarding your inventory as soon as the items arrive at your door/receiving dock. With information, you can make decisions. Without it, you waste money, time and effort.
  2. Leverage data collection, label generation and RFID solutions to make your life easier.
  3. Set inventory accuracy goals for the business and for employees.
  4. Train your employees so they know what is expected of them, and how to best perform their job and therefore how best to maintain accurate inventory counts.
  5. Count the inventory – and do it regularly. Find a method that works best for your employees, and for your business.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Changing the Master Schedule

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You can change your master schedule by specifying the type of master schedule update to perform. You can run a Net Change or Regenerative Schedule.

You also have the ability to clear the lower level requirements out of the Planned and Firm-Planned Order file.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Switching to a Difference Series

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In general, you can enter a different series in the order field if you have an available series. To add a new series, find the appropriate group in the First Free Number session, and add a new series and first free number (usually 1).

In Baan IV, go to the Maintain First Free Numbers Session (under Common, Tables, Maintain Logistics Tables, Maintenance 1). Groups are easily identified (e.g., Purchase Order, Sales Order, etc.).

In Baan V, go to the First Free Number Session (under Common Data, Tables, Logistics). There are number groups (e.g., 570 may be for Purchase Orders, 650 may be for Sales Orders, etc.).

In LN, go to the First Free Number Session (tcmcs0150m000 – it is in different places in the menu under different Feature Packs). There are number groups (e.g., 210 may be for Purchase Orders, 310 may be for Sales Orders, etc.).

Hoffmaster Clintonville Plant Goes Live with Crossroads MES & LX

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On March 1, 2016, Hoffmaster’s Clintonville plant went live with Crossroads MES and LX. The goal of the project was to convert from another ERP to LX and replace a green screen MES system that required the manual recording of production and labor activity keyed from shop floor terminals.

Hoffmaster achieved their goal by completing a successful data conversion and detailed prototyping of LX and Crossroads. The project team remarked that the Crossroads MES implementation was by far the easiest part of the project. One of the critical requirements of the chosen MES solution was to verify UPC and UCC label formats that called for in-line labeling of product packages and cases. Crossroads MES satisfied that requirement, and also provided an interface to finished goods inventory via the scanning of LPN numbers when reporting production.

The Clintonville plant is a leading manufacturer of disposable tabletop products.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Actual Costs for Manufactured Items

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In LX, the actual costs that can be set up fall into three categories: Material, Labor, and Overhead. If your LX database is set up properly with the LX cost accounting, you should be able to identify:

  • How much the item should cost
  • How to track the cost of work underway
  • How much the item actually did cost
  • Why the job cost varied from the expected cost
     

Capturing the data to track activity with associated costs can be time-consuming. With an MES solution, the information you need for costing is tracked instantly.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week:GRINYA Reconciliation – What Could Go Wrong?

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One common GRINYA issue would be incorrectly entered Integration Setups.

Check the Baan or LN manual for recommended Integration setups. If such a mistake were to occur, it is important to know for what period of time the Integration was in error.

To ensure, it’s recommended that the Integrations Setup tables should be audited either through Baan/LN or Database Auditing. Corrections can be quickly calculated when an exact timeframe can be determined.

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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

An ERP System Review is NOT a Report Card

It's a no-judgment-review - we promise!

report card C minusWe all remember our school days and the nervousness that we felt when it came time to get our grades. Even if we were doing well, we were still nervous. Sometimes we experienced that same nervousness when it came time for a performance review on our job. Nervousness…sometimes dread…knowing that our performance was not what we wanted it to be, or others expected it to be. 

Somehow I think the feelings that we felt in our past often find ways to creep into our present. I have seen this recently when I suggested an ERP system review to one of our customers. They immediately became flustered and thought about every possible problem that they knew existed within the software and how they were currently using it. I asked them to consider the purpose of the ERP system review.

An ERP Utilization Review will:

  • Document how your company is using your ERP system (or a particular aspect of the system) and to what extent the system meets the needs of the business.
  • Identify challenges encountered using the software.
  • Create opportunities for improving business processes and generating additional value.
  • Identify potential risks and areas that need improvement.


key hole to the futureSo, if the result of ERP system review is to establish a path forward for growth based on current status, then why doesn’t every company take advantage of it? I think for some, the answer lies in the feelings of nervousness and dread still stuck in the recesses of our brains.

An ERP system review or more specifically a utilization review is NOT a personal report card, or performance review showing how well a particular individual does his/hers/their job, nor is it an attack on the team that implemented the software. 

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. What we view now to be a less than ideal implementation methodology may have been absolutely appropriate at the time the software was originally deployed. The software has likely matured and the skillsets of the individuals responsible for the system have likely matured as well. In some cases, those resources are no longer with the company, leaving those that remain with no back story as to how and why implementation decisions were made.

Instead of viewing the ERP utilization review as a reason to find fault in previous decisions, think of it as discovering untapped potential – both of the ERP system and the people who use it. Viewing an ERP utilization review in this way puts a positive spin on it and allows us to challenge ourselves to identify opportunities for growth far greater than anything we imagined before. This means not only moving our businesses forward faster but also advancing the strength of the company as individuals and as a team.

What untapped potential lies within your company?

Consider a utilization review of your entire ERP system, or just a part of it like Finance, Technology, Materials Management, Order Processing, or Shop Floor Control. You just might be surprised at what greatness can be achieved… far greater than anyone could have imagined.  

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Kathy Barthelt

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