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BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Inventory Control

Anthony Etzel 0 58282 Article rating: No rating
  • In Infor LX you need to determine how inventory will be moved in and out of warehouse storage locations, and which of the following transactions to use for inventory control:
  • A transfer transaction can be used to move inventory from one warehouse location to another warehouse location.
  • A production receipt transaction is used to add inventory to a warehouse location.
  • A material issue or backflush is used to reduce inventory from a warehouse location.
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Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Project Templates

Kathy Barthelt 0 85556 Article rating: No rating

Project templates are useful because you can specify all of the information that you would normally want to include when creating a new project such as project structure, budget and so on.

In Baan IV/V, project templates do not exist, but you can set up a project template by creating a regular project, and setting the status to simulated or free. This is done so that the project does not create plans. Under this scenario, you can easily copy one project to another.

In LN, when you create a new project, a template can be used as the starting point. This is similar to copying a normal project, but unlike normal projects, no costs or revenues can be posted on a template.
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BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Operational Inefficiencies

Anthony Etzel 0 56212 Article rating: No rating

Two big sources of inefficiencies in manufacturing are paper and spreadsheets. I know that you love ‘em, but they are the cause of more problems than you probably realize. Think of how long it takes you to get paper based data into the hands of those who can do something valuable with the data. Are you capturing all of the information correctly? Timely? What about those spreadsheets? Can everyone access that information across your organization? Is that data married with all of the related data regarding your operations to give your executive and middle management the information they need when they need it?

Make your shop floor paperless and put in place systems that talk to one another and automatically pull and push data to and from your ERP so that you can look in one place for all the information you need to run your business effectively.

If you’re not doing this today, you might as well be burning money.

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Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Are you Doing These Things For Month End?

Kathy Barthelt 0 92367 Article rating: No rating

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.
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Tip of the Week: Tips to Attain Greater Inventory Accuracy

Anthony Etzel 0 54208 Article rating: No rating
  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.
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Tip of the Week: Tips to Attain Greater Inventory Accuracy

Kathy Barthelt 0 69386 Article rating: No rating
  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.
Read more

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

Anthony Etzel 0 51374 Article rating: No rating

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.

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

Kathy Barthelt 0 70606 Article rating: No rating

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.).

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt
/ Categories: Infor LN & Baan Tips, Technology

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Data Sharing Methods (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Depending on the multicompany scenario you choose, an implementation team must decide whether or not tables must be logically linked or if data must be synchronized in another way to achieve availability of data across various companies. 

There are 3 ways in which data may be shared among companies. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each:

  1. Logical Table Linking - If two companies use the same physical data, the physical table exists, or is used, in only one company: the physical company. Each piece occurs only once: one instance of the same data. If the term logical table linking is used, users from multiple companies use a single physical instance of the data. If the company tables are on the same server, this can be accomplished by logical table linking. Access to specific data can be restricted, if required.

    • Advantages: Logical Table Linking takes place in real time; therefore, the moment a record is created or modified in one company, a record becomes available in all other linked companies as well. The setup and maintenance of logical table linking is easier than the setup and maintenance of data replication. Logical table linking is extremely reliable because this type of linking is independent of network connections and user interventions. 

    • Disadvantages: Table sharing implies that all attributes for a record are the same in all companies. Therefore, suppose you share the item table and, for a particular item in a company, the product class is XXX. In this case, in all other companies, the product class for this item must be XXX as well.

  2. Data Replication - In this situation, each company has exactly the same data, but each company has a unique copy of the data. The same piece of data exists in multiple (physical) places: multiple instances of the same data. The process to copy the data is called data replication.

    • Advantages: Rather than using table sharing by means of the logical linking of tables, you can replicate the content of tables between companies. The advantage is that, on company level, some (non-key) attributes of a record can differ by company. For example, if the bills of materials are replicated instead of shared, for each company, you can link a different warehouse to the bill of material. As a result, the bills of materials can be the same across all companies and only the warehouses differ. Using replication, you can also make only a subset of the records available in other companies. For example, if you replicate items between companies, in a sales company, for example, by means of the item group, you can only make end items available. In addition, you can replicate only a subset of items, for example, depending on the item group. Note that replication also requires that the referenced tables are replicated or shared.

    • Disadvantages: Replication is not in real time, and therefore, for processes that require real-time integrated data as the financial integration processes, replication is not an option. For replication, you also must take into account the sequence in which you replicate. First, you must replicate the child tables and then the parent tables, and therefore first the business partners and then the purchase contracts. During the replication process, the data must be frozen. This point is of particular importance if the replication process takes a lot of time.

  3. Manual Syncronization - If only a small number of records are the same between some companies, you can enter, maintain, and keep the records synchronized manually. Note that the more dynamic data is, the more difficult this process is. This solution is strictly procedural. Therefore, depending on the discipline of the users, the solution is error sensitive: data can be forgotten, updated too late, or typing errors may occur.

  • Advantages - The main advantage is the flexibility so that only the data that really must be shared can be kept synchronized. By manually keeping data synchronized, not all attributes of a record need to have the same value.

  • Disadvantages - The main disadvantage is that this method depends on user interaction. Therefore, the method depends on the user’s time - because the method is not a real time procedure and the user may forget to update the data - and users can make mistakes.

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Kathy Barthelt

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