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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: Plan Codes

Kathy Barthelt 0 57911 Article rating: No rating

In Baan IV, plan items exist within the context of a plan code. A plan code includes only items of the MPS Item item type. Planned orders are independent of a plan code. Users can compare plan codes by means of the Plan Code Performance Comparison (cprmp4504m000) session.

The scenario concept in Infor LN replaces the plan code concept in Baan IV.

In Infor LN, the basic data for plan items is the same for all scenarios. However, users maintain not only the master plan within a scenario, but the planned orders as well.

For example, for each scenario, Users can specify:

  • Special demand for an item.
  • The availability of resources (in the Scenario – Availabilities (cprpd4160m000) session).
  • The sourcing strategies and supply strategies.

Users can compare scenarios by means of the Performance Indicators (cprao2201s000) session.

Filtec Selects Crossroads RMC for Baan Data Collection

Kathy Barthelt 0 28406 Article rating: No rating

Filtec, a leading provider of in-line inspection solutions for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries, has selected the Web Collect, formerly RMC3 data collection solution from Crossroads RMC for their Baan IV system. Filtec plans to implement Labor Reporting and Report Operations Complete as part of this project with the goal of eliminating manual data entry and gaining better visibility to gap time. The project is scheduled to go live in early November 2015.

BPCS/LX TIP OF THE DAY: MATERIAL REQUIREMENT DATES AND LEAD TIME OFFSETS IN MRP

Anthony Etzel 0 62800 Article rating: No rating

The system automatically performs offsets for requirements dates for components in the MPS/MRP calculations. It also performs offsets for calculation of material need dates at the time that shop orders are released.

To calculate the offset, the system takes the parent lead time from the Item Master and adjusts it by the bill of materials offset (plus or minus) for the component. This gives the lead time days for that specific component. The system starts with the due date of the parent and backs up and skips all non-workdays in the shop calendar.

Note that the offset calculation uses only calendar records that have a blank work center (the calendar record applies to all work centers). See the information for the Shop Calendar Maintenance program, SFC140, in your Shop Floor Control documentation for shop calendar details.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Data Sizing Moving to LN

Kathy Barthelt 0 55177 Article rating: No rating

The Infor LN database must be created with the appropriate size. For example, if at least 150 GB is required for a year, create the database with the required size from the beginning. Do not let the size increase to the required size and cause additional fragmentation in the database and the NTFS volume.  Set the autogrowth to a minimum of 10 percent or 1 GB (for each extent) to avoid fragmentation on file system level. Never use the default extent size of 1 MB.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Work Center & Machine Locations

Anthony Etzel 0 60380 Article rating: 3.0

For either file, you must specify a valid location code as defined in the Location Master File.

If the machine master locations are blank, then the work center locations are used. There are cases where you may want to do a combination between the two in defining the locations.

Let’s say the end item has one operation. The operation is at work center 510 and Machine A is in the work center. You have locations setup in both the Work center file and the Machine master File. You report 100 complete at the work center without specifying the machine.

In this case, the inventory will be processed based on the locations defined in the work center file. If the transaction included the machine number, then the locations in the machine file would be used.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: SIC Planning for MRP/MPS Planned Items

Kathy Barthelt 0 65231 Article rating: 3.0

If you have a parts warehouse and prefer to use SIC for planning (re-order point) but need to use MRP/MPS planning for production, create a non-nettable warehouse for the parts warehouse and run the SIC plan against that warehouse.

When running the SIC plan, be sure to set the Order System to “MPS to MRP” for Baan IV and to “Planned to Planned” for Baan V and LN.

Using this method you keep the parts inventory out of the production planning and in the hands of the parts warehouse planner.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Indirect Time Reporting

Anthony Etzel 0 59277 Article rating: No rating

In Infor LX, there are two ways to enter indirect labor. You can use either SFC600 or SFC650.

  • If you use SFC600 and enter a reason code for the indirect labor, the reason you entered is written to the Labor Ticket file.
  • If you use SFC650 and enter a reason code for the indirect, the reason code is not written to the labor Ticket file.

In either case, the reason code is not validated from the transaction file because there is no indirect transaction code. The indirect code that can be setup is machine downtime. If you need to validate and track indirect by reason and validate the reason code, then you may want to explore an MES solution that works with Infor LX.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Differences Between Constraint Planning in Baan IV and Enterprise Planning in LN

Kathy Barthelt 0 55537 Article rating: No rating

In Baan IV, a distinction is made between the actual ERP system and a separate planning tool which contains the Constraint Planning package. This tool was intended to work with any ERP system, not just with Baan IV. The Enterprise Planning package is now considered to be a package like any other package in Infor LN.

Users of Baan IV could choose whether they wanted to plan their supply in one of the following ways:

  • By using the MPS and MRP modules in the Manufacturing package.
  • By using the RPD and RMP modules in the Constraint Planning package.

Users of Infor LN can only use the Enterprise Planning package. The distinction between the MPS items and MRP items has been abandoned. In Infor LN, all items can be planned by using a combination of master-based planning methods and order-based planning methods.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Item Facility Master has a new attribute to define the override inspection days lead time CICP.ICINSD.

  • When an item facility has a defined override inspection days lead time, that value will be used instead of the system parameter inspection days lead time.

MRP exception report, MRP200B
Purchase planning report, PUR285B
Purchase order / Requisition maintenance, PUR500D3
Purchase order consolidation / release, PUR640B1
Vendor splits, PUR653B

This enhancement improved the subfile utilized in MRP320D Master Schedule Detail Inquiry -SCR001 by expanding the subfile with data rather than clearing the subfile as user pages. This change provides full support for the WebTop 4.8 Grid decorator.

This enhancement updated the approach used to populate the subfile to allow a deployed Webtop Grid to function correctly. There is no visible or user-impacted change to the way the program functions.

This enhancement provides improved functionality and full support of a Webtop grid applied to the subfile.

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Tips: LN | Baan

George Moroses

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: PowerLink

PowerLink is a Windows-based client for end-users within the Infor Development Framework (IDF). PowerLink allows exports/imports from/to the ERP database, but how much do you really know about it? Here is some helpful information about PowerLink.​

Why does PowerLink sometimes fail to export all records?
There's not a finite amount of records that PowerLink can export. However, PowerLink export was never intended to handle large volumes of data. It was designed as a quick snapshot of a fairly small subset and a simple view of the user's PowerLink card. 

What is the maximum amount of data that can be exported?
The maximum number of records is only limited by the system resource like memory, etc. When the system runs out of resources, an OutOfMemory error should occur. In previous testings, we have exported +1 million records, although the size of records differs greatly between business objects, the total size of the data could be an issue. For larger volumes of data, customers should investigate other tools such as the iSeries Access "Data Transfer from iSeries Server" feature to download directly to Excel.

How do I know if the size of the data is an issue?
1. When exporting to an external file (text, HTML) then importing to Excel: You can easily check the output (text, HTML) to see if the intermediate output has all the records. This can be done by visual inspection or through the use of column totals. Simply compare between the output and what you see in PowerLink. If the exported file has all the records, then the problem is definitely Excel.
2. When exporting to clipboard, then copy/paste to Excel: There is a clipboard export size limit that is controlled through client preferences. Check the exported data in the clipboard, and see if it contains all the records or only partial records due to the size limitation set in client preferences. If limited, change the client preferences using Customize from the Main browser > Preferences > Miscellaneous tab > Limit Clipboard Export, and try the export again. If the clipboard has all the records the problem is in Excel, which we don't have jurisdiction over.

Suggestions for improving the export process. 

  1. Reduce the number of columns seen in the view. This will serve to reduce the data being exported and may increase the number of records that can be exported. 
     
  2. Reduce the complexity of the view. If the view has one column that lives on a related object, then it has to build SQL behind the scenes to get that related record. If all of the columns come from a single business object, then the processing will be significantly faster.
     
  3. Export to HTML, which can be opened directly by Excel, Access, and many other programs. This reduces the processing of the export formatting because PowerLink needs only to put begin and end tags around each data element. This will also preserve column alignment when Excel or other programs open the file.
     
  4. Unless you are exporting a fairly small volume of data, export to a file, not clipboard. Clipboard is held in memory until the entire view is read, and records are written to the file as they are retrieved.
     

 Also see KB 1357068 for more information about testing your view.

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