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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

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Ways to Prevent Scrap & Rework From Costing You

Anthony Etzel 0 53181 Article rating: No rating

Scrap and rework costs are a manufacturing reality impacting organizations across all industries and product lines.

Scrap and rework costs are caused by many things—when the wrong parts are ordered, when engineering changes aren’t effectively communicated or when designs aren’t properly executed on the manufacturing line.

No matter why scrap and rework occurs, its impact on an organization is always the same—wasted time and money. And while no one, especially an operations manager, wants to admit it, these expenses add up quickly and negatively impact the bottom line...

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Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Ways to Prevent Scrap & Rework From Costing You

Kathy Barthelt 0 81780 Article rating: No rating

Scrap and rework costs are a manufacturing reality impacting organizations across all industries and product lines.

Scrap and rework costs are caused by many things—when the wrong parts are ordered, when engineering changes aren’t effectively communicated or when designs aren’t properly executed on the manufacturing line.

No matter why scrap and rework occurs, its impact on an organization is always the same—wasted time and money. And while no one, especially an operations manager, wants to admit it, these expenses add up quickly and negatively impact the bottom line...

Read Full Article

Tip of the Week: 8 Common-Sense Rules for Inventory Management

Anthony Etzel 0 56003 Article rating: No rating

Common sense rules. We may not like them, but generally, they stand the test of time and should be followed. Here are 8 common sense rules related to inventory management published by Inbound Logistics back in 2007. They still hold true today. 

1. If you don' t know where you are going, no road will take you there. Enterprise resource management systems are designed to tell you about today' s inventory. With some work, you can also access information about past inventory. To manage inventory proactively, however, you must know projected inventory levels for the future.

2. Make what you can sell. An integrated Sales and Operations Plan will naturally take into account expected demand in its production plan. Inventory is not an independent variable - it is the direct result of demand and supply.

3. Sell what you can make. Too often, a disconnect exists between sales and marketing desires and the reality of production capabilities.

4. If you can' t sell it, stop making it. If demand for your product does not materialize, you need to identify that gap quickly to avoid a buildup of non-moving inventory. Numerous mechanisms can be put in place to identify such trends.

For tips 5 through 8 and more details into the other tips, click the button below to read the full article.

Read Full Article

Tip of the Week: 8 Common-Sense Rules for Inventory Management

Kathy Barthelt 0 81071 Article rating: No rating

Common sense rules. We may not like them, but generally, they stand the test of time and should be followed. Here are 8 common sense rules related to inventory management published by Inbound Logistics back in 2007. They still hold true today. 

1. If you don' t know where you are going, no road will take you there. Enterprise resource management systems are designed to tell you about today' s inventory. With some work, you can also access information about past inventory. To manage inventory proactively, however, you must know projected inventory levels for the future.

2. Make what you can sell. An integrated Sales and Operations Plan will naturally take into account expected demand in its production plan. Inventory is not an independent variable - it is the direct result of demand and supply.

3. Sell what you can make. Too often, a disconnect exists between sales and marketing desires and the reality of production capabilities.

4. If you can' t sell it, stop making it. If demand for your product does not materialize, you need to identify that gap quickly to avoid a buildup of non-moving inventory. Numerous mechanisms can be put in place to identify such trends.

For tips 5 through 8 and more details into the other tips, click the button below to read the full article.

Read Full Article

Crossroads RMC to Exhibit at Inforum 2016

Crossroads RMC 0 29177 Article rating: No rating

Inforum 2016  returns as a three and a half-day event of educational seminars and workshops focused on the future of enterprise software and your business. This event is Infor’s premier event for 2016, and Crossroads RMC is excited to sponsor the event! Come see us in Booth 173 to learn about Crossroads MES and Analytics Dashboard solutions for the shop floor, our Services for Baan/LN and BPCS/LX, and see a demo of our latest solution, Analytics Dashboard, which can be connected to any ERP to provide up to the minute sales analysis data.

    
 

If ERP is plumbing for the Enterprise - How do we unplug it and keep it from making a huge mess?

David Dickson 0 38940 Article rating: 5.0

I have been working with ERP in various roles for over 30 years, directly involved in over a hundred implementations, while my company has been involved with over 400 more. Of course, in many ways the systems we use today are completely different from what we used in the ‘80s – back then it was green screens, simple transaction entry forms, and cumbersome updates (at best) to link what one department did with all the other areas that needed access to that information. Then there were those planning programs that took all the information along with various parameters the users needed to set and told us what to do.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for EXECUTIVES

FINANCE: Using Dimensions

You can independently define dimensions and use them to prepare analyses of ledger account transactions and balances. You can use up to 12

dimension types. You can define a name and an entire structure of dimension codes for each of these dimension types. There is no relationship between the dimension types.

For example, you can set up these dimensions:

  • Dimension Type 1 = Cost center
  • Dimension Type 2 = Item group
  • Dimension Type 3 = Business unit
  • Dimension Type 4 = Geographical area
  • Dimension Type 5 = Activities

You can separately define the dimension structure for each of these dimension types, in other words, you can set up a dimension structure for the cost centers, a structure for item groups, and so on.

You can define the number of dimension types that you use in the Group Company Parameters (tfgld0101s000) session. If you have several financial companies in a company group, the dimension types used apply to all the companies in the group.

You can name the dimension types and define linked objects in the Dimension Type Descriptions (tfgld0102m000) session. You can then define the dimension codes to be used in each company in the Dimensions (tfgld0510m000) session. You can also make multilevel dimension structures with totals and subtotals. You can build a dimension hierarchy of up to ten levels.

In the Dimensions (tfgld0510m000) session, you can define the dimensions for each dimension type, and link the dimensions to parent dimensions and child dimensions.

Dimensions are always used together with ledger accounts. For each ledger account, you can define which dimension type or types are linked to the ledger account in the Chart of Accounts (tfgld0508m000) session. For each dimension type, you must select whether the dimensions type is MandatoryOptional, or Not Used by the ledger account.

When you enter a transaction, you must first state the ledger account. Then you must enter a dimension for each Mandatory dimension type that is linked to the ledger account, and you can enter a dimension for each Optional dimension type.

For example, the sales revenues ledger account is linked to dimension type 2 (item group) and dimension type 4 (area). The dimension type 1 (cost center) and dimension type 3 (business unit) are not used for the ledger account. The freight costs ledger account is linked to only dimension type 1 (cost center). The other dimension types are not used for the ledger account.

For each dimension type, you can define one dimension with an empty dimension code. If the dimension type is Optional for a ledger account, LN posts transactions for which no dimension is specified to this dimension. In this way, differences between the ledger history and the dimension history can be avoided.

In the Cross Validation Rules (tfgld0151m000) session, you can define the ranges of allowed dimensions by ledger accounts. You cannot change the dimension range for a ledger account that occurs in an unfinalized batch.

You can create transactions for Financials from the integration with other LN packages. You can enter these transactions into ledger accounts and into dimensions. You can define the assignment to ledger accounts through the Mapping Scheme (tfgld4573m000) session.

You can use the dimensions to split the transactions on the customer and supplier control accounts by departments, persons responsible for the revenues, costs, properties, debts, and so on.

The dimensions also provide the basis for the cost allocation in the Cost Accounting module. In CAT, you can allocate the costs (and any revenues) within a dimension type from one dimension code to another and from one dimension type to another.

TECHNOLOGY: High Contrast Skin

The high contrast skin can be activated by users who experience low vision, color-blindness, or similar visual impairments.

If the high contrast skin is active, LN UI is colored so that all controls comply with the WCAG AA norms for accessibility.

Guideline 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. For level AA, these exceptions apply:

  • Large text: large-scale text and images of large-scale text have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1.
  • Incidental: the following text or images of text have no contrast requirement:
    • Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component.
    • Text or images of text that are pure decoration.
    • Text or images of text that are not visible to anyone.
    • Text or images of text that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content.
  • Logotypes: text that is part of a logo or brand name has no minimum contrast requirement.

OPERATIONS: Blocking Operations

Note: The Blocked Operations (tisfc0540m000) session displays the blocked operations.

Introduction

Sometimes a problem occurs that must be solved before an operation proceeds. Examples of such situations are:

  • The quality of an intermediate product must first be inspected.
  • A machine is in repair.
  • A supplier cannot deliver an essential component in time.
  • A customer is late with its payments.

In these situations the operation can get the operation status Blocked.

An operation can be blocked:

  • Manually.
  • Automatically by Quality.

Blocking reasons

Every blocked operation must have a blocking reason. The blocking reason of a blocked operation has two purposes:

  • To indicate why the operation is blocked.
  • To determine which actions you can no longer perform on the operation.

Types of blocking

The following actions can be blocked by means of a blocking reason:

  • Reporting a quantity completed.
  • Reporting a quantity rejected.
  • Reporting a quantity to be inspected.
  • Reporting an operation completed.

You normally carry out these actions in the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session.

You can define blocking reasons in the Blocking Reasons (tisfc2100m000) session.

Manual blocking

Use the Report Operations Completed (tisfc0130m000) session to block an operation. When you block an operation, you must also enter a blocking reason. If Quality has already blocked the operation, you can only enter a blocking reason, which is more restrictive than the blocking reason of Quality.

Blocking by Quality Management

Quality uses the blocking reasons specified in the Quality Management Parameters (qmptc0100m000) session, to block operations. For details, see the Using QM for manufacturing operations topic.

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Kathy Barthelt

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