Please Wait a Moment
X

Infor LX Tips, Infor LN Tips, BPCS Tips, Baan Tips, Infor M3 Tips & Infor ERP News

Crossroads Connections

Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

Infor LX | Infor LN | BPCS | Baan | Infor M3

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Indirect Time Reporting

Anthony Etzel 0 59590 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 55959 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.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Setting Up New Employees in LN

Kathy Barthelt 0 55685 Article rating: No rating

In LN, the People package is used to register the employee’s hours and expenses. To support the People package, the Employees - General (tccom0101m000) session only contains the general employee data.

The title of the Employees - General (tccom0101m000) session was changed to Employees – General (tccom0101m000).

From the Employees - General (tccom0101m000) session, users can start the following sessions to define the more specific employee data:

  • Employees - People (bpmdm0101m000).
  • Employees - Project (tppdm8101m000).
  • Employees - Service (tsmdm1140m000).
  • Skills by Employee (tcppl0120m000).
  • Employees by Team (tcppl0150m000).
  • Roles by Employee (tcppl0170m000).

After users define the employees, users can also start the listed sessions from the Employees Dashboard (bpmdm0101m100) session in People.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Understanding What Goes On – Out on the Factory Floor

Anthony Etzel 0 59440 Article rating: No rating

Ok… so you want to know the status of a specific shop order that was released two days ago.

What do you do?

It’s a sure bet that you have a manager, supervisor, or planner who can walk the floor and find the order at whatever work center it happens to be at. He/she can then answer “what operations have been completed and how many were completed?” All this requires leg work, and of course, a fair amount of time.

Now, if you have setup your BPCS master files properly, and you report transaction activity, you should be able to get those shop order statuses much faster using the SFC300 Shop Order Inquiry Screen.

At your fingertips you can see:

  • Release date & due date
  • How many hours remain in total and at each operation
  • The quantity required, what was finished and the remaining quantity
  • What components (materials) have been issued

Pretty basic information, right? Are you getting what you need to know? If not, then you may want to reexamine how your BPCS files are setup and what transactions along with their frequency are captured.

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

Anthony Etzel 0 760 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.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Optionally Include Tax Amounts In Order Balance

Kathy Barthelt 0 1086 Article rating: No rating

In Baan IV, the order balance amount always includes the tax amount. Consequently, the tax amount must be recalculated every time an order line is modified in order to update the balance correctly. If the tax provider is activated, this requires an API call for every re-calculation of tax.

In Infor LN, users can select or clear the new Include Tax in Order Balance check box in the COM Parameters (tccom0000s000) session to indicate whether users want to include tax amounts in the order balance amount. This parameter has an effect on various sessions in Order Management.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: What is Lean Make to Order?

Anthony Etzel 0 1064 Article rating: No rating

This is a simple way to go from the customer order to making the order and shipping the order. It involves a few simple steps:

  1. Receive and enter the customer order
  2. Automatic credit review
  3. Automatic release of the shop order tied to the customer order
  4. Issue material, report labor to the production order receipt
  5. Pick the order, ship the order, invoice the customer

With lean, you can skip processing the demand through MRP. You can go directly from the customer order to the shop order creation.

First108109110111113115116117Last

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.

Last

Tips: LN | Baan

Is Your Infor ERP System the Elephant in the Room?

The Infor ERP Elephant in the Room That Must Be Addressed

In a recent survey of Infor ERP customers, we discovered that 50% of respondents said that they did not know whether or not their ERP system had the features and functionality required for their business.  50%....1 out of every 2……not good.

Why is this the case? Well, the causes can be traced back to one of the following reasons:

  • A key-person has retired or left the company and their knowledge left with them.
  • Systems were implemented based on how the previous system worked.
  • Upgrades and implementations were viewed as a “technical upgrade”, meaning that the upgrade was done to get off an old or outdated platform. All the new features and functionality weren't researched so they are unknown and no one could be trained on them.


You may say “So what? Who cares if our team doesn’t know what else is available, or how the rest of the ERP system functions? Does it really matter?” It matters more than you think.

If you rely on an Infor ERP system to get your job done, you need to not only know what sessions to run, what fields are required, and what reports provide results, you also need to understand how the transactions impact the rest of the system. Without that understanding, you are inadvertently creating a departmental silo which can have a negative impact on the performance of the ERP for the rest of the company. 

Not knowing the functionality of the ERP results in limited use of the system as a whole. In my 25 years working with ERP systems, I have seen many cases where a company becomes frustrated with the limitations of the system only to discover that they were only utilizing 10-20% of the ERP system's capabilities. The system didn’t impose the limitation…it was the use of the system, or shall I say the lack of it, that was the culprit.

To be competitive in today’s economy, an ERP system should be able to move in lockstep with a business as its needs change. In order for this to happen, the entire company needs to be willing to change too. Part of this change involves taking advantage of the best practices that are built into the Infor ERP system. If you're not sure how to do that - you are not alone! Fully understanding your Infor ERP requires a team of capable users in each key department of your organization to marry the capabilities of the ERP system with your business objectives. Sounds complicated? Well, it doesn't stop there. Your team of capable users needs to communicate between the key departments to make sure one department's procedures don't handicap any other department. Once this level of understanding and communication is established, decisions can be made to take advantage of the most effective way to minimize costs, increase efficiency, improve quality and deliver the highest level of customer service possible…everything you invested in the Infor ERP system for in the first place, is now unleashed.

Not sure where to start? Crossroads RMC's consultants have this exact expertise and the skills to get you through tough times. Our expertise comes from years of experience, and best practices to evaluate your business processes and identify areas where improvement is needed. Whether you need to increase the return on your ERP investment or have no idea what to do next, our comprehensive ROI business case, cost estimates, benefits, and a plan of action will supply you with the information you need to add value to your business.

Request a free phone consultation>  or contact us to learn how to get started> solutions@crossroadsrmc.com  |  800.762.2077

Print
31622 Rate this article:
5.0
Crossroads RMC

Crossroads RMCCrossroads RMC

Other posts by Crossroads RMC

Contact author

x

Categories