Just a refresher on a tip I’ve shared previously from supply Chain Technology Bulletin regarding how to attain greater inventory accuracy. I thought it would be worthwhile to share again:

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.

When to use a user-defined inventory transaction

ERP LX (BPCS) provides you with the flexibility to create inventory transactions without program modifications. The typical transaction types are defined with effects set on how the transaction will impact inventory balances.

Perhaps you want to process a customer return and don’t want the inventory to be impacted. You can create a user define transaction effect to allow the customer receipt and not update the inventory balance.

• Print Sales Order History Information
  • all invoices processed through sales
• Check Inventory Valuation
  • this should tie out to your inventory accounts
• Print Integration Information
  • see all postings from WIP to finished goods
• Print G/L Transaction Information
  • print specific transaction types for any GL account
• Print Lot Control Information
  • will show where serial numbers were used

One common GRINYA issue would be incorrectly entered Integration Setups.

Check the Baan or Infor 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.

Is Lot Control necessary?

Certain industries require lot control, where others may find it an option based on how they want to trace the material used in a product in the event of a defect, or recall.

LX provides tight lot controls and flexibility with lot number assignments. Shop orders can have a pre-assigned lot number, or a lot number can be automatically assigned when the item is produced. You can also assign a specific lot number for the entire shop order, or for each item/quantity reported against a shop order.

The best way is to have the approved alternate item appear on the Bill of Material just after the standard item with a zero required quantity. Now the alternate item will appear on the Shop Order. So, if the standard item is not available, the alternate item can be issued to the shop order.

When the shop order is closed out, one item will have an unfavorable variance while the other shows a favorable variance. This is an easy way to provide alternate items provided engineering approves and they are part of the Bill of Material.

If Location Control is turned on in Baan IV, then inventory should never be negative.

If Location Control is not turned on in Baan IV, and the parameter “Negative Inventory Allowed” in INV Parameters is set to “NO”, then inventory should never be negative.

In Baan V and LN, the parameters in Inventory Handling Parameters determine whether you can have negative inventory. If these parameters are set to “NO”, then inventory should never be negative.

When to use a user defined inventory transaction

ERP LX (BPCS) provides you with the flexibility to create inventory transactions without program modifications. The typical transaction types are defined with effects set on how the transaction will impact inventory balances.

Perhaps you want to process a customer return and don’t want to the inventory to be impacted. You can create a user define transaction effect to allow the customer receipt and not update the inventory balance.