In LN, a supplier's reliability is no longer based only on correct deliveries. The vendor rating functionality of LN is based on various objective criteria and subjective criteria that can be used to calculate the vendor’s rating.

The set up procedure for analyzing suppliers has changed completely compared to Baan IV.  To execute the vendor rating process, users must update the vendor ratings in the Update Vendor Rating (tdpur8850m000) session.

If users update the vendor ratings, the following stages exist in the update vendor rating procedure:

1. Calculate actual weightings

2. Calculate ratings for objective criteria

3. Calculate ratings for subjective criteria

4. Update overall vendor rating

In Baan IV, this session is called Release Commissions/Rebates to Invoicing (tdcms2201m000) and is used to set the status of the commissions/rebates to Reserved, or Closed. In Infor LN, this session is only used to set the status to  Closed. Users can reserve commissions/rebates in the Reservation and Approval of Reserved Commissions/Rebates (tdcms2202m000) session. In addition, the following fields are added to the Release Commissions/Rebates to Invoicing (tdcms2201m000) session:

▪ Commissions to Accounts Payable

▪ Rebates to Central Invoicing

For years, repetitive manufacturing industries have been applying many of the principles in Just-in-Time philosophy. They have established balanced production lines that depend on a steady flow of material to each work station. They schedule production in daily or weekly rates rather than in discrete shop order lots. They track finished inventory by work center rather than by job. They typically backflush stock balances (decrement stock balances upon completion of specific manufacturing steps rather than issued at the beginning of each production run).

Costing is typically based upon a daily rate or hourly rate rather than being associated with specific shop orders. 

Repetitive manufacturers use MRP II software adaptable to their environments

in the following key areas:

▪ Product definition

▪ Inventory tracking

▪ MRP/Master Scheduling

▪ Shop Floor Control

▪ Purchasing

▪ Costing

Just-in-Time (JIT) is a management philosophy that focuses on minimizing the resources necessary to add value to your products and to operate your factory in ways that eliminate waste. Resources are labor, materials, equipment, space, and time. Waste is anything that does not add value to your products. Moving work-in-process from place to place, stacking and sorting, investing capital in large work-in-process and raw material inventories, inspecting materials at your vendors' sites, and tying up warehouse space with finished goods are all activities that add cost, not value, to your products. 

JIT is a process that reduces lead time. JIT does not replace an MRP, an inventory program, a scheduling technique to bypass your Master Schedule, or a materials management project. JIT is the never-ending commitment of everyone, from top management to your workers on the floor, to maximize your effectiveness through continuous, incremental improvements.

In LN, the configuration of a generic item not always results into a customized item. Configured items can now be customized items as well as standard items. If users configure items without PCS projects, standard items are generated instead of customized items.

The sessions for generating product variant structures for sales quotations and sales orders are moved from the Product Configuration module in Manufacturing to the Sales Control module in LN. The following new sessions are available in Sales Control:

▪ Generate (Budget) Structure for Sales Quotations (tdsls1201m100).

▪ Generate (Project) Structure for Sales Orders (tdsls4244m000)

To create and maintain shop orders use SFC500 Shop Order Entry Maintenance. These orders use the standard bill of material (BOM) as the base list of components. You can also set up standard routings, which list the operations,

or work steps, involved in manufacturing.

To release shop orders, use the Shop Order Release program, SFC505. Infor ERP LX groups shop orders by user ID for batch processing. Use Shop Packet Print, SFC520, to print the shop orders that you select. SFC530 allows you to create multi-level shop orders to link shop orders together with a common end item parent. Linking multiple shop orders together for a final assembly product provides support for make-to-order and engineer-to-order manufacturing environments which need to schedule these multiple orders together or as a vertical slice in the production schedule.

You can make changes to shop orders after you print them. Use Shop Order Entry/Maintenance, SFC500, to update the shop orders. Changes are immediately visible on the inquiry screens for SFC300 and SFC350. To reprint the shop packet, use Reprint Shop Packet, SFC560.

Service departments and warehouses that contain spare parts and components used for service and maintenance belong to enterprise units. To perform separate financial accounting for the service departments and their warehouses, you can assign service departments and warehouses to enterprise units that are linked to different financial companies.

If material, labor, or other costs are transferred between service departments and warehouses, or from one service department to another (in the case of internal subcontracting for depot repair), LN can perform the invoicing between these departments and warehouses. In the Enterprise Modeling Management module, you can define internal trade relationships with invoicing between various entities.

You can also record and process service operations in a multi-logistic company environment.

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-work days 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.