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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

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Cost Component Setup

Kathy Barthelt 0 46136 Article rating: 5.0

To break down an item’s standard cost, sales price, or valuation price, use cost components. With cost components, you can compare estimated and actual costs, calculate production variances, and analyze costs in Standard Cost Calculation.

If cost components are set up in a detailed way, detailed records...

Manual Processes Are Killing Your Productivity

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

Crossroads RMC 0 20438 Article rating: 5.0

Nearly 70% of workers say that the biggest opportunity of automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work.

Which repetitive tasks would workers most like to see automated? A recent study by McKinsey Global Institute found that there are three productivity killers that workers are eager to automate:

  1. Data Collection: Eliminate human error and manual data entry by automatically collecting, uploading, or syncing data into a system of record (55%).
  2. Approvals: Become more efficient by automating approvals, sign-offs, and confirmation requests (36%).
  3. Updates: Reduce wasted time by automatically requesting status updates and other information (32%).

Workers believe that automating these tasks will reduce wasted time (69%), eliminate human error (66%) and recover hours lost to manual, repetitive tasks that could be automated (59%).

Too expensive you say? Too big of an effort to make it happen?  Not necessarily...

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: Hold Status - Customer Orders

George Moroses 0 20677 Article rating: 5.0

How do I know which orders are on hold? – Pick Release / Pick Confirm

Orders that are on credit hold, customer hold, user hold, margin hold, credit card hold, or pricing hold cannot be selected for Pick Release or Pick Confirm. The ORD952B, Orders Not Selected Report, can be requested at Pick Release or Pick Confirm to list any order that would normally qualify for selection, but has been excluded for other reasons, and to print that reason. ORD952B has been modified to validate the hold status of the original customer order, instead of the intercompany automation warehouse order that is being processed, and to print a reference to the original customer order along with the reason.

Collaborate IN-PERSON With Infor LN Users

LN North America User Group - Face-to-Face 2022 (lnnaug.org)

Kathy Barthelt 0 23031 Article rating: 5.0

Exciting News - LN North America User Group Annual Meeting is Face-to-Face in 2022! (lnnaug.org)

Crossroads RMC is proud to sponsor the LN North American User Group Annual Meeting on April 19 & 20, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio.

Are you ready to collaborate IN PERSON with other Infor LN (ERP LN) customers? Would you like a chance to speak to Infor team members in Product Development, Product Management, and Software Development?

Then this FREE event is for you! 2 Full Days of learning sessions, customer stories, discussion groups, and networking. Join us!

To Register →

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Project Status Options

Kathy Barthelt 0 43998 Article rating: 5.0

Ever wonder what the implications are of choosing one project status versus another?

Here is the explanation of project status possible values:

Free
You can carry out project engineering. This means that you can:

  • Define the project master schedule (PMS) by using the Project Control module.
  • Maintain the project structure.
  • Maintain the customized product structure by using customized bills of material and routing sheets.
  • Carry out project estimating.

Simulated
You simulate the rough capacity requirements planning...

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: How Items Are Selected for a Cycle Count

George Moroses 0 22185 Article rating: 5.0

The Cycle Counting Sub-System Within Inventory Management

The system uses the following information as the basis for cycle counting selection:

  • Cycle Counts/Year: The system calculates the time between cycle counts based on your entry in this Item Master file field for each item (optional).
  • Last Cycle Count Date: This date is in the Location Inventory file, ILI, if you use locations, or in the Warehouse Inventory file, IWI, if you don't.

The system adds the time between cycle counts (calculated as described above) to this date. If the result is less than or equal to today's date, the item is selected for cycle counting. If it is greater than today's date, the item is not selected, it is not due yet for cycle counting.

There is another special condition that causes an item to be selected for cycle counting. If the ILI/IWI record of the item has a Y in the Cycle Flag field, the item is selected automatically. This flag indicates that the item's on-hand balance has gone to a negative value sometime since the last cycle count. That applies even if the value is not negative at selection time. The programs that can set this field are INV500D, INV510, and BIL540.

You can also limit the items selected for counting by specifying limits of the item numbers or warehouses to be searched.

Mitigating Risk With Your Infor ERP

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

Crossroads RMC 0 21003 Article rating: 5.0

MARCH… "in like a lion and out like a lamb"

Problems = Risk

Boy, it sure seems like we’ve seen our fair share of March “LIONS” over the past few years, wouldn’t you agree? Those lions have manifested mostly as external global problems outside of the control of any given person or manufacturing operation. As we know, problems = risk.

So, how do businesses respond to risk, specifically when it comes to their ERP system? We all deal with risks in our jobs every day. It is our response to the risk that makes all the difference. Creating short-term, midterm, and long-term response strategies ensure that a company can not only handle a fast-changing situation or emergency but also make the investments needed to seize opportunities and become more resilient.

To create these response strategies, manufacturers should examine:

  • How did we get here?
  • Where are we now?
  • Where are we headed?
  • What to do about it?

In order to really dig into each of these areas, our customers have successfully partnered with us to review a particular part of their business that they feel is at risk and sometimes have asked us to review everything…soup to nuts. This review is done through an ERP Utilization Review. In this review, we can dig into such things as...

Infor LN & Baan Tip: LN Order Management - Generating Purchase Receipts

Kathy Barthelt 0 45246 Article rating: 5.0

The purpose of the option to "Generate" is to insert purchase order lines automatically into the purchase receipt. As part of the automatic process, all receipt lines are also automatically confirmed. The option should be used when large orders are received.   

If necessary, received quantities that are not correct can be adjusted through session Correct Purchase Receipt (tdpur4106s100).

Alternative: From the purchase order lines menu the option...

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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.

Last

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt
/ Categories: Infor LN & Baan Tips

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Performance improvement by setting the First Free Number Cache (tcmcs0651m000)

Many transactions in all kinds of modules use order numbers or serial numbers. These order numbers are most often automatically generated. In the Number Groups (tcmcs0151m000) session you can define groups of order numbers used for dedicated areas. A Number Group is a group of the first free number series that you can assign to a specific use. All the numbers that Infor LN generates in the number groups that are dedicated to the same purpose are unique.

All the first free numbers are stored in the table tcmcs050.

As many different processes can request a free number from the number groups, we often see delays in the performance, due to locking on the first free number records. This locking issue can have a severe impact on the performance of huge batch-type transactions, but also on the performance perceived by individual users in many areas in LN.

For example:

  • Processing warehouse transactions. Single or in-batch
  • Completing / closing orders
  • Backflushing of production orders
  • Generate Order Planning
  • Cost calculation and warehouse revaluation


How this performance can be improved?

Resolution

In the Number Groups (tcmcs0151m000) session you can open the details of a specific Number Group (tcmcs0651m000) or start the session stand-alone.

In the Number Group, you define the Series with the related First Free Numbers. Per Serie in the First Free Number, you have the option to define the Cache Size.

This Cache size is defaulted on a value of 0 (zero). A cache size of zero means No Cache. How does the First Free Number caching works:

  • When the Cache Size is zero: With this setting a process requests a Free Number from the Serie and the first free number is issued to the process. But the first free number record is not updated yet. At the moment the requesting process is finished, without errors, it reports back that the number is used and the first free number record is updated. All the time that the process is working on the transactions the first free number record is locked. If another process is requesting a free number from the same series, it must wait (retries) until the record is updated and released by the previous process. This is the locking which is causing delays in the other processes.  
  • Setting the Cache Size to a higher value then zero activates the caching. When the Cache Size is set to 1 or higher, the requested free number is sent to the requesting process, the first free number is updated, with the number as defined in the Cache size, and the record is saved. It does not wait until the requesting process has reported back that is finished, with or without errors. In this way the record is immediately released and no locking will occur. If another process is requesting a free number, it does not need to wait until the free number record is released by the earlier process. If the process is ended with errors and therefor the number is not used, this number from the series is lost. This can result in gaps in the numbering. When the cache size is greater than 1, for example it is set to 5, the requesting process receives 5 free numbers. Even if it only needs less than 5. In this way the process only has to request for a new free number after it has used the first 5 numbers from the cache. This will also speedup the process in case of large batch transactions. For ‘warehouse integration users’, like for example Factory Track or WMS users we advise to set the cache size to 5.  

Note that financial documents are not based on number group series / first free numbers. Instead they are based on transaction type series, for which the caching functionality does not exist. Financial documents, like sales invoices, bank transactions, are thus not cached.

The caching is especially important to improve the performance of all logistical processes.

It is strongly recommended (mandatory) to set the Cache Size for all Number Groups to a minimum of 1.

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