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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 Manufacturing Tip: All About Routings

Kathy Barthelt 0 64988 Article rating: 4.0

The planning data for the method of manufacturing is defined in Routing. A routing consists of operations, with each operation identifying the last to be carried out in a work center and/or on a certain machine defined for a specific site.

Routings can be as follows:

  • Standard Routing - A generic routing that can be attached to multiple items
  • Item specific - A routing that is applied to one item
  • Network routing - A routing containing sequentially ordered operations and parallel operations
  • Order quantity dependent routing - A routing that is defined for a specific quantity of items

You use the Routing module to record routings for manufactured items. You can define the following:

Infor LX & BPCS Manufacturing Tip: Backward Scheduling

George Moroses 0 26910 Article rating: 5.0

Operations are automatically backward scheduled at shop order release time. The backward scheduling algorithm starts with the shop order due date and schedules each operation based upon the standard move and queue times in the routings and the number of days the job is expected to run at standard. The system calculates and stores the operation scheduled start date. The dates may be modified by the shop order maintenance program. The number of days that a job is expected to run an operation is dependent upon the available capacity for that work center and the total hours scheduled for that operation.

The backward scheduling algorithm also considers...

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: What is IDF and how could it make my life easier?

George Moroses 0 28475 Article rating: 5.0

The Infor Development Framework (IDF) re-architects the way a user interacts with the application. IDF provides an efficient, task-oriented process to view application information that is contained within Infor LX. IDF enables users to configure their view of the application data without modifying the core application and its supportability.

The examples below describe how users can configure their display of data and maximize overall productivity:

  • Arrange application information into multiple groupings and sequences that make sense for the job.
  • Hide information that does not apply to a particular job or task.
  • Filter records to show only the information that applies to the job or task that the user is performing.
  • Customize the information for an individual user, for a group of users, or for all users.
     

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Deleting Records

Kathy Barthelt 0 66351 Article rating: 5.0

To improve performance and reduce database growth, deleting records is highly effective. The disadvantage of deleting records is that data is no longer available. Usually, however, not all records need to be saved. For example, line activities are stored by warehouse. Normally, you do not need to keep these records. Therefore, after closing a warehouse order, line activities can be removed. The User's Guide for ERP LN Archiving and the corresponding Baan IV/V Guides describe several sessions you can use to delete old data. Other data such as items and business partners can be reviewed once in a while, after which you can delete the data you no longer need. For every order and contract table, a session is available to archive and delete old orders. In these sessions, you can specify several characteristics to select the orders to be removed, such as date or status. Run these sessions on a regular basis.

Are ERP System Blockages Thwarting Your Progress?

Kathy Barthelt 0 26722 Article rating: 5.0

After a week of blocking the Suez Canal, the now-famous cargo ship, Ever Given has been freed from the 27,000 cubic meters of sand and mud that were surrounding the ship. Supply chains are flowing again. I for one am very glad to hear that the ship has been freed since coffee, toilet paper and a whole host of other items were being held up! In all seriousness, it was and is a crisis that will have ripple effects on the global economy.

As I often do, I started to relate this crisis to the world of ERP that we live in. Although we are not responsible for dealing with a situation like what happened in the Suez Canal, we all deal with problems in our jobs every day. Some of these problems are small, and some are not so small. Some problems are caused by human error, some by prevailing winds that blow us in a particular direction, and some by circumstances out of our control. It is what we do about the problems we encounter that make all the difference. We could bury our heads and hope the problems somehow go away on their own, or we can take action and do something to bring about the change necessary to get past the blockage.

I see “blockages” every day in working with my customers. Sometimes it is a lack of understanding of best practices in a given department, or a reliance on tribal knowledge that determines how and why something is done in the system, or inefficient manual processes destroying a company’s efficiency, or hundreds (or thousands) of customizations standing in the way of an upgrade, or employees labeling an ERP system as “no longer a fit” when their company is only using 10% of the available functionality in the system.

So, maybe today we could focus on what it would take to remove the “blockage” that we have in our way. What benefits could we realize if we worked together to bring about incremental change? Could we actually get that upgrade done? Could we start operating based on industry-leading best practices? Could we increase our market share? Could we decrease our costs and boost our revenue? All of this is possible.

Contact me today so that we can begin to work together to solve the problems that stand in the way of your progress.

solutions@crossroadsrmc.com or 800.762.2077

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Broadcast message to users

Kathy Barthelt 0 66525 Article rating: 5.0

Did you know that you can send a broadcast message to users on the system? This is especially useful if you need users to exit their sessions, or in the event of system maintenance.   

  • For Baan IV users, see KB 22869250
  • For LN users, see KB 1830758

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: Product interface list, SYS635D

George Moroses 0 28348 Article rating: 5.0

Did you know?  Product interface list, SYS635D

This program creates a report that contains all interface program call records that were created for the Infor LX programs specified in the range on this screen. The report contains a line for each record found. The line displays the following information:

  • The name of an Infor LX program that contains a user exit to an add-on program
  • The interface point in the Infor LX program, that is, an identifier of the point in the program code where the user exit is requested
  • The execution sequence number of the record, because more than one add-on program can exist that can run from the same interface point
  • The add-on program to call at the interface point. The Add-on Product Interface file, ZXI, stores the records.

Access: Menu SYS

Infor LX & BPCS Finance Tip of the Week: Invoice Level Inquiries – ACR300D7

George Moroses 0 31612 Article rating: 5.0

Use the Invoice Level Inquiries program, ACR300D7, to perform online customer account receivable inquiries and to perform write-off transactions on open invoices. The inquiries display customer master file and credit information, open and closed invoices, debits, credits, payments, and dunning statuses. Additional detail information is available, such as original prefix and document number, customer order number, customer purchase order number, reason codes, and currency.

You can view closed items for a period specified in Transaction History System Parameters, SYS824D-01.

Open items are aged in one of five user-defined aging periods as defined in Accounts Receivable Parameters, ACR820D-01.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Data Sharing Methods (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Depending on the multicompany scenario you choose, an implementation team must decide whether or not tables must be logically linked or if data must be synchronized in another way to achieve availability of data across various companies. 

There are 3 ways in which data may be shared among companies. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each:

  1. Logical Table Linking - If two companies use the same physical data, the physical table exists, or is used, in only one company: the physical company. Each piece occurs only once: one instance of the same data. If the term logical table linking is used, users from multiple companies use a single physical instance of the data. If the company tables are on the same server, this can be accomplished by logical table linking. Access to specific data can be restricted, if required.

    • Advantages: Logical Table Linking takes place in real time; therefore, the moment a record is created or modified in one company, a record becomes available in all other linked companies as well. The setup and maintenance of logical table linking is easier than the setup and maintenance of data replication. Logical table linking is extremely reliable because this type of linking is independent of network connections and user interventions. 

    • Disadvantages: Table sharing implies that all attributes for a record are the same in all companies. Therefore, suppose you share the item table and, for a particular item in a company, the product class is XXX. In this case, in all other companies, the product class for this item must be XXX as well.

  2. Data Replication - In this situation, each company has exactly the same data, but each company has a unique copy of the data. The same piece of data exists in multiple (physical) places: multiple instances of the same data. The process to copy the data is called data replication.

    • Advantages: Rather than using table sharing by means of the logical linking of tables, you can replicate the content of tables between companies. The advantage is that, on company level, some (non-key) attributes of a record can differ by company. For example, if the bills of materials are replicated instead of shared, for each company, you can link a different warehouse to the bill of material. As a result, the bills of materials can be the same across all companies and only the warehouses differ. Using replication, you can also make only a subset of the records available in other companies. For example, if you replicate items between companies, in a sales company, for example, by means of the item group, you can only make end items available. In addition, you can replicate only a subset of items, for example, depending on the item group. Note that replication also requires that the referenced tables are replicated or shared.

    • Disadvantages: Replication is not in real time, and therefore, for processes that require real-time integrated data as the financial integration processes, replication is not an option. For replication, you also must take into account the sequence in which you replicate. First, you must replicate the child tables and then the parent tables, and therefore first the business partners and then the purchase contracts. During the replication process, the data must be frozen. This point is of particular importance if the replication process takes a lot of time.

  3. Manual Syncronization - If only a small number of records are the same between some companies, you can enter, maintain, and keep the records synchronized manually. Note that the more dynamic data is, the more difficult this process is. This solution is strictly procedural. Therefore, depending on the discipline of the users, the solution is error sensitive: data can be forgotten, updated too late, or typing errors may occur.

  • Advantages - The main advantage is the flexibility so that only the data that really must be shared can be kept synchronized. By manually keeping data synchronized, not all attributes of a record need to have the same value.

  • Disadvantages - The main disadvantage is that this method depends on user interaction. Therefore, the method depends on the user’s time - because the method is not a real time procedure and the user may forget to update the data - and users can make mistakes.

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