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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

The largest independent bottling company in the United States announced a successful Go Live

George Moroses 0 34808 Article rating: No rating

Polar Beverages, Inc. of Worcester MA has just announced a successful ‘Go Live' that brings their Adirondack Beverages division, in Scotia NY into a corporate environment running on the Infor LX platform. All business functions will be handled through the Infor LX platform, including Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Financials. 

In early 2017, 2 divisions of Polar in Worcester MA and Fitzgerald, GA began utilizing Infor LX. Crossroads RMC partnered with Polar by providing technical and application support throughout the duration of the project.

Is it time to reinvigorate your ERP system?

Crossroads RMC 0 36470 Article rating: 5.0

Did you implement your ERP system 5 years ago… or maybe 20 years ago? At the time, it was like a brand new car… sleek, fast, top-of-the-line, and fuel-efficient. And although it may have needed a few minor “adjustments”, overall you were very pleased. Fast forward to today. Does it still have that new car smell? Does it run as efficiently as it used to? Do you know how to fix a problem when it occurs?

While ERP systems are certainly designed to last, over time, your business changes, your customers’ needs change, employees change and you are left with a system that may run “fine”, but you certainly don’t feel the same way about it as you did when it was brand new.

So the good news is that you CAN restore that “new car smell” with a utilization review. What is a utilization review? It's an opportunity for someone, outside of your organization, to evaluate the “what”, “how”, “who” and “why” related to the software that you use to run your business. Our consultant reviews current usage and related business processes of your entire ERP system, or a particular area like Finance, Manufacturing, Materials Management, or Technology to make recommendations that will reinvigorate your ERP system and those that use it.

Stop avoiding the warning light that indicates a serious problem and get started with a FREE 1-hour phone assessment to determine if your business can benefit from a utilization review!

Request Free Assessment>

A utilization review can be performed 100% remotely via phone or web meeting, or in person, following safety guidelines. 

4 Tips to Enhancing Productivity in Manufacturing

by Robotics & Automation News

Crossroads RMC 0 43931 Article rating: 5.0

Regardless of the size of your business, continuous improvement in productivity is essential to enhancing gross profits and maintaining competitiveness.

Here are a few of the best tips to help you improve the productivity of your manufacturing facility as presented by Robotics and Automation News >

Infor M3 Webinar: Consumer Use Tax 101: What's all the fuss about for manufacturers and distributors?

Frank Petrasio 0 36276 Article rating: 5.0

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

Date/Time: Wednesday, October 14th 10:00 a.m. CDT / 11:00 a.m. EDT
Topic: Consumer Use Tax 101: What's all the fuss about for manufacturers and distributors?

Your business makes a purchase and you notice the seller doesn’t collect sales tax. So it must be tax free, right? Wrong. Consumer use tax may still apply, and if you’re not actively tracking use tax obligations, you could be making a costly mistake.

Put simply, use tax is owed on a purchase when the seller does not collect sales tax, or when the use of the product/service (or the location of consumption) results in more tax being owed. Sound complicated? It is, and that’s what makes use tax one of the most mismanaged compliance issues for businesses.

We brought in our partners at Avalara to dive in. For this session, learn more about consumer use tax, what it is, and when your business may be on the hook to pay it.

  • The events that can trigger consumer use tax requirements
  • The most common consumer use tax management challenges
  • The impact of economic nexus laws on consumer use tax
  • How your business can step up compliance to avoid being audited


This will be one ‘use-ful’ webinar that you won’t want to miss!

Register Today>

Infor M3 & Movex Tip of the Week: What inbound and outbound BODs are available for M3?

Frank Petrasio 0 31606 Article rating: 5.0

Outbound BODs from M3 to integrated applications
This table shows the BODs that are available with Infor M3. Where the product column is blank, the BOD is not currently used by interfacing products, but the BOD is generated by M3 and is available to be processed through ION and any application that is set up to receive it.

Read the full list of outbound and inbound BODs from M3 to integrated applications>

Infor LN & Baan Tip of the Week: What is Included with Infor Operating Service (Infor OS)?

Kathy Barthelt 0 76741 Article rating: 5.0

Infor Operating Service (OS) is a technology platform that supports fully integrated, industry-specific solution suites with mobile-first design, a consumer-inspired user experience, and science-driven analytics. It leverages the convergence of information, analytics, cloud computing, mobility, and social business.

This platform includes these products:

•    Infor Ming.le
•    Infor ION CE
•    ION Messaging Service (IMS)
•    Infor Data Lake
•    Infor Document Management
•    Infor Localization Services Platform (LSP)
•    Infor Localization Services

Read OS overview>

Infor LX & BPCS Tip of the Week: Installing WebTop Over LX

George Moroses 0 34322 Article rating: 5.0

If you plan to use Infor WebTop, the WebTop version 4.7 or above is required when running LX 8.4. Also, acquire and install the latest WebTop 4.7 patches from Infor Xtreme prior to running LX WebTop. WebTop 4.7 can be applied to your existing environments before you install 8.4.0. If this is completed before installing LX 8.4 then the LX install will take care of much of the Webtop server configuration automatically, including installing the LX Webtop metadata, updating WEB_ENV, and including the Webtop Platform library in the INLIBL data area as part of the environment setup. If you choose to install WebTop after the LX 8.4 installation is completed, the “Infor LX 8.4 Webtop 4.7 Configuration Guide” will guide you through all the configuration steps to set up Webtop for your LX environment.

LN & Baan Data Collection News – A BUSY 2nd Quarter for Crossroads RMC Data Collection!

Kathy Barthelt 0 40103 Article rating: 5.0

Crossroads RMC’s data collection implementation team was busy during the 2nd quarter of 2020 with 3 simultaneous go lives!
 

  1. FSB North America went live with Crossroads RMC's entire suite of warehouse management Data Collection applications for LN FP7
  2. Johnson Crushers International went live with Labor Reporting and Report Operations Complete for LN 10.6
  3. CTP/Tube Processing went live with Material Issue for LN FP6.
     

All installations included Crossroads RMC’s Analytics Dashboard which will be implemented to provide valuable insights into the data collection transactions performed in the warehouse and shop floor. 

Learn more about LN/Baan Data Collection - Web Collect (formerly RMC3) >
Learn more about Analytics Dashboard >

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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

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Manufacturing Tip: Performance Problems in Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000)

When the Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000) session is run it can take minutes to days to finish the process.

The performance of this session depends on many settings, like the number of plan items, the number of orders, but it also depends on hardware and database setup.

Here are some guidelines on how performance can be improved.

  • Be sure you are always on the latest solutions with the planning sessions. We are constantly improving the software to gain more speed in the Enterprise Planning (EP) sessions.
  • The number of planned items is critical. Try to reduce the number of planned items. Is it necessary that all items be planned via EP? For shop floor stock the TPOP or SIC replenish systems are often more suitable.
  • When you use PCS, be sure to close the projects when they are finished. When a PCS project has status Closed, the customized items will not be planned.

It's better to run Remove Plan Items for closed Projects (cprpd1220m000). This session removes the item planning data for customized items of closed projects.

  • If you run EP with the option, Also Generate Item Master Plan and/or Online Update Item Master Plan, consider if you need an Item Master Plan for all plan items. An Item Master Plan is usually meant for global long-term planning. Again this is not very useful for shop floor stock. Reducing the number of master-planned items improves performance.
  • When you use Resource Master Plans; are all your resources really critical? If a work center is not critical do not create a Resource Master Plan for it.
  • When using Item Master Plans and/or Resource Master Plans, set in Scenarios (cprpd4100m000) the total scenario length as short as possible. For example, if your sales order horizon is 2 years, a scenario end date which is 3 years after the current date is sufficient. During the calculations of the Item Master Plan and the Resource Master, all periods defined in the scenario are checked and calculated. So if you have the end date of the scenario on 2038, EP will do the calculations (for every master-planned item) until 2038.

Defining a rolling scenario will keep your scenario length constant and you don’t have to worry that you run beyond your scenario's end date.

  • Updating the pegging relations has a serious impact on the EP performance. In EP Parameters (cprpd0100m000) you can set the Pegging Horizon in days. Keep this horizon as short as possible. The Update Signals by Item/Planner option also has some impact, but less than the pegging.
  • EP uses the so-called phase numbers to detect the lowest level in which an item is used within a BOM structure or in a supplying relation. If the phase numbers are not ‘up-to-date’, EP will correct the phase numbers during the planning. This takes time during the planning run. If there are loops in BOMs or in supplying relations, this recalculation has a big impact on the performance. Therefore you could run Compute Phase Numbers (cprpd6200m000) on a regular basis. For example once a month. Always run this session with the Generate Report option selected. If loops are detected these are reported. Be sure to solve all the reported errors.
  • When unexpected results occur, especially when the data is imported from external packages, always check the number of records in tables cprpd100 and cprpd120. The number of records should match! Remark: From 10.4 onwards the table cprpd120 has become obsolete so this point not applicable anymore.
  • The number of calendars also impacts planning performance. Then for every warehouse, work center, or BP, and so on, a different calendar is defined. Planning has to read all of these calendars from start to end. This can have a huge impact on performance.
    • If you link a calendar to a work center or warehouse, avoid defining a new calendar for every work center/warehouse. Try to link the same calendar to more than one department.
    • Define the start of the calendar close to the start date of the scenario. For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the start date of the scenario is 365 days in the past. So a start date for your calendar could be 01-07-2012.
    • Define the end date of the calendar not too far in the future. Depending on the end date of the scenario you could use 5 years ahead.  For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the end date of the scenario is 3 years in the future. So an end date for your calendar could be 01-07-2022. Do not define an end date past 19-01-2038, which is the last UTC date Infor LN can handle.

Also, the interaction with the database can have a big impact on performance. 
A commonly used way to improve the total run time of the EP run is to start the session in parallel processing. 
See also Knowledge Base Article 22881401 Performance, Tracing and tuning Guide, for more details.

These guidelines are just some hints, and a good starting point because performance is a complex issue.

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