Infor ERP Tips and Infor ERP News for Infor LX, BPCS, Infor ERP LX, Infor LN, Infor ERP LN, Baan, Infor M3, and Movex

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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: Important Porting Set Announcement (all versions of LN & Baan)

Kathy Barthelt 0 84542 Article rating: 5.0

There has been a recent porting set change due to Infor’s Product Life Cycle Policy.  

How to determine the maintenance stage of an Infor LN product version and release

Before a customer starts deploying Porting Set 9.4a or a later release, they must determine the actual maintenance stage of their Baan / Infor LN product. The definition of the maintenance stages for the product versions and releases of all versions of Baan and Infor LN are outlined in the Product Support schedule as published in the PLC policy. The maintenance stage of the ERP version is either “Mainstream Maintenance”, “Extended Maintenance” or “Sustaining Maintenance”.

How to manage Porting Set updates

The following conditions apply to customers who intend to upgrade to Porting Set 9.4a or later Porting Set releases:

Are You Running Your IT Department, or is IT Running You?

Crossroads RMC 0 29393 Article rating: 5.0

It's hard to efficiently manage your ERP system and support the users who rely on it every day when you are spending all your time running your manufacturing business. We get it and want you to know you are not alone. 

Are you able to answer any of these questions?

  1. How much available disk space is there on my ERP system box?
  2. What happens when users encounter an error in the ERP system?
  3. How are new employees being brought up to speed on ERP functionality?
  4. What needs to be done to ensure optimal performance of our ERP system?

If you don’t know all the answers that's because it's not easy to be the ERP guru of a company AND successfully stay on top of everything that is necessary to keep your business systems running efficiently and effectively. So, this begs the question…why do it? ....

Don't laugh - the average lifespan of an ERP system is 7-10 years

Crossroads RMC 0 40228 Article rating: 5.0

Don’t laugh! I know, I know…many of our customers say that after 7-10 years they are finally settling in after the implementation! We have seen many a customer stretch out the lifespan of their ERP system to 20+ years. That sounds great for the company’s bank account, but is it good for the business?

An outdated ERP system hurts your business in many ways, not just with slow performance. The best-of-breed functionality is now 2 decades old, and obsolete technology can't leverage newer technology. Lack of integration leads to siloed data that hurts communication and your internal teams feel the pain, and your customers are noticing. Poor visibility into your operations makes it nearly impossible to achieve industry-based regulatory compliance and meet financial auditing requirements. Not to mention the sheer size of Big Data that is being collected today vs. 2 decades ago or the fact that your vendor is no longer supporting your ERP version.

Let’s scrap it all and start over!...

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Purchase Order Text

Kathy Barthelt 0 80119 Article rating: 5.0

Is the text linked to the purchase order just an information field? Could it be used for another purpose?

The text editor is just an information field when linked to the purchase order line and there is no other logic behind this functionality. The line text or the header text could be a part of the printed document. When you add text to a purchase order line you are creating a unique code that links the purchase order line (Baan - tdpur041/ LN - tdpur401) to the text (tttxt010).

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: Vendor Terms Maintenance, ACP160D1

George Moroses 0 38508 Article rating: 5.0

This program allows maintenance of vendor terms, which you individually assign to each vendor. Vendor terms designate the due date and the discount date as a number of days after the invoice date. You establish the discount percentage here. Vendor terms are stored in the AVT file. Rather than use the method specified above, you can override due dates and discount dates so those calendar days are used to age invoices.

Access: Menu ACP02

Infor LN & Baan: BIG DATA - Keeping Track of Key Metrics

Kathy Barthelt 0 124747 Article rating: 5.0

In order to communicate effectively as a team, everyone needs to speak the same language and operate off the same playbook. If decisions are made based on the data or the view of data that individuals are maintaining through their own spreadsheets or other data silos, then communication is negatively impacted.

Manufacturers need to review large amounts of data every day, making it difficult to keep track of key metrics within your department.

That’s where Crossroads RMC’s Analytics Dashboard solution comes in. Our Analytics Dashboard was developed to make tasks easier by putting all of the key information in one convenient location so you can view all of your crucial data in real-time. 

With powerful dashboards, you can...

Infor LX & BPCS: Waste in Manufacturing

George Moroses 0 33271 Article rating: 5.0

In manufacturing, waste is anything that doesn’t add value to or benefit the end customer. Reducing waste enables manufacturers to save money and increase productivity. Where is the waste happening in your processes?

How often is your department spending time and resources on the following tasks?...

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

It’s NOT All About the Money, Money, Money… Motivating Employees in the New Year!

Have you ever thought about what really motivates your employees?

It’s not about the almighty dollar, you know. Ok, ok…..money doesn’t hurt, but money alone doesn’t keep most people in their jobs. You actually need to motivate your employees to keep them showing up, mentally, and physically. Employees that don’t feel motivated are probably underperforming, and that means you’re losing money.

Ask yourself these questions about your employees:

  • Are they happy…..YES….HAPPY! Do they enjoy coming to work every day?
  • Do they feel challenged, or do they feel demeaned?
  • Are they sinking, or are they swimming?
  • Do they have the right tools in their arsenal to battle the giants?
  • Where’s the reward?

Happiness - I’ve worked with manufacturers for almost 20 years now, and I’ve seen employees who are fulfilled and very happy in their jobs, and employees who count the seconds until they leave each day. Happiness is a choice, but certainly, you as an employer can have a big impact on how happy your employees are. Happiness can be found when employees feel that what they do has a purpose. Do they understand that the part that they are making is used in the production of sophisticated medical equipment that saves lives? Or protects families from getting hurt in a car accident? Having the end customer in mind gives purpose to their work. Having a purpose can make people happy.  

Challenge – Are your employees given any incentive for process improvement? You are not blessed with the perfect mind. All brilliant ideas do not come from you. The lowest man/woman on the totem pole may have the next best idea for your business. Encourage them to bring those ideas forward. Do they have a path for growth that is clearly defined? If you’re never looking for more from your employees, they probably won’t give it to you.

Sink or Swim - When an employee makes a mistake, do you reprimand or punish them? Instead, how about teaching them? Explain to them how things could be done differently next time and provide some guidance and reassurance that they can and will do better.  A pat on the back when they do it right the second time doesn’t hurt either.

Tools – Have you thought about what you need to provide for your employees to make them successful? Do they need training? Or maybe retraining? Would they benefit from being paired with a mentor? How about their physical tools? Is the machinery and software up to snuff? Are they being held back by outdated software and manual processes?

Reward – So, yes, you need to pay your employees fairly, but there are more rewards to be had. Increased responsibility is a great one (make sure you give them the title that goes with it). Designate an employee of the month and announce their great work to everyone in the company. Give employees an opportunity to attend a conference or a workshop which will benefit them and the company. Send a hard-working employee a handwritten note letting them know that you noticed their efforts.  Reward the little things and boost morale.

Sorry, I know this is a lot, but employee motivation is YOUR problem, or shall I say… your opportunity to make them happy and more productive. 

Here are 5 ways you can motivate your employees to give their best every day:

1. Train Your Employees

2. Give Your Employees the Right Tools

3. Automate Processes

4. Give Your Employees Real-Time Feedback

5. Provide Incentives to Do More

For more ideas, read this article from the Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2016/01/to-motivate-employees-do-3-things-well.
 

Can you do it? Of course, you can! You don’t have to do it all by yourself, however. Companies like Crossroads RMC can assist. We provide training services that can be completely tailored to your business. We also provide software solutions to help automate many of your manual processes, and dashboard solutions to provide real-time feedback on performance.

If you choose to do this, the benefits to your company will be amazing. You will have a happy, loyal, and prepared workforce, ready to come to work each day to make the company wildly successful. Something to think about as we start a new year.

I’m looking forward to working with you to make the new year great!
 

About the author:
 



Kathy Barthelt is the vice president of  Crossroads RMC, which helps optimize manufacturing systems. She cares deeply about bringing the human side into manufacturing. One can often find her writing and speaking about stress and shop floor workers, job skill, or employee motivation and production improvement. You can find even more insights from her past blog posts.

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