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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

OTTO Q&A from the Director of Planning & Technology at Champion Industries

George Moroses 0 30588 Article rating: 5.0

1.  How difficult is it to initially install OTTO?

Dead easy is the straight answer. We relied on you to install, and you installed in the predicted 1 hour.  

2.  Would you install it on a test system or on the production system?

Production system is another easy answer. I use OTTO as the ideal prototype when talking to business contacts about “add-on” products. It is non-invasive; it only reads data from our ERP files. I know the implementation is 100% safe because no ERP files are ever updated (read corrupted) by OTTO.

3.  How difficult was it to implement OTTO? Was there a negative impact on daily operations?

There is a learning curve involved in using any new tool that has value to add. OTTO implementation is very low on the impact scale, but I would strongly recommend that a prospective client plan on investing in education and practice. OTTO implementation is low impact. No valuable tool is “no impact”.

Click here to learn more about OTTO

Is the Crossroads Analytics Dashboard Product Better than Spreadsheets?

Crossroads RMC 0 33855 Article rating: 5.0

You bet it is!

The Analytics Dashboard allows you to take your data and configure it any way you’d like, all without touching your ERP system! 

Any number of reports can be generated with just a few mouse clicks. In addition, full color graphs are automatically generated to illustrate the data being presented. Paper reports and Excel spreadsheets are dated. With Analytics Dashboard, data is refreshed at the touch of a button. 

Analytics Dashboard for Infor LN & Baan >
Analytics Dashboard for Infor LN, BPCS, & M3 >

MES News: Current trends indicate plants and factories are seeking to improve...

George Moroses 0 36975 Article rating: 5.0

Current trends indicate plants and factories are seeking to improve internal flexibility, implement a common information platform, and deliver real-time information. MES supports a variety of lean concepts on the plant floor, including kanban, waste reduction, load balancing, etc.  It maximizes your existing investment in your ERP system while embracing lean initiatives.  Visit our Crossroads MES page to learn more.

Infor LX & BPCS Tip of the Week: Purge optional during Month/Period End - LX 8.4

George Moroses 0 57648 Article rating: 5.0

For various month/period end programs, the purge function is now optional.

Scope:

INV903, Inventory Month End Close, optionally purges both inventory records as well as customer invoices. Some applications already have a flag or option for purging (for example, ACP900) and other applications are stand-alone. If you do not want to purge, do not run these programs: Order Purge and Close, ORD900, Close Quotes, ORD930, and Delete RMAs, ORD935. Now there are options on whether to purge records during the month end or period end programs.

The Benefits include:

• Flag or option added to allow the user to decide whether to perform month-end function with or without purge.

• Allows for month-end processing without purge.

• Improves efficiency of month-end processing.

Impact:

This enhancement includes these programs or areas:

• INV903, Inventory Month End Close

• ACR900, A/R Period Close

• CST900, PRF900, SFC900 Shop Order Close

• PUR900, Purchasing Month End Close

Johnson Crushers Selects Crossroads RMC for LN 10.6 Data Collection

Kathy Barthelt 0 38034 Article rating: 5.0

Johnson Crushers International (JCI), a global leader in engineering and manufacturing full lines of cone crushers, horizontal and incline vibrating screens and track-mounted, portable and stationary crushing and screening plants, has selected Crossroads RMC’s Data Collection solution for their Infor LN 10.6 implementation. 

JCI’s main objectives with this project are to support their continued growth and enable a continuous improvement effort to drive additional value to the business. In phase 1 of this project, JCI will implement Crossroad RMC’s Labor Reporting and Maintain Receipts data collection applications. Go live is expected to occur in early Q1 of 2020.

Factors to considered when undertaking an ERP implementation or upgrade

Kathy Barthelt 0 38344 Article rating: 5.0

Things to consider when choosing your ERP Implementation Partner:

ERP Partner Value Add:

  • Proven track record
  • References
  • Focused on-time / on budget
  • Strategic partnership with Infor
  • Knowledge of extension products that are available for your ERP
  • Post-implementation – What does the partner bring to the table once the project is complete?

Project Management

  • Does your assigned project manager fit your needs?
  • Past project management experience with the same ERP
  • Project Management methodology
  • Project Plan development and style
  • Does the PM develop a realistic plan with clear objectives, timeline, and responsibilities?

 
Consulting Team Selection​

Need help figuring out if your organization is properly positioned for an implementation or upgrade? Contact Kathy Barthelt today. We can help to ensure that your organization is positioned for success.

  • Does my ERP Implementation partner have the team to support my project?
  • Resume review
  • Interview all candidates
  • Working knowledge of ERP system/version
  • Communication skills
  • Geographic location
    • Relative industry experience
    • Technical Viewpoint
    • Understanding of any enhancements made to your system and what the best approach to streamlining for future releases. Knowing the tools available to accomplish this task.

LN & Baan Tip of the Week: Inventory In Transit Report – 10.7

Kathy Barthelt 0 81377 Article rating: 5.0

A new In Transit Inventory report can be printed in the Print In Transit Inventory (whinr1410m300) session. The report provides an overview of company inventory that is on the move and not stored in a warehouse. This concerns only inventory that is transferred from one warehouse to another. Items that are shipped to, for example, customers or projects, or items that are issued to production lines or service departments are excluded.

The report shows item inventory quantities and values on warehouse transfer orders which are issued at the origin warehouse, but are not yet received in the destination warehouse. These open inter-warehouse transfer orders represent inventory that is loaded on trucks or other means of transport, or located at intermediate pooling points such as harbors and train stations.

The quantities and values are retrieved from the Item-Warehouse-Inventory Transactions and the Inventory Integration Transactions sessions.


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Kathy Barthelt
/ Categories: Infor LN & Baan Tips

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Considerations for Release to Warehousing for a Cost Item

When there are two Cost Items, one with Release to Warehousing applied and the other with Release to Warehousing not applied, upon approval of the Sales Order, the Cost Item that is released to Warehousing will go straight to Staged status, pending Shipment confirmation, while the Cost Item that is not released to Warehousing will be up for Sales Deliveries.

Apart from this main difference in functionality between having and not having this option to release to Warehousing checked, there are other impacts to consider. Below is some information gathered from various KBs related to the impact of having release to Warehousing applied (or not). KBs used as reference are listed as “– REF: KB XYZ”. Editing the checkbox “Release to Warehousing” itself If there is a Sales Order (in status Free is enough) for a Cost Item, the check box is not editable. As soon as all the Sales Orders for which the Item is involved are Closed (or Canceled or Deleted) the check box becomes editable again. – REF: KB 1439313 & KB 1613780 Simultaneous/separate release to Warehousing with Physical Items In a scenario where a Cost Item (that is released to Warehousing) and a physical Item are released to Warehousing separately, then the shipment confirmation of each of these Items will occur separately. If they are released simultaneously, the shipment of the Cost Item will not be processed unless and until the physical Item is ready to be shipped. – REF: KB 1449001 Note: Ensure a Warehouse is added to Order Lines to ensure Release to Warehousing Activity is applicable. – REF: KB 2229767 Invoicing

To invoice them separately or together, factors to consider are:

  • Composing Criteria, a list of fields that need to match to have a single invoice created – REF: KB 717977
  • Invoicing Methods (tcmcs0555m000) in the General tab, select Combine, for example, Shipments, to combine different Shipments of the same Sales Order into one Invoice. This Invoicing Method is also defined in
  • Invoice-to role of a Business Partner (tccom4112s000) in the Invoicing tab. – REF: KB 812637
  • For a Return Order where a Cost Item and a Physical Item were originally invoiced together, to invoice them together again, consider using Original Document type = Invoice and link the original Invoice to the Return Order. – REF: KB 2072847 

Note: Consider solution in KB 2108605 if Composing Criteria is met, yet still Credit Notes are not combined for a Return Sales Order copied from original Sales Order for one Physical Item and one Cost Item without release to Warehousing. 

ASN ASN cannot be generated for Purchase Order Lines with Cost Item if not released to Warehousing. – REF: KB 1548301 & KB 2111341 Intercompany Trade Intercompany Trade can be applied for a Cost Item that is released to Warehousing, as Intercompany Trade needs a Warehouse and a Department. – REF: KB 2112430 Customs Value Cost Items that are released to Warehousing that are handled via normal Sales Order Lines are considered as delivered goods and will get the customs value assigned like other Items being subject to warehouse handling. Cost Items handled on Shipment Lines as "Additional Cost" are not considered as delivered goods but as pure costs. The customs value of these shipment lines gets defaulted with a zero amount and cannot be modified. The same applies to additional costs on sales order lines. – REF: KB 1600847 Freight  Cost Items cannot be used for Freight handling. – REF: KB 1830170 Additional Cost

  • For automatically generated Additional Costs in Sales Orders, Cost Items that are released to Warehousing are not released to Warehousing. This is because automatic Additional Costs are always generated with 0 quantity, therefore only the amount is filled for these Lines, which leads to the Delivery Type being set to Sales and not Warehouse. As a result, delivery must take place in Sales module. – REF: KB 1995781
  • For Additional Cost Lines added to Shipment for Cost Items, refer to KB 2236856.

Intrastat Record When using Cost Items without release to Warehousing, there is no shipping data within Invoicing. Therefore, the corresponding Intrastat record cannot be found during the printing of the Invoice. To get the Invoice data filled on the Intrastat record, Cost Items with release to warehousing should be used. Otherwise, session Update Intrastat Transactions with Invoicing Data (tccom7271m100) should be ran to update the Invoicing data in Intrastat. – REF: KB 2005482

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