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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

Don’t Let Malware Destroy Your ERP System!

Crossroads RMC 0 23662 Article rating: 5.0

We just got a report that another one of our customers has been affected by malware. In this case it wiped out their ERP server. We are working with them to restore it an get everything up and running again. It is highly likely that this got into their network by an email attachment. This seemed like a good opportunity to remind everyone to be extremely careful with email attachments. Even if it appears to be from someone that you know, email “From” addresses can be forged.

Best practice is to save the attachment to a folder, and run a virus scan before opening or viewing the file.

Baan/LN Tip: Credit Control Parameters (ACR Parameters)

Kathy Barthelt 0 80471 Article rating: 5.0

In the Credit Control Parameters, you can indicate if the same letter will be sent for reminding and action taken if amounts are zero or negative. The reminder letters work in conjunction with overdue sales invoices and the “Reminder Diary Margin.” When an invoice has passed its due date plus a certain margin of days, LN generates a reminder advice for the invoice. 

Crossroads Welcomes Ridewell Corporation – MES for Infor LX

Anthony Etzel 0 27227 Article rating: 5.0

Crossroads RMC welcomes Ridewell Corporation as our newest client having selected Crossroads MES (Manufacturing Execution System) for their shop floor automation with integration to Infor LX. 

Ridewell engineers and manufactures air-ride, rubber-ride, steel spring and mechanical suspension systems for the truck, trailer, RV and bus industries. The company has served the transportation industry since 1967 and holds many active patents for exclusive features that provide for low maintenance and superior ride quality.

Ridewell’s objective was to eliminate shop floor paperwork and manual processes, obtain real time performance metrics, and achieve greater visibility over manufacturing operations. After carefully conducting their due diligence they selected Crossroads MES to address these challenges.

Crossroads Manufacturing Execution System connects your manufacturing plant to the rest of your enterprise by using touch screen PCs on the shop floor. Powered by IBM I Power Systems, Crossroads MES fills the gap that exists between your ERP system and your lean manufacturing initiatives by modernizing and transforming the ERP experience. It delivers paperless shop packets to your entire workforce, captures live manufacturing data, and then delivers real-time status to your Tablet or PC.

Key Features include:

  • Paperless Shop Floor                               
  • Labor and Machine Time
  • Production Reporting
  • Material Issue
  • Scrap Reporting
  • Scheduling
  • Capacity Load Balancing
  • Label Integration
  • Dashboard Analytics                    

Crossroads MES provides information that helps manufacturing decision makers understand how current conditions on the plant floor can be optimized to improve production output.

Crossroads RMC is proud to have Ridewell Corporation as a client and we look forward to working together to support their company growth and success.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Shelf Life Days and Retest Days

Anthony Etzel 0 55943 Article rating: 5.0

This feature provides the ability to enter information in the shelf life days and retest days fields for non-QMS lot controlled items, even when the QMS product is installed. The purpose of this enhancement is to allow the user to enter information for non-QMS lot controlled items even when QMS is activated in Parameters Generation, SYS800D. In previous versions, when QMS was activated, the Shelf Life Days and Retest Days fields in Facility Planning Maintenance (MRP140) and Item Master Maintenance (INV100) were not maintainable for non-QMS lot controlled items. The user is now able to change non-QMS lot controlled items even when a QMS product is installed.

Baan & LN Integration News: Playing Telephone Can Get You In Trouble

Kathy Barthelt 0 34363 Article rating: 5.0

Somehow information must be relayed from one person to another, and the “connection” (as it turns out) is pretty manual, and error prone.

How about moving into the 21st century and eliminate the manual effort. How about automating your integrations? Learn About Crossroads RMC Consulting

We have tied Baan and Infor LN to:

  • Warranty systems
  • CRM systems
  • Web portals
  • Automated batch picking systems, and so much more!

Contact me to find out how we can automate the communication between your systems, so you don’t have to worry about what got lost in translation.

Baan/LN Tip: New Mapping Scheme

Kathy Barthelt 0 81754 Article rating: 5.0
After a new mapping scheme is copied from an existing one, it is possible to check transactions in a simulation mode, before activating the new scheme. However, before the simulation can take place, the new mapping scheme needs to have completed the “Check Mapping Scheme” step. When the check is completed, a transaction can be simulated by highlighting it and from the Specific menu, selecting “Map with Specific Mapping Scheme.” Any errors can be corrected without having to activate the new mapping scheme.

Anthony Etzel- Featured Speaker at inPower 2019

Anthony Etzel 0 28465 Article rating: 4.5

Infor IDF is replacing green screens for inquiries and release LX 8.4 for file maintenance. This session will show you how to use IDF over your non-LX file. 
 

Many Companies have IDF and are not effectively using it. This session will cover:

  • Building a business object (Intergrator) 
    • How to create a logical expression
    • How to make a field a maintainable field with IDF
  • Views 
    • How to create custom views
    • How to navigate in IDF and create search subsets

Pushing Forward In the Face of Adversity. Soundview recently suffered a major loss when fire struck on January 30, 2019.

Crossroads RMC 0 22578 Article rating: 5.0

Soundview Paper lost their main building when disaster struck. This building housed offices, their computer center and part of their manufacturing facility. The loss including hardware, networks, system data backups, etc. Crossroads RMC was contacted immediately to assist in the recovery of their BPCS V6 system. With limited backups and a full team effort, Crossroads RMC assisted in the acquisition of new hardware and are currently in the midst of helping to bring their system back to life. Soundview has secured support from various partners to make all this happen, and we are privileged to be part of the team. A lot of work has been done so far, but we have a long road ahead. Users will soon regain access by the end of this week,  and as required, Crossroads RMC will provide the necessary consulting support from our LX team to get Soundview back up and running. We are communicating with them daily, as we work thru this process.

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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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Kathy Barthelt

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