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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

Tip of the Week: Create a Repeatable Process

Kathy Barthelt 0 70445 Article rating: No rating

If you’ve been successful doing something in the past, you want to keep doing it that way. Are your procedures documented? Do you have workflows defined? Would creating video tutorials be helpful, especially for new employees? Giving employees the tools to be successful helps to ensure the success of the business as a whole.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: 6 Powerful Steps to Win With Automation

Anthony Etzel 0 34278 Article rating: 5.0
  1. Eliminate paper shop packet and distribution of the paperwork to the shop floor.     
  2. Eliminate manual (paper-based) recording activities and the need to key in the transactions.
  3. Easy electronic scheduling by sequence and changing job priorities.
  4. Evaluate differences using actual times compared to standards.
  5. Improve data accuracy and eliminate the need to chase and fix errors.
  6. Practice Real-Time data reporting to monitor efficiencies and identify problems as they occur.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: 6 Powerful Steps to Win With Automation

Kathy Barthelt 0 53819 Article rating: No rating
  1. Eliminate paper shop packet and distribution of the paperwork to the shop floor.    
  2. Eliminate manual (paper-based) recording activities and the need to key in the transactions.
  3. Easy electronic scheduling by sequence and changing job priorities.
  4. Evaluate differences using actual times compared to standards.
  5. Improve data accuracy and eliminate the need to chase and fix errors.
  6. Practice Real-Time data reporting to monitor efficiencies and identify problems as they occur.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Purchase Inquiry

Kathy Barthelt 0 48734 Article rating: No rating

In Baan IV Purchase Control, the purchase inquiry procedure enables user to:

  • Request a specific supplier to submit a quotation on the purchase inquiry for the delivery of an item.
  • Compare the prices and discounts of the quotations that are submitted by different suppliers.
  • Copy the inquiry data to a purchase order.

In LN, you can:

  • Request multiple business partners to submit a quotation on a specific request-for-quotation for the delivery of an item.
  • Compare the received quotations based on the following criteria:
    1. Price
    2. Quantity
    3. Vendor rating
    4. Delivery dates
    5. RFQ subjective criteria
  • Copy the quotation data to a purchase order, a purchase contract, or a price book.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Using Pre-Assigned Lot Numbers

Anthony Etzel 0 27806 Article rating: 5.0

Some items in the manufacturing process may require a lot number. A quick and easy way to release the Shop Orders with lot numbers is by using the Multi-Level Shop Order Release.

Simply select the end item from the selection screen and use action 10 for the multi-level order release. At the bottom of the release screen is the field “Pre-Assign a Lot Number to Shop Orders”. Select 1 for the pre-assigned lot number assignment option.

This option will use the pre-assigned lot number on the shop order, if the lot number exists. If the lot number does not exist, the system will automatically create a lot number and assign it to the shop order for all items that are lot-controlled.

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Blonder Tongue Goes Live with Crossroads MES

Anthony Etzel 0 22302 Article rating: 5.0
Blonder Tongue Labs recently went live with the Crossroads MES solution over their current BPCS 6.0.4 environment. They selected the Crossroads MES solution for its shop floor management and reporting capabilities. Blonder Tongue is a leader in the field of cable-television communications products. They are planning an upgrade to LX and will expand the usage of Crossroads MES in the LX environment.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Financial Year End – Have You Done All You Need To Do?

Kathy Barthelt 0 53968 Article rating: 4.0

I'm reposting this checklist for things to consider in order to finish out the year, and plan for next year…

  • Are your accounting records up to date so that you can make a projection of how the current year will turn out?
  • Are all account reconciliations currently up to date to facilitate the closing of the books after year end?
  • Are there accounts receivable that should be reserved for or written off prior to the end of the year?
  • If your business carries inventory, do you need to plan a physical count as of the end of the year?
  • Has depreciation on your fixed assets been recorded during the year? Have you considered depreciation on current year additions?
  • Have all new asset purchases and bank loans been recorded on your books?
  • Are there any liabilities, for example, pending legal actions or warranty issues, which will need to be recorded prior to year end? 
  • Do you have a plan in place to properly “cut-off” revenue at year end to properly match revenue and expense?
  • Will there be bonuses, profit sharing contributions or discretionary retirement plan contributions paid prior to the end of the year? How will these payments affect cash flow?
  • Will you be in compliance with your bank covenants at year end?
  • Do you need to make arrangements to receive statements as of the end of the year for cash value of life insurance, loan balances, etc.?

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Additional Electronic Signature Controls

Anthony Etzel 0 30635 Article rating: No rating

Electronic Signature Controls have been expanded to include additional programs, files and fields.  

When manufacturing work centers are updated through Work Center Maintenance (CAP100), the system can now require Electronic Signature processing to complete the process. This enhancement allows for broader Electronic Signature controls.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

This enhancement provides additional views, additional order and line details, improved navigation, and additional capabilities to the IDF Customer Order Inquiry cards and to customer order-related business objects such as Allocations, Customer Invoices, Inventory Transaction History, Promotions, Drop Shipments.

Enhanced Order views based on user roles such as customer service, warehouse/logistics, salesperson/commission, data analysis/management reporting

  • Improved sort, select and filter capabilities
  • Enhanced navigation, data organization and data display
  • Improved customer service access to all transactions throughout the entire customer order life cycle – from quote to order, related invoices, and any RMAs, return orders, related credit memos
  • Improved grouping of related fields
  • New cards to present additional order and order line details
  • Consolidation of cards and card details when appropriate
  • Enhanced Display and Maintain capabilities for drillback to related customer, ship-to, item, carrier, terms, and other master file details
  • Improved display of dates, times and applicable time zones when Region Code time zone support is implemented
  • Multi language Description, Name and Address fields displayed in user’s language, if defined, else in base language

This enhancement provides search capabilities on segment value description in Segment Value List window (WINGSVD).

Segment Value List (WINGSVD):

  • Converted to a standard subfile
  • New action code 10=Search

This makes it easier to locate segment values when defining segment values in Model Account Builder or Alias definition. In addition, WINGSVD has been redesigned as a subfile to enable WebTop grid capabilities.

Last

Tips: LN | Baan

George Moroses

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: PowerLink

PowerLink is a Windows-based client for end-users within the Infor Development Framework (IDF). PowerLink allows exports/imports from/to the ERP database, but how much do you really know about it? Here is some helpful information about PowerLink.​

Why does PowerLink sometimes fail to export all records?
There's not a finite amount of records that PowerLink can export. However, PowerLink export was never intended to handle large volumes of data. It was designed as a quick snapshot of a fairly small subset and a simple view of the user's PowerLink card. 

What is the maximum amount of data that can be exported?
The maximum number of records is only limited by the system resource like memory, etc. When the system runs out of resources, an OutOfMemory error should occur. In previous testings, we have exported +1 million records, although the size of records differs greatly between business objects, the total size of the data could be an issue. For larger volumes of data, customers should investigate other tools such as the iSeries Access "Data Transfer from iSeries Server" feature to download directly to Excel.

How do I know if the size of the data is an issue?
1. When exporting to an external file (text, HTML) then importing to Excel: You can easily check the output (text, HTML) to see if the intermediate output has all the records. This can be done by visual inspection or through the use of column totals. Simply compare between the output and what you see in PowerLink. If the exported file has all the records, then the problem is definitely Excel.
2. When exporting to clipboard, then copy/paste to Excel: There is a clipboard export size limit that is controlled through client preferences. Check the exported data in the clipboard, and see if it contains all the records or only partial records due to the size limitation set in client preferences. If limited, change the client preferences using Customize from the Main browser > Preferences > Miscellaneous tab > Limit Clipboard Export, and try the export again. If the clipboard has all the records the problem is in Excel, which we don't have jurisdiction over.

Suggestions for improving the export process. 

  1. Reduce the number of columns seen in the view. This will serve to reduce the data being exported and may increase the number of records that can be exported. 
     
  2. Reduce the complexity of the view. If the view has one column that lives on a related object, then it has to build SQL behind the scenes to get that related record. If all of the columns come from a single business object, then the processing will be significantly faster.
     
  3. Export to HTML, which can be opened directly by Excel, Access, and many other programs. This reduces the processing of the export formatting because PowerLink needs only to put begin and end tags around each data element. This will also preserve column alignment when Excel or other programs open the file.
     
  4. Unless you are exporting a fairly small volume of data, export to a file, not clipboard. Clipboard is held in memory until the entire view is read, and records are written to the file as they are retrieved.
     

 Also see KB 1357068 for more information about testing your view.

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