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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

What does OTTO do that finite scheduling doesn’t?

Anthony Etzel 0 36557 Article rating: 5.0

Finite scheduling identifies what constraints need to be overcome and it provides the best schedule given the constraints. But the objective is not only to overcome or remove the constraint but to prevent the constraint from even occurring. Only people can anticipate and overcome current constraints, and this requires time for analysis and people to apply their knowledge to the data. OTTO removes the non-value-added tasks of extracting and manipulating data and provides visibility to support people in solving near-term, complex problems. 

Crossroads RMC welcomes MBL (USA) Corporation

Anthony Etzel 0 35831 Article rating: 5.0

Crossroads RMC welcomes MBL (USA) Corporation as our newest Data Collection and Warehouse Management client.

MBL (USA) Corporation, with headquarters located in Ottawa, Illinois, manufactures all types of V-Belts, V-Ribbed Belts, Timing Belts, and Variable Speed Belts for both original equipment and service parts in the automotive, recreational, and industrial markets. In addition to supplying North, Central and South America markets, products are exported to countries worldwide. Their corporate parent is Mitsuboshi Belting LTD located in Japan.

MBL (USA) Corporation’s objective was to improve inventory visibility, eliminate paperwork, and use a bar code scanning solution to manage warehouse inventory and eliminate the manual process for inventory warehouse transactions.

Our discovery was able to highlight improvements to streamline the process in the warehouse and improve inventory visibility. Crossroads RMC is a reseller and support partner for TouchPath Warehouse Management which is integrated to MBL (USA) Corporation’s ERP/LX software. TouchPath Warehouse Management provides the insight into your inventory and the warehouse management tools to help you increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs.

We are proud to have MBL (USA) Corporation as our newest client and look forward to being a strategic partner and support their company growth and success.

Infor LX & BPCS Tip of the Week: Inventory Transfers for Outside Operations

Anthony Etzel 0 64734 Article rating: 5.0

This enhancement allows users who currently perform outside operation processing in shop floor programs to manage the transfer of components used in the outside operations to the vendor’s designated warehouse.

This enhancement provides modified and new INV511D screens and adds new logic to allow the user to identify all shop orders that have components linked to outside operations or to identify all the components linked to an outside operation on a shop order. The shop orders can be filtered by either a date range or by a specific vendor.

Inventory Transfers for Outside Operations enhances the management of external operations by providing screens that simplify the selection of the shop orders or items to transfer to a vendor.

Transfers to the vendor warehouse are performed in the Inventory Transfers, INV511D, screens.

Infor LX / BPCS Tip of the Week: Optional Authority to Maintain Reason Codes

Anthony Etzel 0 60950 Article rating: 5.0

This enhancement allows users to update Reason Code Maintenance, INV140D1, for Transaction Effects that they are not authorized to in any other programs. A new system parameter was added to Inventory Parameters, INV820D. The enhancement allows users who do not actually perform transactions in Infor LX to maintain the reason codes for the transactions.

Infor LN / Baan Tip of the Week: Deleting Records

Kathy Barthelt 0 89605 Article rating: 5.0

To improve performance and reduce database growth, deleting records is highly effective. The disadvantage of deleting records is that data is no longer available. Usually, however, not all records need to be saved. For example, line activities are stored by warehouse. Normally, you do not need to keep these records. Therefore, after closing a warehouse order, line activities can be removed. The User's Guide for ERP LN Archiving describes several sessions you can use to delete old data. Other data such as items and business partners can be reviewed once in a while, after which you can delete the data you no longer need. For every order and contract table a session is available to archive and delete old orders. In these sessions, you can specify several characteristics to select the orders to be removed, such as date or status. Run these sessions on a regular basis.

Explore your IDF programs

Anthony Etzel 0 38487 Article rating: 5.0

If you haven't already, you may want to start to explore your IDF programs. Currently they provide the replacement for the 300 series inquiry programs. In addition, navigation drill downs are far superior to any green screen presentation of the data.

Consistently meet customer commitments without last minute surprises

George Moroses 0 28663 Article rating: 5.0

What if you had a solution that allowed you to consistently meet customer commitments without last-minute surprises and unexpected extra effort and cost?

We do this by preventing slippage — slippage is any break in the plan that disrupts both normal material flow and the rhythm of the plant that is preventable by timely key user intervention.
Click here to learn more about OTTO, On-Time Orders.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

An ERP System Review is NOT a Report Card

It's a no-judgment-review - we promise!

report card C minusWe all remember our school days and the nervousness that we felt when it came time to get our grades. Even if we were doing well, we were still nervous. Sometimes we experienced that same nervousness when it came time for a performance review on our job. Nervousness…sometimes dread…knowing that our performance was not what we wanted it to be, or others expected it to be. 

Somehow I think the feelings that we felt in our past often find ways to creep into our present. I have seen this recently when I suggested an ERP system review to one of our customers. They immediately became flustered and thought about every possible problem that they knew existed within the software and how they were currently using it. I asked them to consider the purpose of the ERP system review.

An ERP Utilization Review will:

  • Document how your company is using your ERP system (or a particular aspect of the system) and to what extent the system meets the needs of the business.
  • Identify challenges encountered using the software.
  • Create opportunities for improving business processes and generating additional value.
  • Identify potential risks and areas that need improvement.


key hole to the futureSo, if the result of ERP system review is to establish a path forward for growth based on current status, then why doesn’t every company take advantage of it? I think for some, the answer lies in the feelings of nervousness and dread still stuck in the recesses of our brains.

An ERP system review or more specifically a utilization review is NOT a personal report card, or performance review showing how well a particular individual does his/hers/their job, nor is it an attack on the team that implemented the software. 

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. What we view now to be a less than ideal implementation methodology may have been absolutely appropriate at the time the software was originally deployed. The software has likely matured and the skillsets of the individuals responsible for the system have likely matured as well. In some cases, those resources are no longer with the company, leaving those that remain with no back story as to how and why implementation decisions were made.

Instead of viewing the ERP utilization review as a reason to find fault in previous decisions, think of it as discovering untapped potential – both of the ERP system and the people who use it. Viewing an ERP utilization review in this way puts a positive spin on it and allows us to challenge ourselves to identify opportunities for growth far greater than anything we imagined before. This means not only moving our businesses forward faster but also advancing the strength of the company as individuals and as a team.

What untapped potential lies within your company?

Consider a utilization review of your entire ERP system, or just a part of it like Finance, Technology, Materials Management, Order Processing, or Shop Floor Control. You just might be surprised at what greatness can be achieved… far greater than anyone could have imagined.  

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Kathy Barthelt

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