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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

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Inventory Tracking

Kathy Barthelt 0 69909 Article rating: No rating

Do you have a good handle on your inventory? Do you know when products need to be reordered and which are on their way? Are you able to find inventory easily within your facility, or are items getting misplaced and then unnecessarily reordered? Having a good inventory system in place will avoid unnecessary costs and save lots of time. We’ve been helping customers with this for over 20 years. Let us know if you need help getting started.

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Baan/LN Tip of the Week: How is Your Productivity?

Kathy Barthelt 0 73639 Article rating: No rating

Are your employees not as productive as you’d like them to be? 
Are jobs not getting completed on schedule? 

Without actual data, making decisions about how efficient your operation is will be difficult. Start tracking actual time to complete each operation. Compare different production lines running the same job. Is one line running more efficiently? If so, start looking at why. Track downtime, setup, etc. Once you start really analyzing each piece of the puzzle, you can begin to uncover areas that are ripe for improvement.

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BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Understanding What Goes On – Out on the Factory Floor

Anthony Etzel 0 28424 Article rating: No rating

Ok… so you want to know the status of a specific shop order that was released two days ago.

What do you do?

It’s a sure bet that you have a manager, supervisor, or planner who can walk the floor and find the order at whatever work center it happens to be at. He/she can then answer “what operations have been completed and how many were completed?” All this requires leg work, and of course, a fair amount of time.

Now, if you have setup your BPCS master files properly, and you report transaction activity, you should be able to get those shop order statuses much faster using the SFC300 Shop Order Inquiry Screen.

At your fingertips you can see:

  • Release date & due date
  • How many hours remain in total and at each operation
  • The quantity required, what was finished and the remaining quantity
  • What components (materials) have been issued

Pretty basic information, right? Are you getting what you need to know? If not, then you may want to reexamine how your BPCS files are setup and what transactions along with their frequency are captured.

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December Lunch & Learn Webinar for BPCS & LX!

ERP Data Analysis Made Easy!

Anthony Etzel 0 25169 Article rating: 5.0

Want answers to questions like…

  • Which lines of business are performing best, and what products are being sold?
  • Who are my top-performing sales reps, and what products are they selling?
  • What trends can I see based on my customers’ purchases?
  • What warehouse orders are planned over the next 6 months and do I have enough inventory on hand?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get all of this and more with easy drag and drop capability all without touching your ERP system or creating custom reports!


1:00 p.m. ET | 10:00 a.m. PT

Watch Video Now

Learn How to Create Views for:

  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Labor
  • Material Costs
  • Production
  • Sales Orders
    And more!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Role-Based Security

Anthony Etzel 0 35805 Article rating: No rating

Role-Based Security introduces role type profiles and allows combining the use of role profiles with the traditional LX user type security profile functionality. The new role type profile can be defined to allow or deny access to All Products, Attention Key, Programs, and Transaction Effects.

Facility, Warehouse, and Company securities are still defined solely by the user profile settings and are not affected by the assignment of a role. Where applicable, the role authority is displayed alongside the user authority on the security profile maintenance screens making it easy to see where there are differences in authority between the user and the assigned roles.

When users are assigned to roles, security access in LX becomes a combination of authorities granted or denied by the role plus any user exceptions. User exceptions override authorities set by the roles. A user can also be assigned to more than one role.

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Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Strategies to Issue Materials – LN

Kathy Barthelt 0 74392 Article rating: No rating

LN offers you various levels of control for the issue of materials. You can specify a different method for each material.

Available methods to control the quantity of the issue:

  • Direct user control over the quantities to issue
  • Quantities determined by the allocations

Available methods to control the time of the issue. LN issues the material:

  • After a user gives a command
  • At the allocation date
  • Immediately when the production order is released

Special methods:

  • Backflushing
  • Floor stock

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Flexfab Selects Crossroads RMC for Company Wide Implementation of Data Collection for Infor LN

Crossroads RMC 0 32017 Article rating: 5.0

Flexfab Horizons International, Inc, a global leader in the manufacture of high performance silicone and other advanced polimer products, has selected Crossroads RMC’s Data Collection Solution, RMC3, for their company wide solution for data collection. The initial implementation will take place in Q4 2017 at their location in Nottinghamshire, UK and will focus on improvements in warehouse management. Applications to be implemented include Receiving, Inspections/Approvals, Putaway, Stock Transfers and Stock Inquiry. Flexfab is already a long time user of RMClabel for all of their barcoding needs. This product is made to work seamlessly with all of Crossroads RMC's data collection applications, so the incorporation of this solution will also be part of this project. Implementation for Flexfab US will occur in early 2018.

BPCS/LX TIP OF THE WEEK: ARE YOU STILL USING HANDWRITTEN TICKETS FOR YOUR INVENTORY?

Anthony Etzel 0 32927 Article rating: No rating

This method of inventory tracking is slow, and prone to human error.

Putting a simple barcode system in place speeds up the process of tracking inventory movements, reduces the likelihood of mistakes, and creates a recorded history of the who/what/where that can provide valuable insight to those who make critical business decisions for your business.

Not sure where to start? Contact us and we’d be happy to help you take the first step.

 

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Improves control over PO costing changes during invoice entry by replacing passive warnings with an intentional override action.

  • In ACP500D3 (Invoice Entry PO Costing), users previously could unintentionally accept changes by pressing ENTER, even when quantity to cost or amount to cost values had changed.

  • A new “F14 to Override” warning message replaces the old message:
    “Details have changed. Press enter again to accept data.”
    This ensures users acknowledge and confirm significant changes explicitly.

New System Parameter:

  • “Apply GRN Costing Tolerance for PO Costing” (optional):

    • Within tolerance: Displays the original message —
      “Details have changed. Press enter again to accept data.”

    • Outside tolerance: Triggers the new override requirement —
      “F14 to Override”

Benefits:

  • Enhances oversight and reduces unintentional cost acceptance.

  • Enables better control of PO costs when invoice details differ from expectations.

Last

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan OPERATIONS Tip: MPS Planned vs. MRP Planned

When deciding what items should be MPS (Master Production Schedule) planned and what items should be MRP (Material Requirements Planning) planned, it's crucial to understand the nature of the items and their demand sources. Here's a breakdown:

  • Master Scheduled Items:

    • Master Scheduled Items are typically finished goods or service items.
    • These items receive their requirements from both Independent and Dependent demand sources.
       
  • Independent Demand:

    • Independent demand cannot be calculated from higher-level demand in the product structure.
    • It is driven by forecasts or actual customer orders, primarily applicable to Finished Goods or Service parts sold to customers.
       
  • Dependent Demand:

    • Dependent demand is derived from higher-level demand in the product structure.
    • It includes components, raw materials, and sub-assemblies.
    • Dependent demand items are not typically part of Master Production Scheduling (MPS).
       
  • Service Parts:

    • Service parts can have both independent demand from forecasts or customer orders and dependent demand from higher-level demand if they are used in sub-assemblies or other products.
       
  • Cumulative Lead Time:

    • Cumulative Lead Time is a concept used in MPS.
    • It combines the fixed lead time and variable lead time required to produce a product.
    • It represents the longest path through a Bill-of-Materials (BOM).
    • Your ERP system will calculate the cumulative lead time (Critical Path) based on MPS setup options.
       
  • Infor LN Approach:

    • Infor LN does not differentiate between MPS and MRP planning.
    • It uses Enterprise Planning (EP) with one set of planned orders.
    • While you can set up items and generate orders at plan levels, it's not always necessary.
    • In theory, you could treat plan level 1 similar to MPS items.
       
  • Defining Independent Demand in LN:

    • In LN terms, independent demand is demand not related to other planned items.
    • Dependent demand comes from related planned items higher up in the BOM structure.
       
  • COLT (Cumulative Order Lead Time):

    • COLT exists in the purchase and manufactured planned items.
    • It considers non-critical and critical lead times based on components marked as critical.
    • Once calculated, COLT can be used to update the order and planning horizons of a planned item.

Relevant Sessions:

In Baan IV:

  • Maintain Item Data (tiitm0101m000)
  • Generate MPS (timps3201m000)
  • Maintain Master Production Schedule (timps3101m000)
  • Display Planned Inventory Movements by Item (timrp1510m000)
  • Display Planned MRP Purchase Orders (timrp1521m000)

In Baan V:

  • Plan Item Data (cprpd1500m000)
  • Item Master Plan (cprmp2101m000)
  • Time-Phased Overview (cprrp0520m000)

In Infor LN:

  • Item – Planning (cprpd1100m000)
  • Item Master Plan (cprmp2101m000) - Same as Master MPS if used


For more information and assistance, you can contact Crossroads RMC at 800.762.2077 or via email at solutions@crossroadsrmc.com.

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