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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

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: The 3 Secrets to Improving Your MO (Manufacturing Optimization)

Anthony Etzel 0 30787 Article rating: No rating
  1. Identify the key metrics. You need benchmark data so you know what realistic goals are, then track them and publish your performance along with a brief comment from time to time on how things are trending and how you compare with others, particularly your primary competitors. The best thing about this is that it is a system that develops a life of its own.
     
  2. Measure it. Automatically, people start to think about improving things. Then the fun part, stuff begins to improve by itself. Once in place, the system just hums along and the benefits appear, because it has motivated people to think about it, and figure out what they can do to make it better.
     
  3. Communicate it. Publish your numbers, and explain to people how what they do affects the company as a whole and its success/failure. Once they see the numbers, employees quite often start to modify their behavior for the better.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Gain Efficiency & Save Money – Evaluate Your Production Lines

Anthony Etzel 0 35682 Article rating: No rating
When is the last time you took a hard look at your production lines?
 
  • How are we moving product through our facility?
  • Do we have work instructions / drawings available where needed?
  • Do we have frequently used inventory available at the line?
  •  
  • Where are the bottlenecks?
  • Are processes automated, where possible?
 
Taking a hard look at your processes and procedures may reveal some interesting results.  

Don’t assume that everyone is doing things the same way. Some may be superstars, and others may need some mentoring. Some processes may be outdated and costing you time and money, while others are extremely efficient. One area of the business may benefit from how others operate. Take the time to review and analyze your findings. Your company may benefit greatly as a result.


Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Gain Efficiency & Save Money – Evaluate Your Production Lines

Kathy Barthelt 0 72794 Article rating: No rating
When is the last time you took a hard look at your production lines?
 
  • How are we moving product through our facility?
  • Do we have work instructions / drawings available where needed?
  • Do we have frequently used inventory available at the line?
  •  
  • Where are the bottlenecks?
  • Are processes automated, where possible?
 
Taking a hard look at your processes and procedures may reveal some interesting results.

Don’t assume that everyone is doing things the same way. Some may be superstars, and others may need some mentoring. Some processes may be outdated and costing you time and money, while others are extremely efficient. One area of the business may benefit from how others operate. Take the time to review and analyze your findings. Your company may benefit greatly as a result.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Operational Inefficiencies

Kathy Barthelt 0 77798 Article rating: No rating
Two big sources of inefficiencies in manufacturing are paper and spreadsheets. Think of how long it takes you to get paper based data into the hands of those who can do something valuable with the data.
 
  • Is the information captured correctly?
  • Can everyone access the information?
  • Is this an accurate representation of what’s going on across all operations?

Make your shop floor paperless and put systems in place that talk to one another and automatically pull and push data to and from your ERP so that you can look in one place for all the information you need to run your business effectively.

 

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Shop Order Status Codes

Anthony Etzel 0 32038 Article rating: 3.0

Shop Order status codes have been improved to provide a more comprehensive view of the life cycle of a shop order.

In addition to the previously existing ‘Shop Order Status Code’, the Production Status Code has been added. This code is designed to indicate progress and completion levels of each shop order.  Valid codes are:

‘blank’ - no completed items

25 - a partial quantity has been reported

35 - the quantity reported is equal to or greater than the order quantity

 

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Notes Maintenance Enhancements

Anthony Etzel 0 32659 Article rating: No rating

The Notes Maintenance feature enhancement is made up note programs that are accessible from a central location. The Note Text Maintenance (SYS555), Note Type Maintenance (SYS553) and Multi Language Notes Maintenance (SYS556) programs are all available as menu options. 

The Notes Maintenance feature provides a way to create, revise, delete, and copy note text that are categorized by note types. The print options in Notes Maintenance permit a user to define documents for which the note is intended. This includes base LX documents and custom documents. In addition, the notes program provides a way to define notes by assigning document types.

LX Notes allows the user to go to one location and customize print options, specify user documents, manage multi language notes and manage user-based note security through the defined Security Template program.

 

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Are you still using handwritten tickets for your inventory?

Kathy Barthelt 0 78080 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.

 

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Crossroads RMC and The Lake Companies Announce a Strategic Partnership to Provide Shop Floor Dashboards as an Extension of Shop-Trak for Syteline / CloudSuite Industrial

Crossroads RMC 0 13555 Article rating: No rating

Crossroads RMC, a top provider of consulting and software solutions for Infor discrete and process manufacturers and The Lake Companies, a premier Infor SyteLine Solution Provider, today announce a new strategic partnership. The partnership will combine Crossroads RMC's deep knowledge of machine integration and manufacturing optimization with The Lake Companies’ manufacturing execution expertise.

Together, Crossroads RMC and The Lake Companies will deliver a complete and comprehensive shop floor management solution which will integrate seamlessly with SyteLine / CloudSuite Industrial.

“We’re excited to provide Direct Machine Integration capabilities to Shop-Trak via our NextTrack Dashboard module. Our partnership with The Lake Companies will help SyteLine customers move into the future by leveraging this technology.” Said Rich Grilli, President of Crossroads RMC.

To date, over 1000+ sites worldwide have benefitted from Crossroads RMC’s and The Lake Companies’ products and services. Together both companies will be co-innovating to deliver solutions to meet the challenges of manufacturers in the areas of big data, robotics, and more.

 

About Crossroads RMC

Crossroads RMC offers a complete and comprehensive set of software solutions to support manufacturing optimization. Our solutions focus on delivering real-time visibility and control over your entire operation. With over 30 years of experience, Crossroads RMC has become a trusted advisor and technology partner for manufacturers across the globe.  

About The Lake Companies

The Lake Companies is a fully authorized Gold Channel Partner for Infor’s Syteline ERP (CloudSuite Industrial). In its mission to hel

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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.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for EXECUTIVES

FINANCE
Ledger Account Blocked Error
When attempting to post to a ledger account, users may occasionally encounter an error indicating that the ledger account is blocked. To resolve this issue, navigate to the Chart of Accounts session (tfgld0508m000) and select the Miscellaneous tab. Once there, review the Blocking field. The available settings are:

  1. Free
  2. Blocked for manual input (integration transactions and other automatic transactions can be posted with this setting)
  3. Blocked for all purposes.

OPERATIONS
Absorbing Cost Items into Projects
To absorb the cost of cost items into specific projects, you'll need to handle them as customized items. However, cost items cannot directly be defined as customized items. Customized items must be physical, either manufactured or purchased.

That said, it's still possible to absorb cost items into a project, although indirectly. Here's how:

  1. Set Up Ledger Account: First, create a new ledger account in session tfgld0508m000 and set the type to "PCS" (project) in the operations management integrations. This account will be used for matching and approving purchase orders for cost items.

  2. Create and Activate Projects: Ensure that the necessary projects are created and set to active status.

  3. Purchasing Cost Items:

    • If needed, create the cost items.
    • Create a purchase order for the cost items without referencing a project number.
  4. Matching PO to Costs:

    • When matching the purchase orders in session tfacp2107m000, select "Add Costs" from the specific menu on the toolbar (you'll need to be in the matching details to access this).
    • This will open session tfacp1133s000, where you will enter the previously specified ledger account number.
    • Once done, the "PCS Transactions" option on the toolbar becomes available. Selecting this brings up session tipcs3140m000 (General Actual Project Costs).
       
  5. Disbursing Costs to Projects: In session tipcs3140m000, the PO costs for the cost items can be disbursed to any open and active project.

Since these are cost items, they won't go into stock. The key is ensuring that the cost disbursement ("Add Costs") is correctly linked to the appropriate project, giving users visibility of the cost items as general project costs.


TECHNOLOGY
Adding a Timestamp to LN Standard Tables
Table Timestamp Definitions (ttadv4136m000)

Use this session to define timestamps for Infor LN tables. A timestamp is an additional column that stores the date and time of the last change for each record.

Timestamps are utilized by features like the extraction logic of CPM Enterprise Analytics. They enable CPM to perform incremental data extractions. For example, CPM can use the timestamps to extract records that were changed during the last week in a weekly extraction process.

To Create Timestamps:

  1. Enter the Tables: In this session, specify the tables for which you want to define timestamps.

  2. Convert and Reconfigure: Run the Convert to Runtime Data Dictionary (ttadv5215m000) session to convert the table definitions to the runtime data dictionary and reconfigure the tables.

  3. Restart Session: Log off and log back on to apply the changes.

IMPORTANT!
To avoid issues with locked tables, ensure that all users have logged off before starting the reconfiguration.

For more information, refer to the online help of the Convert to Runtime Data Dictionary (ttadv5215m000) session.

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