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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: Actual Versus Standard

Anthony Etzel 0 31527 Article rating: No rating

Job costing based on standards is great, but what if reality doesn’t match up to that?

What if jobs are really taking twice as long, and you don’t know that? What if jobs are taking ½ as long as you think, but you’re scheduling based on how much time they “should” take? Either way, you’re losing money and productivity. Getting a handle on start/stop times for jobs, and therefore the total amount of time actually spent allows you to take proper action and be more productive.

 

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Project Templates

Kathy Barthelt 0 131182 Article rating: No rating

Project templates are useful because you can specify all of the information that you would normally want to include when creating a new project such as project structure, budget and so on.

In Baan IV/V, project templates do not exist, but you can set up a project template by creating a regular project, and setting the status to simulated or free. This is done so that the project does not create plans. Under this scenario, you can easily copy one project to another.

In LN, when you create a new project, a template can be used as the starting point. This is similar to copying a normal project, but unlike normal projects, no costs or revenues can be posted on a template.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

 

Infor LX and Crossroads MES Selected by Blonder Tongue

Crossroads RMC 0 32644 Article rating: No rating

Blonder Tongue, a global communication equipment supplier for TV broadcasters, cable system operator, lodging video, Internet system, and institutional systems, has selected Crossroads RMC to assist them with a BPCS 6.0.04 upgrade to Infor LX. Crossroads RMC will be providing all applications and technical consulting for this project. Also included as part of the project will be the implementation of the Crossroads MES solution. Go live for both solutions is expected in January of 2018.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: LX 8.3.5 Facility Period Close

Anthony Etzel 0 29967 Article rating: 5.0

The Facility Period Close process was introduced in Infor LX 8.3.4 and has been enhanced in 8.3.5. This feature allows continuous or 24-hour worldwide operations in multiple facilities to submit Period End Close jobs for each facility as daily operations cease, or shifts end.

This enhancement provides a batch mode for the Facility Period Close (INV930) process and allows the Update IIM Inventory from IWI (INV931) process to be submitted from the INV930B program. The enhancement also provides a batch mode for the INV931 process.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Order Series Full – Switching to a Different Series

Kathy Barthelt 0 92084 Article rating: 5.0

In general, you can enter a different series in the order field if you have an available series.

To add a new series, find the appropriate group in the First Free Number session, and add a new series and first free number (usually 1).

In Baan IV, go to the Maintain First Free Numbers Session (under Common, Tables, Maintain Logistics Tables, Maintenance 1).
Groups are easily identified (e.g., Purchase Order, Sales Order, etc.).

In Baan V, go to the First Free Number Session (under Common Data, Tables, Logistics). There are number groups (e.g., 570 may be for Purchase Orders, 650 may be for Sales Orders, etc.).

In LN, go to the First Free Number Session (tcmcs0150m000 – it is in different places in the menu under different Feature Packs). There are number groups (e.g., 210 may be for Purchase Orders, 310 may be for Sales Orders, etc.).

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Revisit The Last Brilliant Idea

Anthony Etzel 0 26851 Article rating: No rating

Sometimes the best ideas have to be tabled due to competing priorities. That doesn’t mean that the idea was bad. Revisit previously suggested cost savings ideas, or ideas to make a manual process more efficient. Now could be the right time to do something great!

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Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Difference Between a Serialized Item and Unit Effective Item

Kathy Barthelt 0 71531 Article rating: No rating

A serialized item is not the same as a unit effective item. A serialized item has a serial number that is used to identify and track individual items, whereas a unit effectivity item has an effectivity unit that provides some information about the item's configuration. However, an item can be both serialized and unit effective.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!
 

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Alternative Materials in BOMs:

Kathy Barthelt 0 333468 Article rating: No rating

Often, multiple items are interchangeable even when these are purchased from various vendors. You can use any of these items as material in a bill of material (BOM). If a shortage of a standard material is expected to delay a production order, LN can automatically select one of the alternative materials. You can define up to nine alternative materials for any material in a BOM.

The use of alternative materials has the following advantages:

  • LN can handle material shortages for some items without user intervention.
  • The use of alternative items can reduce the average inventory level.
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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Item Facility Master has a new attribute to define the override inspection days lead time CICP.ICINSD.

  • When an item facility has a defined override inspection days lead time, that value will be used instead of the system parameter inspection days lead time.

MRP exception report, MRP200B
Purchase planning report, PUR285B
Purchase order / Requisition maintenance, PUR500D3
Purchase order consolidation / release, PUR640B1
Vendor splits, PUR653B

This enhancement improved the subfile utilized in MRP320D Master Schedule Detail Inquiry -SCR001 by expanding the subfile with data rather than clearing the subfile as user pages. This change provides full support for the WebTop 4.8 Grid decorator.

This enhancement updated the approach used to populate the subfile to allow a deployed Webtop Grid to function correctly. There is no visible or user-impacted change to the way the program functions.

This enhancement provides improved functionality and full support of a Webtop grid applied to the subfile.

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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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Kathy Barthelt

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