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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

It’s Mid-January, and IT’S GO TIME!

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

Crossroads RMC 0 6261 Article rating: 5.0

The calendar is fresh, the resolutions are set, and the opportunities are endless!

But before you dive headfirst into tackling your to-do list, take a moment.

Pause.

Now is the perfect time to reflect and plan your ERP strategy.

What’s an ERP Strategy?

An ERP strategy is a roadmap for the steps you should take before, during, and after implementing an ERP system. It’s designed to ensure your ERP delivers on its promise of functionality and success—the backbone of running your business effectively.

Think of it like planning a road trip:

  • Which cities will you visit?
  • Where will you stay?
  • What landmarks do you want to explore?

Without a plan, you’re winging it. While spontaneity might work for a vacation, it’s risky when it comes to your ERP system.

A poorly executed road trip might waste time or cause frustration, but a poorly executed ERP strategy? That can hinder your business growth, create inefficiencies, and lead to costly mistakes.

What if:

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for Finance: Problem Invoices

Kathy Barthelt 0 46196 Article rating: 5.0

You can use a problem code to indicate that a problem exists for a sales invoice. If the invoice-to business partner notifies you about a problem with the invoice and does not pay it, you can link a problem code to the invoice.

In the direct debits procedure, problem invoices are automatically discarded. For each problem code, you can set an option to prevent linked invoices from being selected on reminder letters.

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for Technology: Using audit files in the Exchange module

Kathy Barthelt 0 46779 Article rating: 5.0

The audit server logs all database actions that change the contents of a table in so-called audit files. The Exchange module can use these audit files, which are useful in a multisite environment because the databases on all sites must have identical data. These audit files can also be used in data conversions.

Only the updates in a specific period are exchanged, which leads to an improvement in performance. Specify this period in the Export Data (Non-Regular) (daxch0233m000) and Export Data (on a Regular Basis) (daxch0234m000) sessions. Changes such as insert, update, and delete are processed and written into the ASCII files. Actions such as drop, clear, and create tables are ignored.

Audit control data is added to the resulting ASCII file. This data consists of a batchline ID, transaction ID, sequence ID, and an indicator. The control data is added at the beginning of each line and is formatted like other data fields such as the enclosing and separator characters.

An update writes two lines to the ASCII file. One line contains the key fields and old values of the updated fields. The other line contains the new values of the key fields and updated fields, even if a key field does not change.

The batchline ID is used for recognition when processing the ASCII files. The transaction and sequence IDs are used to ensure that the transactions are replayed in the same order as on the exporting site. The indicator defines the type of action that is executed on the table. Use the letter I to insert; use the letter D to delete; use the letter U to update with old values; and use the letter N to update with new values.

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for Operations: Copying EBOMs - Which copying method should I use?

Kathy Barthelt 0 50671 Article rating: 5.0

To determine which copying method you must use, answer question 1 and follow the instructions.

Question 1: Is the source component a project item (that is, is a project defined in the first segment of the item code)?

  • If the answer is yes, proceed with question 3.
  • If the answer is no, proceed with question 2.


Question 2: Is the target component a project item?

  • If the answer is yes, select copy method NonProj Item to Proj Item.
  • If the answer is no, proceed with question 4.

Question 3: Is there a relationship with the same project?

  • If the answer is yes, select copy method EBOM to Production BOM Only.
  • If the answer is no, proceed with question 4.


Question 4: Is there a relationship with the target item?

  • If the answer is yes, proceed with question 5.
  • If the answer is no, select copy method No Copy Action.


Question 5: Does the item exist already?

  • If the answer is yes, select copy method EBOM to Production BOM Only.
  • If the answer is no, select copy method Copy E-Item to Item.

Infor LX / BPCS Tips & Tricks for Finance: Inventory Period Balance Freeze

George Moroses 0 18467 Article rating: 5.0

Users can now freeze period-end balances at the end of a fiscal period. You can now store the opening/ending on hand balance for each Inventory period at the Item (IIM), Warehouse/Item (IWI) and Lot/Location (ILI) levels. This information can then be used for inventory tracking and valuation purposes, as well as other ad hoc financial and audit reporting requirements. Infor LX clients can backdate inventory transactions into the immediate previously closed period, and thus update what was saved as the opening/ending balance throughout the current open period.

Infor LX / BPCS Tips & Tricks for Operations: Retain Lot Status on Shipped Resupply Orders

George Moroses 0 13532 Article rating: 5.0

When a lot is completely shipped on a customer order, the Lot Status is changed to Z. Since a resupply order must still be received in the To Warehouse to complete the transaction, do not update the lot status when the resupply order is shipped. If a lot is completely shipped on a resupply order, LX no longer updates the lot status to Z, because the shipped lot retains its current lot status, the additional steps, no additional steps are required to receive it in the To Warehouse.

Infor LX / BPCS Tips & Tricks for Technology: Reset Purchase Order In Use

George Moroses 0 14370 Article rating: 5.0

This feature resolves or resets a purchase order or requisition that is no longer being processed, but the system still indicates it is 'in use'. The user selects Purchase Order/Requisition in Use Maintenance, PUR940D, from the Purchasing Management Menu, PUR, located in the Special Processing sub-menu. The user then enters an order or requisition to remove the 'In Use' status.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Manufacturing Tip: Performance Problems in Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000)

When the Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000) session is run it can take minutes to days to finish the process.

The performance of this session depends on many settings, like the number of plan items, the number of orders, but it also depends on hardware and database setup.

Here are some guidelines on how performance can be improved.

  • Be sure you are always on the latest solutions with the planning sessions. We are constantly improving the software to gain more speed in the Enterprise Planning (EP) sessions.
  • The number of planned items is critical. Try to reduce the number of planned items. Is it necessary that all items be planned via EP? For shop floor stock the TPOP or SIC replenish systems are often more suitable.
  • When you use PCS, be sure to close the projects when they are finished. When a PCS project has status Closed, the customized items will not be planned.

It's better to run Remove Plan Items for closed Projects (cprpd1220m000). This session removes the item planning data for customized items of closed projects.

  • If you run EP with the option, Also Generate Item Master Plan and/or Online Update Item Master Plan, consider if you need an Item Master Plan for all plan items. An Item Master Plan is usually meant for global long-term planning. Again this is not very useful for shop floor stock. Reducing the number of master-planned items improves performance.
  • When you use Resource Master Plans; are all your resources really critical? If a work center is not critical do not create a Resource Master Plan for it.
  • When using Item Master Plans and/or Resource Master Plans, set in Scenarios (cprpd4100m000) the total scenario length as short as possible. For example, if your sales order horizon is 2 years, a scenario end date which is 3 years after the current date is sufficient. During the calculations of the Item Master Plan and the Resource Master, all periods defined in the scenario are checked and calculated. So if you have the end date of the scenario on 2038, EP will do the calculations (for every master-planned item) until 2038.

Defining a rolling scenario will keep your scenario length constant and you don’t have to worry that you run beyond your scenario's end date.

  • Updating the pegging relations has a serious impact on the EP performance. In EP Parameters (cprpd0100m000) you can set the Pegging Horizon in days. Keep this horizon as short as possible. The Update Signals by Item/Planner option also has some impact, but less than the pegging.
  • EP uses the so-called phase numbers to detect the lowest level in which an item is used within a BOM structure or in a supplying relation. If the phase numbers are not ‘up-to-date’, EP will correct the phase numbers during the planning. This takes time during the planning run. If there are loops in BOMs or in supplying relations, this recalculation has a big impact on the performance. Therefore you could run Compute Phase Numbers (cprpd6200m000) on a regular basis. For example once a month. Always run this session with the Generate Report option selected. If loops are detected these are reported. Be sure to solve all the reported errors.
  • When unexpected results occur, especially when the data is imported from external packages, always check the number of records in tables cprpd100 and cprpd120. The number of records should match! Remark: From 10.4 onwards the table cprpd120 has become obsolete so this point not applicable anymore.
  • The number of calendars also impacts planning performance. Then for every warehouse, work center, or BP, and so on, a different calendar is defined. Planning has to read all of these calendars from start to end. This can have a huge impact on performance.
    • If you link a calendar to a work center or warehouse, avoid defining a new calendar for every work center/warehouse. Try to link the same calendar to more than one department.
    • Define the start of the calendar close to the start date of the scenario. For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the start date of the scenario is 365 days in the past. So a start date for your calendar could be 01-07-2012.
    • Define the end date of the calendar not too far in the future. Depending on the end date of the scenario you could use 5 years ahead.  For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the end date of the scenario is 3 years in the future. So an end date for your calendar could be 01-07-2022. Do not define an end date past 19-01-2038, which is the last UTC date Infor LN can handle.

Also, the interaction with the database can have a big impact on performance. 
A commonly used way to improve the total run time of the EP run is to start the session in parallel processing. 
See also Knowledge Base Article 22881401 Performance, Tracing and tuning Guide, for more details.

These guidelines are just some hints, and a good starting point because performance is a complex issue.

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