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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: Difference Between a Serialized Item and Unit Effective Item

Kathy Barthelt 0 126029 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 389123 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.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Purchase Order “In Use” Reset Feature 8.3.5

Anthony Etzel 0 43111 Article rating: No rating

 

This new feature provides the ability to resolve or reset a purchase order or requisition that is no longer being processed, but the system still indicates it is ‘in use’. We all remember those situations where we could never figure out how the order got hung up.

What we previously had to do was run a behind the scenes script to reset the flag so the order was again accessible. This enhancement provides the ability to resolve the issue and resume processes quickly.

This option is now on the PUR menu, and the user can select the Purchase Order/Requisition in Use Maintenance, PUR940D. The user then enters an order or requisition to remove the “In Use” status.

 

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Advantages / Disadvantages of Virtualization

Kathy Barthelt 0 121483 Article rating: 5.0

I know a lot of our customers are considering virtualization projects. I came across this, and thought it might be useful:

The advantages of virtualization include the following:

• You get more out of your existing resources. Pool common infrastructure resources and break the legacy “one application to one server” model with server consolidation.

• You can reduce datacenter costs by reducing your physical infrastructure and improving your server to admin ratio. Fewer servers and related IT hardware means reduced real estate and reduced power and cooling requirements. With better management tools, you can improve your server to admin ratio so personnel requirements are reduced.

• You can increase the availability of hardware and applications for improved business continuity.

• Securely back up and migrate entire virtual environments with no service interruptions. Eliminate planned downtime and recover immediately from unplanned issues.

 

• Gain operational flexibility. Respond to market changes with dynamic resource management, faster server provisioning, and improved application deployment.

The disadvantages of virtualization include the following:

• Virtualization adds overhead to the CPU, memory, IO, and network.

• Virtualization adds an additional layer to the hardware and software stack. Therefore, additional complexity is introduced in the following circumstances:

  • When sizing the physical server.
  • When planning VM capacity.
  • When planning multiple VMs on the same physical server.
  • When investigating performance issues.

 

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Setting Up Interest Invoicing

Kathy Barthelt 0 102990 Article rating: No rating

You can set up interest invoicing in Accounts Receivable and in the General Ledger.

To set up interest invoicing, use these sessions:

Invoice-to Business Partner (tccom4112s000)
For invoice-to business partners for which you want to raise interest invoices, select the Charge Interest checkbox.

Mapping Scheme (tfgld4573m000)
Use this session to define the mapping of the Interest Invoice / Revenues Analysis integration document type.

Interest Percentages (tfacr5102m000)
Use this session to define the interest percentages for each financial business-partner group, and for different periods of days.

Interest Invoice Related Data (tfacr5101s000)
Use this session to define whether interest must be calculated on unpaid invoices, partly paid invoices, interest invoices, and/or fully paid invoices. You can also indicate that LN must take advance payments, unallocated payments, and credit notes into account for the generation of interest invoices.

Optionally, set conditions
Example: LN only generates an interest invoice advice entry if these conditions are met: The total of all advice entries in one currency is higher than the allowed minimum amount of an interest invoice defined in the Minimum Amount for Interest Invoice field.

The invoice is overdue for a greater number of days than the number of days defined in the Minimum Days for Interest Invoice field.

FSB North America Streamlines Their Shipping on Infor LN with RMCship

Kathy Barthelt 0 24063 Article rating: 5.0

FSB North America, a leading producer of high quality electrified and mechanical locking devices, has selected the RMCship solution from Crossroads RMC to streamline their shipping process on Infor LN and the integration with FedEx® and UPS Worldship™. Using Web Collect formerly RMCship for shipping increases accuracy by eliminating manual steps, streamlines operations, and process steps, and improves customer satisfaction.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Vendor Evaluation

Anthony Etzel 0 43512 Article rating: No rating

Want to ensure that you have the materials you need when you need them?Want to gain insight into your ability to fulfill current and future orders timely? 

Consider implementing a method of evaluating your suppliers. A good understanding of your suppliers’ capabilities and past performance allows you to better plan and deliver orders on time to your customers. 

Some ERP systems have built in features to track supplier performance data. Reports can also be written to gather the information you need.  By whatever means you can achieve it, getting those results could be eye opening and very meaningful to your business.

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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

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

What items should be MPS planned, and what items should be MRP planned…

Master Scheduled Items are those items that are finished goods, or service items, that receive their requirements either specifically from Independent demand, or both Dependent and Independent demand.

  • Independent Demand is demand that cannot be calculated from higher-level demand in the product structure, and therefore must be either a forecast or an actual customer order (Finished Goods or Service parts sold to customers).
  • Dependent demand is derived from higher-level demand in the product structure. Dependent demand includes components, raw materials, and sub-assemblies. (these are not normally Master Scheduled Items).
  • Service Parts may have both independent demand from forecast and/or customer orders, as well as dependent demand from higher-level demand if that item is also used in other sub-assemblies or products.
  • Cumulative Lead Time is a concept used in Master Production Scheduling (MPS) that combines the “fixed” lead time, and the “variable” lead time needed to produce the product. It is the longest path through a given Bill-of-material. Based on the MPS setup options, your ERP will calculate the cumulative lead time (also called “the Critical Path”) for you.


Infor LN does not differentiate between the two. It is simply Enterprise Planning EP with one set of planned orders. It's possible to set up items and generate orders at plan levels, but not necessary. In theory, you could make plan level 1 similar to MPS items.

Another way of defining independent demand in LN terms is that it is demand not related to other planned items. Dependent demand comes from related planned items above in the BOM structure.

COLT still exists in the purchase and manufactured planned items. It has non-critical and critical lead time based on components set as critical. Once calculated it can be used to update the order and planning horizons of a plan item.

Relevant Sessions:

In Baan IV
Maintain Item Data tiitem0101m000
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 above if used)

Contact us today to learn more:  800.762.2077 | solutions@crossroadsrmc.com

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