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/ Categories: Infor ERP Utilization Review, Consulting, Finance, Manufacturing, Operations, Technology

Mitigating Risk With Your Infor ERP

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan

MARCH… "in like a lion and out like a lamb"

Problems = Risk

Boy, it sure seems like we’ve seen our fair share of March “LIONS” over the past few years, wouldn’t you agree? Those lions have manifested mostly as external global problems outside of the control of any given person or manufacturing operation. As we know, problems = risk.

So, how do businesses respond to risk, specifically when it comes to their ERP system? We all deal with risks in our jobs every day. It is our response to the risk that makes all the difference. Creating short-term, midterm, and long-term response strategies ensure that a company can not only handle a fast-changing situation or emergency but also make the investments needed to seize opportunities and become more resilient.

To create these response strategies, manufacturers should examine:

  • How did we get here?
  • Where are we now?
  • Where are we headed?
  • What to do about it?

In order to really dig into each of these areas, our customers have successfully partnered with us to review a particular part of their business that they feel is at risk and sometimes have asked us to review everything…soup to nuts. This review is done through an ERP Utilization Review. In this review, we can dig into such things as:

  • How does data flow from one department to another?
  • Are we relying on outdated processes and procedures?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we eliminate or streamline processes to become more efficient?
  • Are we making bad business decisions because one department doesn’t have access to real-time data or data from another department?
  • Are we losing money because we can’t track our costs accurately?


Or more specifically by department...

Finance:

  • Do I have the right visibility into our ERP data to be able to do proper financial planning, forecasting, and reporting?
  • Can I reduce the amount of time it takes to do a monthly close?
  • Is my ERP system covering all of my tax compliance requirements?
  • Are we losing money because we can’t track our costs accurately?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we eliminate or streamline processes to become more efficient?

Manufacturing:

  • Is there a way to gain better real-time visibility into my operations?
  • Can we increase OEE?
  • Are we accurately capturing our time and labor on the shop floor?
  • Are we properly planning to maximize our production efficiency?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we automate some of our processes to become more efficient?

Materials:

  • Do we have full visibility into our supply chain?
  • Is planning negatively impacted because of how we communicate with our suppliers?
  • Are we managing our inventory properly?
  • Are we able to fully analyze our sales in order to maximize profitability?
  • Do we understand why we do what we do?
  • Can we eliminate or streamline processes to become more efficient?


Why live with risk one moment longer than you need to? Whether your Infor ERP investment was made one year ago or twenty, your business deserves the opportunity to maximize the investment that was made and put the strategies in place that will allow your business to mitigate risk and thrive no matter what “LIONS” try to stand in your way.

Crossroads RMC offers a variety of Infor ERP Utilization Reviews allowing companies to achieve a greater return on their Infor ERP investment, maximize efficiency and improve overall employee satisfaction.

Utilization Review for Infor LX (ERP LX)
Utilization Review for BPCS
Utilization Review for Infor LN (ERP LN)
Utilization Review for Baan

Learn more about our Types of Utilization Reviews:

Infor LX (ERP LX) & BPCS

  • Manufacturing Application Utilization Review
  • Financial Utilization Review
  • Supply Chain Utilization Review
  • IBM i Infrastructure Performance Review
     

Infor LN (ERP LN) & Baan

  • Automotive Exchange / ION Utilization Review
  • Technical Systems Utilization Review
  • MRP Utilization Review
  • Supply Chain Utilization Review
  • Finance Utilization Review
  • Utilization ReviewManufacturing 


Visit our Utilization Review FAQ section for Infor LX (ERP LX) & BPCS.
Visit our Utilization Review FAQ section for Infor LN (ERP LN) & Baan.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

  • Sit down with your IT team. Decide how the information will be captured and where it will be stored so that employees have access to it. What software tools need to be used to capture the information? How does it need to be organized? Create a repeatable process to make this easy for your staff.
     
  • Interview the person. Have them talk you through his/her job. What are the things they do every day? What are their biggest challenges? How do they overcome them? 
     
  • Have someone shadow the person for a week. Watch what they do and how they do it. Ask questions. Who does he/she interact with in their department? Outside of their department? Why?
     
  • Find out what tools he/she uses to perform their job? Are there spreadsheets?  Reports within your ERP / outside of your ERP? Separate stand-alone databases? Drawings? Websites? Why does he/she use them?
     
  • Video record how the person does their job. Is their technique critical to “doing it right” the first time and not ending up with a bunch of scrap that you can’t reuse?
     
  • Figure out if the person does anything special on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis that might not come up during the observation period or interview. 
     
  • Map how he/she uses your business system and how that impacts the rest of the company. Understand both the “what” and the “why”. Without this, new employees may end up figuring out what they need to do, but never understand why they need to do it.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

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  • Are you tracking downtime? Is it done manually, or with some type of automation or application that gathers information in real-time, or is it based upon history?
  • If you are measuring team effectiveness by shift, you know there are significant differences between them. Have you figured out why?

One of our automotive customers was experiencing significant inefficiencies and difficulties with their receiving operations. After analyzing their operation, we discovered a disconnect between how they were tracking their incoming goods and what their ERP system thought was on hand.

This disconnect created time-consuming steps to process incoming material and determine where the material was needed. The manual process slowed production, caused additional staffing needs and hindered their ability to effectively get needed material to the assembly line. They chose to implement our data collection solution to automate the process.

Since implementing the solution, receiving and moving material was quicker, more accurate and efficient. This enabled the addition of another assembly line, increasing production volume – without adding staff.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

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Tips: LN | Baan

All actions required for converting, validating, matching, and posting electronically received bank statements can be performed within a single session:

  • Bank Statement Workbench (tfcmg5610m100)
  • Bank Statement (tfcmg5610m000)

Alternatively, you can use the sequence of electronic bank statement sessions outlined below.

Steps to Process Electronic Bank Statements:

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