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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

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  • Are we relying on outdated processes and procedures?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

TECHNOLOGY: Facility Security Ranges

Previously, a user could complete the Cost Transfer (CST920) process for any range of facilities regardless of their security settings established in SYS600. This enhancement verifies the user security settings set up in SYS600 before processing cost transfers for a range of facilities in CST920. If the user has authority for a facility range, but there are facilities within that range that are not authorized, the program skips those facilities and completes the cost transfer process.

FINANCE: Expiration Date for Quotes and RMAs

A Cancel-by-Date has been added to the Quote Header and RMA Header panels. This optional field can limit how long a quote or authorization to return items for credit is valid.  

For quotes, this enhancement provides an optional end date for the quote. For RMAs, it provides an optional date by which the customer must return the items to receive the credit listed on the RMA.

The Cancel-By-Date prints on the Order Acknowledgement and RMA Acknowledgement to inform the customer of this important limitation to the quote or return authorization. 

An Order Entry user cannot copy the quote to create a new order if the Cancel By Date has caused the quote to expire.

OPERATIONS: Default Split Salesperson to Customer Orders

Sales commissions are based on combinations of the Primary, Split, and Line-Level salesperson and the commission codes defined for the customer and item. You can now define the Split Salesperson in the same master files as the Primary Salesperson. While the Primary Salesperson is mandatory, the Split Salesperson is optional. It defaults during Order Create using the identical hierarchy as Primary Salesperson. Using Split Salesperson provides more flexibility in the calculation of sales commissions. The ability to define a default Split Salesperson improves the accuracy of sales commission qualification and calculation and reduces maintenance and adjustments necessitated by corrections.

Previously, a user could complete the Cost Transfer (CST920) process for any range of facilities regardless of their security settings established in SYS600. This enhancement verifies the user security settings set up in SYS600 before processing cost transfers for a range of facilities in CST920. If the user has authority for a facility range, but there are facilities within that range that are not authorized, the program skips those facilities and completes the cost transfer process.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Who gets involved?
  1. Most commonly Engineering is involved in writing the rules, creating the bills and routings.
  2. Sales or Customer Service determines the questions and the order they are asked in.
  3. Sales or Customer Service determines the rules for the pricing.
  4. Sales, or Customer Service, and Engineering work together in determining the part number, description and text.

What are the steps?

  1. You must start by defining the features and options (questions and answers) and the order in which these are asked. We work this out first using sticky notes and large easel paper. Normally during the process we find that we want to move these questions around. Setting them down on paper makes the process of getting the data into Baan much more efficient. We also then have a record of what decisions were made prior to entering the data. This is normally a joint effort of Engineering and Sales. This is required and must be the first step.
  2. Constraints for features and options. These are the rules for determining what questions are asked and which options are allowed. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator. This is required.
  3. Generic Bill of Material. All possible bill options are entered here and constraints are written to determine which options are selected based on the answers to the questions. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator. This is a required step.
  4. Generic Routing. Similar to the bill of material, but used for generation of the routing steps. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator. This is optional.
  5. Generic Item Data. This consists of creating custom item numbers, descriptions, text, material, size or standard fields in the custom item master. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator though Sales may have some involvement. This is optional.
  6. Generic Pricing. This is used to calculate the selling price based on the answers to the questions. This is normally a responsibility of Sales or whoever determines the pricing. This group is also trained on writing the constraints for this section only. This is optional.
What is it?
The configurator consists of a set of features (questions). The options (answers) to these questions then are used to generate the custom bill of material and routing. These questions may be answered at the time of order entry, prior to order entry (in a project or quote) or after order entry (in the project). The order of the questions need not have any relationship to the bill of materials. The configurator may also calculate the selling price, create a unique “smart” item number, custom description and text. Simple rules are used to interpret the answers.

Who uses the configurator?
Companies whose products have options. The configurator eliminates the need for part numbers for all combinations of options. The configurator ensures that the pricing and bills are correct. The configurator also keeps statistics on the frequency the options are selected.
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