If the item being received needs to be inspected prior to being available for use, there are two schools of thought.

The first is to receive the item to a QC hold location. The downside is the item will show up in on hand inventory.

A better method would be to do a PO receipt to inspection. Both Inv500 and Pur550 support this method. Now you have received the item without showing it in inventory. Only the PO quantity in inspection is updated. This method also allows you to create an Inspection Dispatch Report. After the QC process for the item is complete, then the transaction Receipt from Inspection to Stock is processed. That transaction then updates the PO quantity received field and the Item on hand field in inventory.

In Baan IV Purchase Control, the purchase inquiry procedure enables the user to:

• Request a specific supplier to submit a quotation on the purchase inquiry for the delivery of an item.
• Compare the prices and discounts of the quotations that are submitted by different suppliers.
• Copy the inquiry data to a purchase order.

In LN, you can:

• Request multiple business partners to submit a quotation on a specific request-for-quotation for the delivery of an item.
• Compare the received quotations based on the following criteria:

1. Price
2. Quantity
3. Vendor rating
4. Delivery dates
5. RFQ subjective criteria

• Copy the quotation data to a purchase order, a purchase contract, or a price book.

The shop order release date is the date that the shop order is scheduled to be released for production.

If you want to use the backward schedule method, make sure the release date is blank and the due date is maintained.

If you maintain the quantity on the shop order and the due date is prior to the system date, the due date and the release date are the same.

In Baan IV, plan items exist within the context of a plan code. A plan code includes only items of the MPS Item item type. Planned orders are independent of a plan code. Users can compare plan codes by means of the Plan Code Performance Comparison (cprmp4504m000) session.

The scenario concept in Infor LN replaces the plan code concept in Baan IV.

In Infor LN, the basic data for plan items is the same for all scenarios. However, users maintain not only the master plan within a scenario, but the planned orders as well.

For example, for each scenario, Users can specify:

• Special demand for an item.
• The availability of resources (in the Scenario – Availabilities (cprpd4160m000) session).
• The sourcing strategies and supply strategies.

Users can compare scenarios by means of the Performance Indicators (cprao2201s000) session.