Improve Profit and Cut Costs at the Same Time

Crossroads RMC / Tuesday, October 21, 2014 0 38566 Article rating: No rating

Want to Improve Profit and Cut Costs at the Same Time?

“Real-time executives averaged a 14% improvement in operating cash flow and achieved a 6% reduction in operating costs” According to the Aberdeen Group.

So, how do you accomplish this great feat? By streaming real-time data to the executives.

The need for visibility into what is happening in the trenches, and the comprehensive understanding of key metrics and their implications for overall performance, are critical for an organization to be at the “top of their game”. read full article>

Learn how Crossroads RMC can provide for this data streaming with Analytics Dashboards.

Industry News: How Small and Mid-Sized Manufacturers Can Harness the Transformative Power of Technology…

Crossroads RMC / Wednesday, October 15, 2014 0 42170 Article rating: No rating

Industry-Specific Technology Changes the Game:

"One of the most significant changes has been the development of software and enterprise-wide technology that is designed to specifically meet the needs of particular industries. This has multiple advantages. The technology doesn’t have to be “over-configured” to be functional; the functionality is built-in. It can also be deployed quickly and cost-effectively, with less effort and less risk." Industry Week Article by Kelly McGowan, American Securities.

Read Full Article>

Crossroads RMC has software that has been built specifically for your industry. Learn how Analytics Dashboard can improve your efficiency, productivity, and quality while driving down costs.

Industry News: Technology - The Secret Life of the American Factory

Crossroads RMC / Wednesday, October 15, 2014 0 41466 Article rating: No rating

New Data: New Fruit…that’s the promise of finding new data sitting right there under your nose on the factory floor.

Doug Woods, president of the Association for Manufacturing Technology and MTConnect champion says it this way:
"At the end of the day," he explains, "after you've invested in hardware and machines, at some point it all comes down to how do you wring the maximum amount of productivity out of them? How do you get the ultimate efficiency out of the facility?" The only way to be confident you're doing that, he says, is to really understand what is going on with all of the equipment in the factory all of the time. And that, he says, comes down to having "really good data."

Read Full Article>

Discover How Crossroads RMC can meet this need with Analytics Dashboard.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Project Templates

Kathy Barthelt / Wednesday, October 15, 2014 0 67108 Article rating: No rating

Project templates are useful because you can specify all of the information that you would normally want to include when creating a new project such as project structure, budget, and so on.

In Baan IV/V, project templates do not exist, but you can set up a project template by creating a regular project, and setting the status to simulated or free. This is done so that the project does not create plans. Under this scenario, you can easily copy one project to another.

In LN, when you create a new project, a template can be used as the starting point. This is similar to copying a normal project, but unlike normal projects, no costs or revenues can be posted on a template.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Work Center - Cells

Anthony Etzel / Wednesday, October 15, 2014 0 53663 Article rating: No rating

The LMP module (Lean Manufacturing Process) uses work centers but refers to them as production cells.

A cell is one or more work centers that produces an end item. So when a company decides to adopt the lean manufacturing philosophy, the concept of work centers takes on a new meaning.

In lean terms, the work center, or group of work centers, becomes a production cell. In other words, a mini-factory producing end items with similar characteristics.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: The Machine Master Part 2

Anthony Etzel / Wednesday, October 8, 2014 0 51254 Article rating: No rating

Understanding:

The Machine Master File

Do your machines have a fixed asset tag? The machine master file has a field called Fixed Asset.

BPCS does not use this field, so you can use this field for anything. You can record your fixed asset tag in this field and use the effective date. You can create a custom fixed asset list by using a DFU or Query program.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Business Partner Structures

Kathy Barthelt / Wednesday, October 8, 2014 0 66296 Article rating: No rating

In ERP LN, users can define a distributed business partner organization by defining parent business partners to link the business partners with different roles.

In Baan IV, users can define a distributed business partner organization in the Maintain Concern Structure of Trade Relations (tccom3101m000) session.

Harsco Rail Goes Live With the RMC3 Data Collection Solution

Crossroads RMC / Saturday, October 4, 2014 0 33506 Article rating: No rating

Harsco Rail, an industry leader in the railway track maintenance, has completed the first phase of their implementation of the Crossroads RMC Data Collection Solution for Baan V. The initial implementation included receiving and putaway. Harsco’s data collection project manager reports, “When I ask them (the users) how it’s going, they smile. I have had nothing but very positive feedback. It’s been very uplifting for me to work on this project and have it so well received.” The next phase of the implementation will include Report Operations Complete, Inventory Transfers, and Stock Inquiry.

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Tips: LX | BPCS | M3

12Nov2024

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for EXECUTIVES

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

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.

12Nov2024

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Facility Security Ranges

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

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Tips: LN | Baan

Crossroads RMC / Wednesday, April 13, 2022

/ Categories: Because I Care, Analytics Dashboard

Dashboards vs. Reports – What do they offer and which do I need?

Companies are collecting oceans of data, and struggle with transforming it into usable information. Most businesses focus on two methods of sharing data - the report and the dashboard. While these two terms mean many things to many people, it is important to understand what these terms mean and how the report and dashboard have similar features but they are not the same thing.

What is a Report?

A report is meant to be used to gather detailed intelligence on the operations within an organization, thus a report can be either very broadly covering a wide scope of related information, or narrowly focusing on details of a single item, purpose, or event. All of this information, while presented in a report, is meant to be a snapshot in time.

Quite often, a report is built within the ERP system itself and often is constrained by the graphical and user limitations within the ERP. More often than not, large amounts of data are exported to Excel where added features allow for better manipulation of the data to a format that is digestible by users. Regardless, the data is only valid for that moment and time.

What is a Dashboard?

A dashboard is a graphical interface that provides at-a-glance views revolving around answering a central question. For example, an executive may ask you for up-to-the-minute details on "how the business is doing?". The answer to that question is as complex as the organizational structure of the company, but it is probably very simply measured with approximately 10 metrics. Those 10 metrics can likely be analyzed in chart form, and can and should be combined into one chart when the numbers are relatable or are on a similar scale. All these things should be considered when building a dashboard.

Dashboards, similar to the one in your vehicle, display critical data. Imagine driving down the road and having to push a bunch of buttons to find out how much fuel you have left, or having to pull over and pop the hood to check the oil pressure. It would be dangerous and a waste of your precious time. Your car's control panel or dashboard displays the most crucial information in an easy-to-use, graphical way.

How do Dashboards and Reports differ?

First, a report contains much more detailed information. Where a dashboard might provide a CEO with information on how the entire company’s sales are progressing, a corresponding report will give the CFO or VP of Sales the ability to see how each sales region or even salesperson is performing and make leadership decisions. Just like responsibility, data will get more granular as the organizational hierarchy goes down. The C-Suite might be interested in the detailed data, but for seeing a snapshot of high-level information, the dashboard is the desired mode.

Second, a report is much longer than a dashboard. Not only in the amount of detail but also visually. Tables and charts that live within a report can take up many pages. Furthermore, a report will likely require the reader to scroll through many screens or click from page to page.

A dashboard should confine its display to a single screen with no need for scrolling or switching among multiple screens. Something powerful happens when we see things together, all within eye span. Likewise, something critical is compromised when we lose sight of some data by scrolling or switching to another screen to see other data.

When an individual dashboard has so much information on it that scrolling is required, the power of the dashboard is diminished because the information that lives there is intended to be viewed together. Each piece of information on the dashboard is meant to give the reader the ability to answer part of the central question of the dashboard. These charts combine to answer the question, so if the reader can’t see them together, making them work together is much more difficult.

To sum it up, a report is a more detailed collection of tables, charts, and graphs and it is used for a much more detailed, full analysis while a dashboard is used for monitoring what is going on. The behavior of the pieces that make up dashboards and reports are similar, but their makeup itself is different. A dashboard answers a question in a single view and a report provides information. Put in another way, the report can provide a more detailed view of the information that is presented on a dashboard.

With dashboards, you can empower your entire team with data insights in real-time information, so your data is never stale. Users can create and share custom views of your data on the fly, in minutes.

With powerful Dashboards, you can:

Create pie charts, graphs, interactive maps, and more with just a few clicks.
Build a dashboard once and make it instantly available on any device.
Tell a story with your data with your own custom layouts, colors, and commentary—all with no coding and changes available instantly to users.
Know you always have current reports with real-time data updates.
Access your dashboards from anywhere–computer, tablet, or phone.