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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

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Job Management

Kathy Barthelt 0 25882 Article rating: 5.0

You can use job management to schedule jobs based on your organizational requirements. For example, you can schedule jobs at non-peak hours to improve the overall system performance in a heavily loaded environment. A job consists of one or more sessions or shell commands, or both, that run without user interaction. The sessions and shell commands in a job can be started while you are not logged on to the ERP system. You can schedule jobs to start processes periodically, at a defined interval, or immediately. Typically, you use job management for print and processing sessions.

Job data  - To create a job, you must specify basic job data and link sessions or shell commands, or both, to the job. In the basic job data, you specify whether the job is periodical. For periodical jobs, you specify how the job will be scheduled.

Shared job data tables  - Typically, each company stores its own basic job data. As a result, a job runs for a particular company. However, in a job, you can also run sessions in more than one company. You can run sessions in multiple companies when the job data tables of the associated companies are physically mapped to a single main company.

Job execution - Jobs can be started in multiple ways. The job’s status defines how you can start the job. You can start the job if the job’s status is In Queue or Free.

Job history -  When the execution of a job stops, for example, when the job completes successfully or when a runtime error occurs, information is written to a history log. The job history contains information, such as the date and time of the execution and the reasons why the job and its associated session ended.

Infor LN & Baan Materials Tip: Sales Quotations

Kathy Barthelt 0 24178 Article rating: 5.0

Sales quotations are used to supply a sold-to business partner with the required details to make a purchasing decision.

You can create a sales quotation in response to a request for quotation (RFQ) from a business partner, or as a sales tool to initiate the sales process with potential business partners. A quotation includes the dates, terms, items, or item descriptions to be sold, and a success percentage, which reflects the level of certainty that the quotation will be accepted. Sales quotations are included in the planning modules based on their success percentages. Quotations with a high success percentage are considered as sold.

You can print and send quotations to business partners. You can specify the results of the returned quotations in Sales. If the quotation is not accepted, you can...

Infor LX & BPCS Materials Tip of the Week: Drop Shipments

George Moroses 0 20240 Article rating: 5.0

Infor LX provides a tightly integrated drop shipment processing capability. The product supports the creation, tracking, and management of customer drop shipment orders via the Order Management, Purchasing, and Billing applications.

The order processing professional initiates drop shipments during customer order creation. You can designate any order line for drop shipment if it meets user-defined drop-ship controls. If you designate a line as a drop-ship line, the system automatically creates a drop-ship request in purchase order processing.

When a buyer responds to a drop-ship request and creates a purchase order, Infor LX

Infor LX & BPCS Finance Tip: AR Aging

George Moroses 0 17501 Article rating: 5.0

An ACR system parameter allows you to specify whether to measure invoice age from the date on which you create the invoice, invoice date, or the date on which the invoice is due. You can set up a separate terms code for each customer on the system to set the basic terms of payment for that customer. For example, this term could specify the number of days an invoice can be due before it is considered past due and the number of days that a discount is available. The system uses the terms code data to...

Infor LN & Baan Finance Tip: What Can You Do in the Financial Statements Module?

Kathy Barthelt 0 22426 Article rating: 5.0

In the Financial Statements module, you can:

  • Define financial statements, and link a structure of child statement accounts and parent statement accounts to these financial statements.
  • Link ledger accounts and/or dimensions to the statement accounts.
  • Link cash flow reasons to cash flow statement accounts.
  • Export financial data to FST reporting tables.
  • Print reports directly, or use the BIRT report functionality to print to PDF, HTML, and export to Excel or Word.


Data drill down in financial statements - You can...

Infor LN & Baan Manufacturing Tip: All About Routings

Kathy Barthelt 0 23108 Article rating: 5.0

The planning data for the method of manufacturing is defined in Routing. A routing consists of operations, with each operation identifying the last to be carried out in a work center and/or on a certain machine defined for a specific site.

Routings can be as follows:

  • Standard Routing - A generic routing that can be attached to multiple items
  • Item specific - A routing that is applied to one item
  • Network routing - A routing containing sequentially ordered operations and parallel operations
  • Order quantity dependent routing - A routing that is defined for a specific quantity of items

You use the Routing module to record routings for manufactured items. You can define the following:

Infor LX & BPCS Manufacturing Tip: Backward Scheduling

George Moroses 0 18530 Article rating: 5.0

Operations are automatically backward scheduled at shop order release time. The backward scheduling algorithm starts with the shop order due date and schedules each operation based upon the standard move and queue times in the routings and the number of days the job is expected to run at standard. The system calculates and stores the operation scheduled start date. The dates may be modified by the shop order maintenance program. The number of days that a job is expected to run an operation is dependent upon the available capacity for that work center and the total hours scheduled for that operation.

The backward scheduling algorithm also considers...

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: What is IDF and how could it make my life easier?

George Moroses 0 18281 Article rating: 5.0

The Infor Development Framework (IDF) re-architects the way a user interacts with the application. IDF provides an efficient, task-oriented process to view application information that is contained within Infor LX. IDF enables users to configure their view of the application data without modifying the core application and its supportability.

The examples below describe how users can configure their display of data and maximize overall productivity:

  • Arrange application information into multiple groupings and sequences that make sense for the job.
  • Hide information that does not apply to a particular job or task.
  • Filter records to show only the information that applies to the job or task that the user is performing.
  • Customize the information for an individual user, for a group of users, or for all users.
     
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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Role-Based Security introduces Role type profiles and allows combining the use of Role profiles with the traditional LX User type security profile functionality. The new Role type profile can be defined to allow or deny access to All Products, Attention Key, Products, Programs, and Transaction Effects. Facility, Warehouse, and Company securities are still defined solely by the User profile settings and are not affected by the assignment of a Role. Where applicable, the Role authority is displayed alongside the User authority on the security profile maintenance screens making it easy to see where there are differences in authority between the User and the assigned Roles. 

When Users are assigned to Roles, security access in LX becomes a combination of authorities granted or denied by the Role, plus any User Exceptions. User Exceptions override authorities set by the Roles. A User can also be assigned to more than one Role.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Beyond the Four Walls—Achieving Upstream and Downstream Inventory Visibility

Infor LX | BPCS | Infor LN | Baan | Infor M3

When an enterprise has many suppliers, dealers/distributors, and customers spread out across the globe, it becomes important that it gains better visibility into inventory outside of its direct ownership and control, on both the supply and demand side. On the supply side, the company has outstanding POs and needs reliable estimates of when those will ship, as well as early indications whenever there will be delays in shipment. Once shipped, updates on the estimated time of arrival (ETA) are important, particularly when there are delays.

This external visibility is even more important during times of disruption. Early visibility into disruptions in supply or rapid changes in demand is key to providing the intelligence to drive agility. By responding earlier, faster, and with more accurate intelligence, a company has more options, makes smarter decisions, and avoids catastrophes.

How do you get that visibility? Here are some options…

• EDI—EDI can provide POs (EDI 850) for orders, ASNs (EDI 856) to communicate what has been shipped, Inventory Inquiry/Advice (EDI 846) with updates to on-hand inventory at various holding locations, including status (on hand, committed, on order, etc.), forecasts (e.g. EDI 830 planning schedule with release), shipping schedules, and other useful information about inventory in transit or at rest. EDI can be challenging for a smaller company to implement, especially without the right partner and solution. For this reason, not all suppliers or customers will necessarily have EDI. In those cases, an alternate approach, such as a portal, is needed to serve the remaining non-EDI trading partners.

• Supplier and Customer Portals—Portals provide a way for suppliers or customers who do not have EDI capabilities to update inventory, production, and order status. This requires some training and communications so that the trading partners use the system consistently, properly, and in a timely manner. (Portals to ERP for Infor LN & Baan Only)

• External Inventory Locations/Accounts—Some ERP systems allow supplier or customer stocking locations to be set up within the solution, so those locations look like another distribution center or plant, but with the inventory in those locations not being owned by the company. Personnel at the supplier or customer can then be given an account within the ERP system to update their inventory information. The account may provide additional functionality to the supplier or customer as well. If the trading partner actively uses the system to run a part of their operations, the data are more likely to be timely and accurate.

• API Integration—Trading partners may provide inventory data via an API in the ERP system.

• Planning Solutions—provides the ability to proactively manage the entire customer order backlog from top to bottom. It begins monitoring orders as soon as they’re booked and identifies and prioritizes those critical events that must happen every day so they can be managed and get orders produced and shipped on time. (OTTO - On Time Orders for Infor LX, BPCS & M3 Only)

Now more than ever, good inventory management, with accurate inventory data, is a core element of success for manufacturers and wholesale distributors. Having the right products, in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities—and doing so at a low cost—drives profitability, cash flow, customer loyalty, and success for a company. This can be a difficult balancing act, especially when demand is volatile and supply disruptions occur. It can be achieved with the right inventory strategy, process disciplines, risk management, and capable systems in place. Excellence in inventory management, with the right systems, is key to enabling businesses to survive in challenging times and thrive in the market during good times.

Not sure where to start? Crossroads RMC consultants have expertise with all of the options listed above and can help you realize optimal inventory management, regardless of the size of your organization. 800.762.2077, solutions@crossroadsrmc.com, or ask us to contact you.

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