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Infor LX Tips, Infor LN Tips, BPCS Tips, Baan Tips, Infor M3 Tips & Infor ERP News

Crossroads Connections

Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

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

Crossroads RMC Forms Strategic Partnership with CTN Global

Crossroads RMC 0 35496 Article rating: 5.0

Crossroads RMC is proud to announce a new partnership with CTN Global. CTN Global is a leading provider of ERP implementation services in Latin America and Infor’s 2019 Cloud Partner of the Year.

This partnership extends Crossroads RMC customer service and support to our Infor LN and Infor LX customers in Latin America. CTN Global has over 20 years of experience in the ERP space, and over 100 clients globally. CTN Global is headquartered in Columbia with other locations in the Iberian Peninsula and Venezuela.

Why should you look at OTTO? Let’s see what an OTTO customer has to say:

Anthony Etzel 0 28163 Article rating: 5.0

"When first introduced to OTTO, for on-time ordering, you could not prove to me that there was a better system out there than what we already had. Boy what a big wakeup call! Being in a very option intensive business and the economy in a very flat or negative state, OTTO is the BEST tool to quickly respond to a customer’s needs TODAY. When Millions of dollars are at stake each month, we have to be better prepared to meet the task at hand with fewer people. OTTO is really doing this for us!  What normally took us hours or days to identify several indented bill of material shortages now only takes a few moments with the OTTO program. What this really means is that, we do not have to wait for MRP to run each week to plan and reschedule orders. This can be done today!  What I’m really saying is that, we can advise Purchasing and Scheduling TODAY without waiting for TOMORROW.  We are now able to ship DOLLARS this month and satisfy our CUSTOMERS. Without OTTO in some cases, the Customer would have to wait until next month and potential revenue dollars lost for the month."  Gary Hawk, Planning Manager - construction equipment

Infor LX / BPCS Tip of the Week: Control Date Lead Times in LX

George Moroses 0 33566 Article rating: 5.0
  • Control Date Lead Times – LX provides five separate Control Date Lead Time fields so you can specify additional lead time values for Shop Orders, Purchase Orders and Planned and Firm Planned orders. Each Control Lead Time Date represents additional time (days) required at each step in the process that needs more time (Quarantine, Stabilize), that is to say, when a component is due, and when it can be used. (working with an aerospace  precision bearing manufacturer, I had to account for the QA requirement that no measurements could be taken until the parts had been “soaked” (stored) in an atmospheric controlled environment (72 degrees, and controlled humidity) for 24 hours. This requirement added one full day of lead time between each machining operation) The MPS/MRP Generation program, as well as programs that Shop Order Material Allocation records use the five control date lead times to adjust component required dates to function in the same way as the BOM Offset Lead Time.
     
  • All programs that create MRP Planned Orders, MRP Firm Planned Orders, Shop Orders, and Purchase Orders call the Control Date Calculation program (MRP515B) to establish all five control dates. A Control Lead Time Date is used to adjust the component Required Dates data in the Material Requirements file (KMR), based on planned orders for a parent, and the FMA Required Dates data, based on shop order release dates for a parent.

Flexfab Goes Live with Crossroads Data Collection in China

Kathy Barthelt 0 27930 Article rating: 5.0

Flexfab Horizons International, Inc, a global leader in the manufacturing of high performance silicone and other advanced polymer products, goes live with Crossroads RMC’s Data Collection Solution, Web Collect, formerly RMC3, in their China facility. This represents the 3rd data collection go live for the Crossroads data collection solution within Flexfab with the US and UK going live in 2018. All installations focused on improvements in warehouse management in Infor LN 10.6. Applications implemented included Receiving, Inspections/Approvals, Putaway, Stock Transfers and Stock Inquiry.

Crossroads RMC is proud to partner with an American manufacturer of diagnostic healthcare

Integrated freight management solution for Infor LN 10.5.2 Cloud implementation

Kathy Barthelt 0 33104 Article rating: 5.0

An American manufacturer of diagnostic healthcare has selected the RMCship solution from Crossroads RMC to streamline their shipping process on Infor LN 10.5.2 in the cloud. They went live with one site running RMCship in June of 2019 and 3 more sites to follow by end of year. They will use RMCship to increase accuracy by eliminating manual steps and streamlining their operations.

Hunter Douglas Architectural Products Selects Crossroads RMC for LN 10.6 Upgrade Project

LN Upgrade 10.6

Kathy Barthelt 0 27776 Article rating: 5.0

Hunter Douglas, the world leader in window coverings and a major manufacturer of architectural products, has selected Crossroads RMC for their LN 10.2.1 to 10.6 upgrade project. Hunter Douglas has been an LN user for years, but due to a requirement from their parent organization to modernize their hardware/infrastructure, it was decided to update their ERP version as well. Phase 1 of the project will consist of a base technology upgrade with a Phase 2 planned for 2020. Phase 1 Go-Live is slated for January 1, 2020.

To learn more about our Infor LN & Baan Consulting, contact us at: 800.762.2077, email Kathy Barthelt, or visit our Services webpage.

Infor LN & Baan Tip of the Week: The Production Bill of Material – 10.7

Kathy Barthelt 0 41244 Article rating: 5.0

The production bill of material is globally specified at the company level. It can be used as a source for the definition of the local material lists, such as:

  • The production model in the repetitive module.
  • The production model in the job shop module.
  • The subcontracting model in the subcontracting module.

The production bill of material can be generated through the engineering bill of material. The new production bill of material differs from the old bill of material:

  • It has a header and a status.
  • It is always revision controlled.
  • The effective dates have been moved from the material lines to the header.
  • The BOM quantity has been moved from item production data to the header.
  • The use up has been moved from alternatives to the material line.
  • The material line excludes logistic data (no warehouse nor routing operation).

The production bill of material is not mandatory.

Production bill of material revisions:
The production bill of material is revision controlled. The objective of the revision is to control the changes to the bill of material over time.

The P-bom includes this revision-related data:

  • Revision number
  • Effective date and Expiry date
  • Status (New, Approved, Expired)
  • Creation date and Created by: user
  • Approval date and Approved by: user
  • Expiry date and Expired by: user
  • Source information
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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

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Manufacturing Tip: Performance Problems in Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000)

When the Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000) session is run it can take minutes to days to finish the process.

The performance of this session depends on many settings, like the number of plan items, the number of orders, but it also depends on hardware and database setup.

Here are some guidelines on how performance can be improved.

  • Be sure you are always on the latest solutions with the planning sessions. We are constantly improving the software to gain more speed in the Enterprise Planning (EP) sessions.
  • The number of planned items is critical. Try to reduce the number of planned items. Is it necessary that all items be planned via EP? For shop floor stock the TPOP or SIC replenish systems are often more suitable.
  • When you use PCS, be sure to close the projects when they are finished. When a PCS project has status Closed, the customized items will not be planned.

It's better to run Remove Plan Items for closed Projects (cprpd1220m000). This session removes the item planning data for customized items of closed projects.

  • If you run EP with the option, Also Generate Item Master Plan and/or Online Update Item Master Plan, consider if you need an Item Master Plan for all plan items. An Item Master Plan is usually meant for global long-term planning. Again this is not very useful for shop floor stock. Reducing the number of master-planned items improves performance.
  • When you use Resource Master Plans; are all your resources really critical? If a work center is not critical do not create a Resource Master Plan for it.
  • When using Item Master Plans and/or Resource Master Plans, set in Scenarios (cprpd4100m000) the total scenario length as short as possible. For example, if your sales order horizon is 2 years, a scenario end date which is 3 years after the current date is sufficient. During the calculations of the Item Master Plan and the Resource Master, all periods defined in the scenario are checked and calculated. So if you have the end date of the scenario on 2038, EP will do the calculations (for every master-planned item) until 2038.

Defining a rolling scenario will keep your scenario length constant and you don’t have to worry that you run beyond your scenario's end date.

  • Updating the pegging relations has a serious impact on the EP performance. In EP Parameters (cprpd0100m000) you can set the Pegging Horizon in days. Keep this horizon as short as possible. The Update Signals by Item/Planner option also has some impact, but less than the pegging.
  • EP uses the so-called phase numbers to detect the lowest level in which an item is used within a BOM structure or in a supplying relation. If the phase numbers are not ‘up-to-date’, EP will correct the phase numbers during the planning. This takes time during the planning run. If there are loops in BOMs or in supplying relations, this recalculation has a big impact on the performance. Therefore you could run Compute Phase Numbers (cprpd6200m000) on a regular basis. For example once a month. Always run this session with the Generate Report option selected. If loops are detected these are reported. Be sure to solve all the reported errors.
  • When unexpected results occur, especially when the data is imported from external packages, always check the number of records in tables cprpd100 and cprpd120. The number of records should match! Remark: From 10.4 onwards the table cprpd120 has become obsolete so this point not applicable anymore.
  • The number of calendars also impacts planning performance. Then for every warehouse, work center, or BP, and so on, a different calendar is defined. Planning has to read all of these calendars from start to end. This can have a huge impact on performance.
    • If you link a calendar to a work center or warehouse, avoid defining a new calendar for every work center/warehouse. Try to link the same calendar to more than one department.
    • Define the start of the calendar close to the start date of the scenario. For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the start date of the scenario is 365 days in the past. So a start date for your calendar could be 01-07-2012.
    • Define the end date of the calendar not too far in the future. Depending on the end date of the scenario you could use 5 years ahead.  For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the end date of the scenario is 3 years in the future. So an end date for your calendar could be 01-07-2022. Do not define an end date past 19-01-2038, which is the last UTC date Infor LN can handle.

Also, the interaction with the database can have a big impact on performance. 
A commonly used way to improve the total run time of the EP run is to start the session in parallel processing. 
See also Knowledge Base Article 22881401 Performance, Tracing and tuning Guide, for more details.

These guidelines are just some hints, and a good starting point because performance is a complex issue.

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Kathy Barthelt

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