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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

Steps to undo an IDF modification and restore to the default

Anthony Etzel 0 28822 Article rating: 5.0

Changes are great, but if you want to undo an IDF modification and restore to the default, you need to follow these steps:

Reset to an Infor shipped view (“un-modify” it)

  1. Open the public node of an object you would like to reset to the shipped status. Notice that all of the standard views (i.e., those owned by Infor) are unmodified.
  2. Select the row with the Modified column = yes
  3. Select the Reset to default button on the toolbar
  4. Say Yes to the prompt
  5. The object is now back to the way it was shipped by Infor. Note that it now shows that it has not been modified. If you display the editor, you will see that the attribute you deleted has been restored. Note that only objects owned by Infor can be reset. If you change a standard definition, and later regret it, you can use this feature to restore it with a couple of clicks.

How to Improve Customer Shipments With OTTO - A Case Study

Anthony Etzel 0 22830 Article rating: 5.0

Setting Industry Service Standards

Shenandoah Manufacturing, a $20 million producer of poultry-raising equipment (heaters and brooders), had been having difficulty for some time shipping orders to customers in a timely manner. They had successfully implemented a popular ERP system and had been using it for more than 3 years, yet the situation didn't improve.

Customer Service Representatives were complaining about the frequent backorders and late orders. Employees were giving it their best effort, but were frustrated, and customers were threatening to take their business elsewhere.

The company considered installing an APS system as a possible solution, but found implementation would be difficult, expensive, and running the system might be a challenging task as a number of key business practices would have to be changed. A consultant familiar with OTTO suggested they look at that product as an alternative to APS. Several OTTO aspects cited by the consultant convinced them to consider a cursorily review. Specifically:

  • The non-intrusive nature of the product.
  • It's relative inexpensive initial investment.
  • The low overall total cost of ownership.
  • The integration with their ERP system.

The initial demonstration was impressive. OTTO was installed on Shenandoah's server within 45 minutes of arrival and, most impressively, it was fully functional with their real "live" data immediately. Needless to say, the demo was well received. Even more importantly Shenandoah was able to "test drive" the software to prove its applicability before making any dollar commitments.

According to Mark Shank, Information Systems Manager, some baseline measurements were made last year, and it was determined that approximately 50% of their customer orders had shipped on time. As they began using OTTO, on-time order performance rose to 90% for the month. And Shenandoah caught up on its entire backlog and started working ahead on February's orders. In February on-time shipment performance jumped to 92% and subsequently on-time performance has ranged somewhere between 98.3% and 99.5% — well above the 96% goal set by Management.

OTTO provides the means for keeping the whole production organization focused on the few things that have to happen as the ship date approaches to get each order shipped on time. Components that have the potential for delaying an order are identified so they can be managed. Shenandoah's staff, a precious and limited resource, now concentrates on analyzing information and managing the right things at the right time rather than digging out date. To quote one production control individual: "what use to take hours now takes seconds."

According to Roy Hackett, Plant Manager: "Knowing the right things to pay attention to at the right time"

Crossroads RMC's Analytics Dashboard serves as the perfect complement to extend your MES solution

George Moroses 0 26693 Article rating: 5.0

Did you know our Analytics Dashboard serves as the perfect complement to extend your MES solution?

Need real-time information regarding what shop orders are active, which lines are down, and overall OEE? Want to display all of this data in easy to understand graphs and charts with drill-down capability?

Contact us today to find out how our Analytics Dashboard can provide all of the information you need in real-time.

  • MES Work Center Job Step Status
  • MES Work Center Machine Status
  • MES Shop Order Status
  • MES Order / Operation Status
  • MES Order / Parts Status
  • MES Badge Status

Contact George Moroses to learn more.

Infor and Crossroads RMC Partner to Drive Success at Ridewell

Anthony Etzel 0 28801 Article rating: 5.0

Earlier this year, Ridewell Corporation inked a deal with Infor to move their BPCS 4.05 CD system to Infor LX. As part of that deal, Crossroads RMC’s MES software was selected to provide shop floor automation. 

For the ERP upgrade, Infor reached out to Crossroads RMC to provide support for both Finance and Data Conversion due to our positive track record with 4.05 CD to LX migrations. Crossroads RMC has extensive migration experience and developed a methodology for converting legacy 4.05 CD GL into CEA. 

The process Crossroads RMC developed makes it cleaner, more manageable, and easy to embrace from the client perspective. Infor also engaged Crossroads RMC to provide technical support to manage the data conversion, utilizing the Infor utilities and converting Ridewell’s 4.05 CD data to standard LX.

IDF: Defining the Attributes for a New Object

Anthony Etzel 0 23527 Article rating: 5.0

Attributes are the fields you define in your System i file.

You can begin by building your attribute list in Integrator by synchronizing the object with the host. This process reads the file definition from the System i and builds your list of attributes. The synchronize process will automatically run and read the definitions for the first occurrence of this file name within the library list. You can repeat this process manually multiple times if you change the file definition on the host by using the ‘Synchronize with Host’ option. However, the synchronization process will not recognize changed field names.

Non on key field attributes: The integrator requires a unique key for each object. If the host file already has a key, the synchronization process will automatically identify fields as part of the key as well as add a sequence number to multiple key parts. If the file does not have a unique key, you must either create a keyed logical file or identify the key manually. Key fields are the default sort order for all list views for an object.

Why do you need OTTO? Let’s let our customers tell you…

George Moroses 0 20175 Article rating: 5.0

“Our priorities change daily. It’s important to manage the priorities instead of having someone here in the office constantly expediting. We don’t want to run MRP every day, that would just introduce nervousness, all plans and priorities are likely to change and the flood of recommendations would be unmanageable. We run MRP once a week and rely on OTTO to track the constantly shifting priorities day-to-day.”  
Production & Inventory Control Manager, Top U.S. Crane Manufacturer

Learn More About OTTO

Crossroads RMC is proud to announce the release of the following dashboard views that come STANDARD with the LX Analytics Dashboard

George Moroses 0 22176 Article rating: 5.0

Standard Analytics Dashboard Views: 

  • Sales Bookings (ECH)
  • Accounts Receivable (RAR)
  • Accounts Payable (APH)
  • Planned Orders (KFP)
  • Purchasing (HPH)
  • Shop Order Material (FMA)
  • Shop Order Operations (FOD)
  • CEA
  • Order Booking (ECS)
  • Labor History (FLT)
  • Sales History (SIH)
  • Material Status (IIM/ILI)

Click Here to Learn More

If you can't see everything that happens on your shop floor, you are at a competitive disadvantage

Anthony Etzel 0 23430 Article rating: 5.0

If you’re not able to see everything that happens on your shop floor in real-time, you’re at a HUGE competitive disadvantage! Your competitors are running MES. 

Crossroads MES software provides:

  • A user-friendly interface and an easy exchange of information between the shop floor users and your ERP database. 
  • Planners the ability to schedule work to a specific machine or work area. In addition, it allows for work to be re-sequenced and split for better flexibility in scheduling shop floor activities.
  • Factory workers with the ability to receive the work schedule electronically as well as interacting with it by reporting transactional activity.
  • The ability to electronically display Drawing, Process Instructions, and Quality Instructions so you can eliminate, or minimize, the need for some of the paper on the shop floor.
  • The ability to pass shop floor transactional activity to dashboard displays as well as the ERP system. 

Click here to learn more about Crossroads MES 

or Contact Anthony Etzel today to learn more.

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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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