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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 is proud to enter their 21st year in partnership with Paccar for Baan data collection

Kathy Barthelt 0 39089 Article rating: 5.0

In 1998, Paccar, Inc. chose Crossroads RMC to be their data collection partner for Baan IV. That partnership has grown over the years and now incorporates almost 200 data collection licenses and 15 different Crossroads applications that run on mobile devices throughout Paccar’s facility. This year, Paccar has elected to extend the Crossroads Data Collection - Web Collect to some of their 3rd party contractors in order to support an increase in production. With the installation of the Crossroads Data Collection - Web Collect, the subcontractors will be able to complete sub-assembly activities and inventory transfers all within Paccar’s Baan system which the subcontractors will be accessing via a point to point solution built for them.

Baan / LN Tip of the Week: Analyzing Inventory Adjustments – 10.6

Kathy Barthelt 0 39623 Article rating: 5.0

Want to understand the financial ramifications of inventory changes in Infor LN? 

Analyze Inventory Adjustments in-LN 10.6

Several display and print sessions are available.  In these examples, the item number used is 020000.

1--Adjustment Orders Session

Double click on the order line to get to the Lines detail.

In the Lines session, double click on the item to see the details.

The “Adjustment” tab provides the quantities.

AVALARA ISN'T ONLY TAX CALCULATION AND RETURNS FILING....

BPCS & Infor LX

Anthony Etzel 0 27840 Article rating: 5.0

Did you know that in addition to tax calculation and returns filing, Avalara can also help with:

  • Business license and tax registration
  • Streamlined Sales Tax qualification
  • Nexus analysis and compliance
  • Tax document management including exemption certificates
  • Audit preparation

Contact us today! We partner closely with Avalara to provide you with solutions on ALL version of BPCS and Infor LX!

Did you know that when you move to LX 8.4, the 100 series maintenance programs will be performed using ...

Anthony Etzel 0 17105 Article rating: 5.0

Did you know that when you move to LX 8.4, 100 series maintenance will be performed using the IDF maintenance programs, and the green screens go away? However, if you have the IDF integrator with 8.3.4 or 8.3.5, you have the ability to create business objects over your own data files along with creating maintenance programs. This would be a great way modernize any old green screen file maintenance that you currently have.

OTTO: How to get started? It’s easy!

Anthony Etzel 0 24727 Article rating: 5.0

The evaluation process for business operations improvements and related software is normally fairly long because it takes time to first understand the software and then to analyze how it will be used. However, how the software works won't truly be understood until it is actually functioning in either a live environment or a simulation of that environment using a reasonably complete test database. 

In order to overcome this challenge we use the following process:

  • Telephone meeting to discuss needs.
  • Webinar to determine common understanding.
  • Load data into OTTO for a live demo.
  • No-obligation trial of the software.

Your only obligation is to supply resources to evaluate OTTO's capabilities. This approach allows you to see exactly how OTTO operates in your specific environment and what benefits you can gain. Several of our customers have actually realized sufficient benefits during the trial-period to justify their purchase of OTTO. Best of all, this evaluation approach offers you extremely low cost and low risk with the potential for high payback in a short period of time.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Purchase Order Receive All Processing

Anthony Etzel 0 28742 Article rating: 5.0

With this enhancement the Purchase Receipts screens are optionally shown with the quantity and weight fields populated with the open value on the purchase order. The screens are now populated with the open value and if the open value is the same as the value received, the user can simply accept the line. The Receive All field on the PUR550D1-01 screen determines whether the receipt lines are populated with the open value. A system parameter controls the Receive All default value but the default value can be overridden.  

If this option is selected, the user does not have to enter the open quantity or weight. If the purchase order receipt has many lines, this option saves time and prevents errors.

Data Collection: Are you able to perform a full cycle count of your inventory in one day?

Kathy Barthelt 0 34160 Article rating: 5.0

Cycle Counting Potential Benefits: 

  • Overall increased inventory accuracy
  • Increased accuracy of count
  • Ability to review and approve count before direct update of Baan / Infor LN tables
  • Elimination of unnecessary re-orders of items with current inventory Greater ability to satisfy customer orders due to greater visibility to (accurate) inventory levels
  • Direct labor cost savings – less staff required for count Increased productivity during count – with some of our customers, counts used to take weeks. They can now complete a count of their entire inventory in one day.
Contact us today to learn more
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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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