Re: SYS21 - Key Performance Indicators / Measurements

Although it is possible to write reports that go against the S21 DB using
the report writer of choice (Crystal, IQ, Access, etc.) the literature I
have seen suggests building a federated data mart. The data mart gets
populated by an extraction process, home grown RPG or a commercial product.
The extraction process contains the error rules for you organization. I
agree that some errors, why did something ship late for example, would be a
challenge to capture. Others, like inventory adjustments and order line
cancellations, have reason codes. Since you are already keeping a record in
a spreadsheet, perhaps you could consider bringing the spreadsheet into the
data mart. I also agree that getting from a sales order line to the
warehouse activity files is a challenge but it can be done. You also brought
up the date and time stamp issue. You can deal with this by using a product
such as Data Mirror (I have no connection to these guys) that captures the
transaction and writes it to an Operational Data Store with the
corresponding stamps. In this case the data mart is updated from the ODS.

The contents of the data mart will be determined by the types of things you
may want to track. For example, are there more putaway errors in locations
that are more difficult to access in the warehouse? Is the fill rate for
categories of items better (worse) than for others? Some analysis would be
required to answer these questions.

By going the data mart route, you can take a snapshot of the business and
move it to a different server. In this way you would not bog down your
transaction system (S21). With most report writers, a SQL statement will be
submitted via ODBC. This can consume a lot a resource and we all know it
would happen at an inopportune time. Another advantage a data mart provides
is a static picture. Between updates, a user can run an analysis any time
and get the same results. No more arguments about whose version of the truth
is correct, or at least this could minimize that discussion. Lastly, a data
mart gives you a chance to define a metadata layer. With this information,
DB familiarity becomes less of an issue. The metadata tells the user exactly
what is contained in the field and the business rules behind it without
resorting to computerese.

This is a very large topic for an E-mail. A book I recommend to folks
interested in this topic, is Datawarehousing for Dummies. Some of the
software reviews are in the book dated but it does a good job covering the
basics.

Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Thomas" <dthomas@mdimail.net>
To: <JBAUSers-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 8:39 AM
Subject: SYS21 - Key Performance Indicators / Measurements


> I'm wondering how other System 21 users are measuring the following
things:
>
> Order Fill rates
> On-Time shipments
> Order/picking/shipping turnaround time
> Receiving turnaround time
> Pick Accuracy
> Receiving/putaway accuracy
> Inventory accuracy
>
> Our definitions:
>
> Order fill rate (percent of order lines shipped complete by due date -or-
> percent of order lines that never backordered).   The latter just measures
> proper stock levels and the former is somewhat of a service rate.  We've
> also been asked to provide fill rates at an order level (rather than line)
> where all lines must be "filled" or the order is considered not filled.
>
> On-Time shipments (percent of orders and/or order lines shipped by
> (sometimes "on) the requested date.
>
> Order turnaround time (average time between receipt of order and time to
> pick -or- time to ship).  We normally consider only those orders requested
> to ship same day for this measurement.
>
> Pick accuracy (percent of order lines picked without an error, i.e. either
> wrong item/lot or quantity)
>
> Receiving accuracy (percent of lines received properly, i.e. correct
item#,
> lot#, quantity, unit of measure and expiration date and where warehouse
> location recorded in system is actual location used - not necessarily what
> system suggested)
>
> Inventory accuracy (either percent of item/lot#s having correct balance
> during physical inventories -or- percent having correct balance and being
in
> correct warehouse location).
>
> We are on v3.5.0 and use the warehousing module.  We use System 21
requested
> delivery dates (DTDRxx) as scheduled ship date.  It seemed to make more
> sense to instruct people when to ship something explicitly rather than
tell
> them when it needed to arrive and just know transit times.  When given a
> requested delivery date by a customer, we calculate the scheduled ship
date
> by considering the transportation transit time.  In our environment we
don't
> allow any over/under ships and most orders ship the same day from stock.
>
> In my opinion, every one of these measurement have significant challenges
in
> being produced.  For one things, how in System 21 do you define errors?
We
> record errors in an external system and use queries against System 21 to
get
> the totals and then calculate the percentages in a spreadsheet.   Some of
> the timing measurements are difficult because either there is no date
and/or
> timestamp -or- it is indirect (have you tried getting from order lines to
> warehouse activity files - it isn't simple).
>
> Dan Thomas
> Director of Information Technology
> MDI
> 4500 Progress Blvd
> Louisville, KY  40218
> (502) 318-1208
>
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