Re: KTF file? -- BPCS-L

>  From:    xiaobo_shen@email.com (xiaobo shen)
>
>  Does anybody knows the meaning of KTF file? when I use 'wrkqry' on it, I
> see some " and *. What's this mean? System how to know it's a week or month
> time frame?
>
>  Best Regards
>  Steven Shen

          KTF file & the MRP Calendar
          =====================

MRP120C
F17 = see what codes you have setup (we have about a dozen), then pick one.
The screen, to revise individual time frames, shows the fields of KTF for the
record you selected.

Now where this is used is primarily the "M" for MRP500 & MRP600 but get at
the reports MRP200 MRP230 MRP240 at least to the prompt screen & notice field
on very bottom of the choices.  You see that you can run these reports using
differently defined your company standard sets of bucket designs.  You could
have one standard in which each bucket is one day, another using weeks of 7
days, another with "months" of 28 days, you could use a variety of start
dates, depending on the nature of your company forecasting, long range
planning, or past due.  Different people at the same company in different job
responsibilities might be interested in different patterns of bucket
planning.  This is a really powerful feature of BPCS.

While in MRP120C, or any vanilla BPCS or IBM program for that matter, put
cursor on any field & F1 universal help for info on valid entries &
functionality of that field ... in this case its usage by MPS MRP CAP DRP
etc. (the different planning modules).

Note that these are REAL CALENDAR DAYS.
Accounting also uses REAL CALENDAR in GLD105C fiscal calendar.
Days in the SFC140C factory shop calendar are WORKING DAYS.
SYS800-14 Purchasing Tolerance Performance cannot differentiate for weekends
or shutdown  days (e.g. due Fri, here Mon is late 3 days BPCS rules but we
would prefer it that to be categorized 1 day late because Sat Sun are not
working days)
We are not using the DRP150C shipping calendar.
You need to setup some kind of annual schedule (e.g. on fiscal year end
and/or physical inventory check list) to review these calendars lest they
"expire" & you not notice (particularly SFC140C).
Part of this review might include what orders invoices etc. you want to
restart at ground zero at what point in the year, or if you want to jump the
numbers to start at even thousands or ten thousands at start of a new year,
for ease of navigating what's when.
We also have a timing issue with GLD105C month end ... our fiscal calendar is
through the week (Saturday) but usually completed Friday night, then
sometimes people come in to work on the Saturday & BPCS won't let them do
transactions because the fiscal date has been closed.

          Deciphering Weird Symbols
          ====================
Not all BPCS files are structured to be QRY-friendly.

Any BPCS file can be viewed (dumped to screen) via RUNQRY *N then name of
file, but you not have much choice with sequencing & selection ... it is just
a quick way to check patterns of contents.  Remember that like with
WRKSPLF-5-view & PDM-SEU & BPCSDOC you can put B or T on top to get to Bottom
or Top of the whole list.

If you view KTF via RUNQRY *N KTF then you're viewing the character
representation of packed digits.
To decipher contents in such a case, when you not know MRP120C:
a) Get at a chart of EBCDIC symbol representation (e.g. Appendix B of RPG/400
reference manual from IBM);
b) Understand the format of OS/400 packing (last character is digit & zone in
which the zone designates positive or negative ... e.g. letter F is 7th
letter of alphabet with zone 12 for positive 7);
c) DSPPFM KTF & enter then F10 then F11.

If your contents not packed digits (e.g. 007 028 999) then either:
BPCS rules have evolved for your version v.s. BPCS 405 CD that I'm familiar
with;
someone has incorrectly populated the fields via software outside of BPCS,
which can happen if your security is not setup prudently, or if you have a
bug in some conversion software;
or your interface is suboptimal for e-400 (problem with your hardware
software implementation at display screen level = you getting garbage where
there is none).

Are you seeing explicitly the word "and" or an icon or symbol that in some
cultures is interpreted as such?  (looking at hexadecimal packed field
representation, if you're unfamiliar with this stuff (I cut my computing
teeth on punched cards), can give appearance of some foreign language
alphabet that's alien to any you know).

Where you said you saw "and" - what's the unpacked representation?

e.g. what you see on MRP120C screen is the unpacked format.
what you see via QRY is the packed format.

          Start Date
          =======
We constantly advance our start date on "M" & some of our specials.
Other folks on this list leave it at start of fiscal year.
You might check BPCS archives for further discussion of this ... start your
search for MRP then when you see some of the topics, you can narrow it a bit.
http://archive.midrange.com/bpcs-l/index.htm

          What do you want to accomplish?
          ========================
KTF file like SYS800, rules that get setup that apply to all corporate
applications should only be changed in accordance with corporate policies:
for notifying everyone who will be impacted; and for appropriate pre-change
testing.  This is why some of our time frames are setup with names like HARRY
REPORTS meaning the only person who should be changing that particular time
frame is Harry.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
BPCS 405 CD Manager / Programmer @ Global Wire Technologies Incorporated
http://www.globalwiretechnologies.com = new name same quality wire
engineering company: fax # 812-424-6838