Re: Resets, Cleanups on 4.05cd -- BPCS-L

Our data cleanup goes far beyond running some of the options from SYS/23 menu. To give you an idea of what perhaps is needed, try out some of the ideas I share here, then after you see the scale of it all, you can begin to prioritize what needs clean up first.

DSPFD *ALL BPCS files to an *OUTFILE then Query/400 which ones have significant numbers of members (before I started cleaning up this area, we had files with in excess of 200 members), take a look at some of their names ... there are some with specialized functions, but then tons named after work station addresses that do not exist anymore. Check the BPCS Data Areas for lots more like these.

Review BPCS structure of Header Records and Detail Records. Use Query/400 match-3 to identify Widows are header records that have no details. Orphans are detail records that have no headers. We clean this up on a weekly basis ... there is always a trickle of these broken BPCS families.

Use SQL to get MIN date in Accounting files like ACP ACR General Ledger Journal. Do not be surprised to find stuff that predates whatever fiscal periods you have open. Ask Accounting for permission to delete records that are more than some # years old ... let them pick how far back, since they may be keeping some of this deliberately.

How many items have their cost buckets not adding up correctly? Do you have any negative costs? If you, like us, by facility, then some files should not have any records with blank for facility ... count how many you have that way in the cost files (there is a bug in CST900 causing this).

ESH ESL is stored in perpetuity if you let it ... ask customer service department how many years they REALLY need to store this shipping history.

Figure out ESN structure then do Query/400 match-3 count records in ESN primary file with no match to whatever the notes are for.

Look at how engineering files are interlinked to item master, then create a report to list orphans ... components with no parents, along with quantity inventory times $ value extended.

We came up with rather extensive modifications to link what raw materials we have in stock to meet needs of end items not ordered by our customers in over 2 years.

With SQL you can count how many ITH records are on items no longer active in IIM. After you see scope of that for one file, think about what other similar scenarios you want to check between detail files and their alleged control files. Thanks to a bug in INV900, if you delete an item master, its history remains to infinity, then if you reassign an old item # to a new purpose, it comes presupplied with corrupted history from the previous use of that item #.

How much negative requirements are driving excess MRP orders you really do not need?

Do not purge history on orders still open, or else you will never be able to purge those orders, but avoid restarting order #s when there is a risk that new orders will be corrupted by history still out there on the last time those orders were used.

BPCS reorg eliminates deleted records on many files, but not all of them. Some hang around in perpetuity until your local BPCS/400 Janitor wakes up to the fact that here is yet another file needing individual attention, like Routings and Vendor Master. ZSC has names of users ... I betcha many in there for people no longer on your staff.

Do you have stuff on order for which the engineering work has not yet been entered? Query/400 can help you identify what may have got overlooked.

Research each reorg before running it ... we have found bugs in more than one of them.

Hi Everyone,
I was wondering what anyone would recommend for file resets and cleanups.
Specifically referring to the SSAZ01 menu of "File resets and Clean Up.
The only ones I run on a regular (monthly) basis are:
INV970 - Lot Loc. Cont Recs w/o Inv.
INV972 - Reset Inventory balance in IIM from ILI
...and I run them in that order.

I've not yet been frustrated enough to run SYS122. (Clear BPCS Files) <grin>
Paul LaFlamme
Manager of MIS
Kennedy Die Castings, Inc.
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