Re: ECM Order Validation

Craig,

I recently had an 8.1/8.3 client that wrote a preprocessor and brought the orders in thru the release management system. From my recollection they had only a few errors to correct but nothing on the scale you describe. They worked very close with the customer service reps to police these descrepancies.

That is why it is not clear to me that this is entirely an IT problem. If the customer is inventing part numbers, customer numbers, and prices, then perhaps he doesnt understand your trading partner agreement. If he is getting them from someone in your company you have to find a solution that addresses the process for maintaining this data in a more timely fashion.

Regards, Larry Costain






-----Original Message-----
From: craigs@xxxxxxxxx
To: bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Mon, Jun 7, 2010 8:23 am
Subject: [BPCS-L] ECM Order Validation



t has been years since I have posted on this list. I will be reviewing
his list from now on so hopefully I could help someone else too. We are
orking with a consultant but it doesn't hurt to get a second opinion or
oint of view.
he current scenario is that we are on BPCS 4.05CD and planning to convert
o ERP LX 8.3.3. We have a high volume of EDI that we write to XCH/XCL for
O processing. We do our own validation before and after writing the X
iles. Our experience testing ECM on ERP LX 8.3.3 is that it doesn't
andle invalid lines well and also the ability to send 855 PO
cknowledgments up to internal standards. The errors we would need to
alidate would be item errors (not found), price mismatches, warehouse
rrors, and lead time violations. Item errors would be the one error we
ouldn't want to get through. Well, ship to and customer number also but
hat would be abnormal.
et's say for example we get a PO for 100 lines and 10 of those have
nvalid items that need to be set up. In some cases it could be days for
he item to be determined. The way to get these posted would be to have
CM post the good lines which would leave the 10 lines out there as orphans
ithout even a PO header. Then when those items are determined, delete the
ines and add them manually to an order. The consultant mentioned this and
t makes sense because that is how standard BPCS does it in 4.05CD (leaves
rphans). That is why we handle item errors our own custom way which
llows reprocessing. Instead of item errors, say they are lead time
iolations. We have our own screen in 4.05CD that would allow accepting
hose violations and entering the new scheduled date which, by the way, the
ew date would be required to be sent on PO ack's (855's) as well. Also,
rice errors would allow being accepted. Again, we would need to be able
o send an 855 with "accept with price pending" if we don't agree to the
rice. This would need to set the status for posting from ECM even though
he prices don't match. Also, the ability to reject any of those lines and
end the 855 rejection before those post.
Leaving orphan errors and not allowing revalidation is unacceptable in high
olume situations. The manual entry and manipulation would be a huge waste
nd ludicrous. We are considering a preprocessor to ECM which would
ulfill our requirements. We have considered writing the TOHB, TOLB, etc
ith a certain status to skip ECM for errors. Then set the status when
ood or accepted. We have also considered writing the XCH/XCL (X files) or
imilar files like in 4.05CD which would be validated and feed the TOHB,
OLB, etc. Then there are the adapters for customizing validation but I
hink I am talking about handling errors in a customized way that wouldn't
equire extra manual manipulation. Then being able to accept/reject (also
ith possible 855's for certain customers) before the order is posted.
Any suggestions? Am I missing something? Will ECM really do more than
hat we think? Has anyone worked around this that could share, please?
Thank you for any input.
Craig Strong