Re: BPCS 6.1 - Switch from Pick Confirm to Ship Confirm

I am now retired from 405 CD,  no longer have BPCS access, writing from
memory.  Plus I recognize some 505CD solutions don't translate well to 6.1.

Some BPCS screens are complex, invite human error.
Fortunately, BPCS order processing uses work members named after work
station, patterned on the master files not updated until shipping person
completed, so it was possible to have them exit, then we clear their work
area, and reset BPCS flags what step they on, and start over, without the
OOPS. We had a program to reset the order in-use flags.
This could not work for the people who insisted on one humongous batch for
an entire day's work.

GL batch with COGS, generated by shipping, can be delayed in posting, and
can be edited, without needing modification.
Within BPCS 405CD we could adjust the  rules for what shipping transactions
going to what GL Journal types, and adjust the rules for that journal
detail, so that we end up with one COGS transaction for each customer order
shipment.  We used SH journal prefix for this purpose.
Then we can pick and choose which COGS batch to post when, first editing
them in BPCS to alter date for the Gen Led.
Very tedious, thanks to high volume shipments data to navigate.  Also it is
impractical to slide across GL fiscal periods.
I think the inventory transaction to GL was in same GL Journal batch as the
COGS transaction, but a delay in posting that is not a problem, since the
inventory quantities are accurate irrespective of what's happening with GL.

We also had the end month unfinished business challenge.
One way that could be handled was to have an end of month set of GL "clean
up" adjustments, then at start of next month have a bunch of reversals of
those adjustments.  That way, end month GL looked nice to finance, without
messing up the rest of the business, while the adjustment journals showed a
clear trail to auditors what all unfinished each end month, that they were
interested in.  

Finance main complaint was volume of inventory on-hand at month end with
negative quantities, because 2nd shift transactions were entered by next day
clerical personnel, and we had float in processing labor tickets, where it
was not unusual to have shipping posted before the parts production entered.
There were also some bugs, where we had inventory, without all the files
populated, so it did not show up on some reports. I called some of these
inventory with null costs, because there was no record for them in the cost
master file.

Our management had added complication that they wanted no audit trail to
tell customers about our mistakes, other than those a customer found out
about independently.  So we were doing a lot of futzing  "outside BPCS
cycles" like editing B transaction before invoicing, editing orders,
adjusting inventory, and GL transactions before they got posted.

Alister Wm Macintyre (Al Mac)
-----Original Message-----
From: BPCS-L [mailto:bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tim Knoebel
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 9:15 AM
To: BPCS ERP System
Subject: Re: [BPCS-L] BPCS 6.1 - Switch from Pick Confirm to Ship Confirm

Thanks for your answer, Dan.

What we really need is a double-edged transaction that at pick confirm time,
the inventory gets relieved and the COGS account does not get hit at that
time.  Then when the shipment is invoiced, the COGS account gets the hit.
It sometimes takes days between when the order is picked confirmed and it is
actually shipped.  At least this is how our Finance department would like it
to work.


Best regards,

Timothy J Knoebel, Sr. iSeries/BPCS Administrator


-----Original Message-----
From: BPCS-L [mailto:bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dan Sweeney
Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 10:04
To: BPCS ERP System
Subject: Re: [BPCS-L] BPCS 6.1 - Switch from Pick Confirm to Ship Confirm

Tim,

Unfortunately most barcode solutions including Infor's Warehouse Mobility
utilize base BPCS/LX programs and the built in customer order life cycle
steps - so the only way to satisfy your finance's request is to enhance the
order life cycle step which is not a trivial task.  Older versions of BPCS
prior to version 4 used to do the 'B' transaction at the time of invoicing
and there was a lot of kick back from the user community to relieve
inventory at the time of shipping rather than Invoicing.
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