RE: CSM Opportunities -- MAPICS-L

Konrad, 

You probably won't believe this, but the substitution situation isn't an 
issue here, for two reasons.

1.  When we set up an item with a substitution, we ALWAYS want it 
substituted. Due to that, I have a nightly "blaster" program that goes 
through the item substitution file (MBDMCPP), and changes the item 
description for all items that are subbed from to read "OBSOLETE - USE 
1234-4321" (where 1234-4321 is the replacement part number).  When our 
CSRs using CSM see that item description, they just immediately add the 
replacement item, then delete the old one.  They tell the customer on the 
phone that the old number is obsolete, and it's being replaced by the new 
number.  The correct price and availability (such as it is) is then ready 
for the new item.

2.  If for some reason the CSR doesn't do this, our end-of-order user exit 
automatically will delete the old number, add the new number, and include 
an item comment "Item substituted for (old number)".  Why do we do this? 
COM_Net.  When one of my customers enters an order through COM_Net, they 
get the "OBSOLETE" item description, but some of them aren't smart enough 
to change the item number.  That means the shipping department had to do 
order maintenance to delete the old number and add the new one.  To 
prevent that, we just wrote code into the end-of-order user exit to 
automatically sub if it finds one.

I know that doesn't fit most people's methodology of substitutions, but 
unlike a lot of companies, we don't offer "possible alternative parts". 
You have to take the correct part.  This is mostly due to how our product 
is designed and produced - we build at least 90% of the components from 
raw materials, and the remaining purchased parts must be the absolutely 
correct part or the unit probably won't work.

Just for curiousity, I did look to see if CSM offers substitution 
checking, and I couldn't find it.  Doesn't mean it's not there, but I 
couldn't see anyplace fairly obvious.  It may be one of those "not there 
yet" pieces, like Kit Processing was.

Dale @ Fleetwood






Konrad Underkofler <kdunderk@hoshizaki.com>
Sent by: mapics-l-bounces@midrange.com
01/16/2003 11:40 AM
Please respond to MAPICS ERP System Discussion

 
        To:     "'MAPICS ERP System Discussion'" <mapics-l@midrange.com>
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: CSM Opportunities


Dale,

Looks like we are toast on the Vertex interface but...

How does CSM handle substitutes? We handle that as well
through a green screen popup offering to substitute then
dragging it back to the order to check availability on
the substitute. Any solution there?

I agree by the way on the 270 performance. We upgraded to
the full two processor version and had our interactive 
response time drop to .1 second and cpu utilization drop
into the 1 to 2 % range from the prior 100%. In good news
though, EPDM and COM still have issues, if they ever worked
well I am not sure what we would have to bitch about...

Thanks

Konrad

-----Original Message-----
From: DaleGindlesperger@fft-inc.com
[mailto:DaleGindlesperger@fft-inc.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2003 10:51 AM
To: MAPICS ERP System Discussion
Subject: RE: CSM Opportunities


Konrad, 

Available to promise isn't an issue for us.  We have a ship complete 
within 24 hours rate of over 98%, except for special order items (our 
sales part forecaster is pretty good!), and we turn most shortages around 
in under a week.  However, I do understand your concern - CSM sure doesn't 

seem to check that out, and it would be good if it could.

As a suggestion, what we do here for some items that we have outsourced is 

that at the end of order user exit, the program checks availability and 
automatically places orders with the vendor for items needed.  We also 
automatically add a comment to the item on the order that says the item is 

a "Non-stock item - will ship within 10 days".  That works for us, but I 
do agree, while on the phone the customer may be expecting it immediately, 

which isn't cool.  As I said, it hasn't been a significant issue for us, 
but it could be for a lot of other companies.....

Dale @ Fleetwood





Konrad Underkofler <kdunderk@hoshizaki.com>
Sent by: mapics-l-bounces@midrange.com
01/16/2003 08:23 AM
Please respond to MAPICS ERP System Discussion

 
        To:     "'MAPICS ERP System Discussion'" <mapics-l@midrange.com>
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: CSM Opportunities


Dale,

How do you do available to promise or let the customer know
what is on hand? CSM just seems to accept any date and any
quantity regardless of the user setup for availability check.
It would be real easy to acknowledge and commit to an order
quantity that we could never ship or override other customers
reqirements.

Thanks

Konrad

-----Original Message-----
From: DaleGindlesperger@fft-inc.com
[mailto:DaleGindlesperger@fft-inc.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 7:13 PM
To: MAPICS ERP System Discussion
Subject: Re: CSM Opportunities


Konrad,

We are using CSM for order entry and maintenance.  It's working fine for 
us, especially after we upgraded our iSeries from a 720 to a 270 server 
model, BUT we are not using Pick-Pack-and-Ship.  We use the Offline 
Shipping Enhancement.  We are using CSM user exits, but only for order 
entry.  I am under the undertanding that the user exits aren't executed in 


the middle of processing, only after you hit the "update" or "post" or 
"create" buttons.

That required that we change how we process the orders somewhat, (we also 
used UMBCOD1R and such to get information in mid-order entry in green 
screen processing) but we had already developed most of the logic to 
handle COM_Net orders, which are also posted in a "batch" type mode, 
loaded through off-line entry.  CSM uses the user exits, but the logic 
must be changed to handle batch mode - no screen handling is available.  I 


have no idea if you can get external code to execute to retrieve 
information for the screens.

This sounds like a good question for Paragon SI.

Dale Gindlesperger
IT Manager
Fleetwood Folding Trailers, Inc.






Konrad Underkofler <kdunderk@hoshizaki.com>
Sent by: mapics-l-bounces@midrange.com
01/15/2003 02:40 PM
Please respond to MAPICS ERP System Discussion

 
        To:     "'Mapics-L (E-mail)" <mapics-l@midrange.com>
        cc: 
        Subject:        CSM Opportunities


Anyone from the user base using CSM to do much other than inquiry?
None of the shipment logic seems in place from availability to promise
on down (or up) depending on your view.

And...user exits. We have the Vertex add on, when entering an order
green screen the select a geocode screen pops up. The same user
exit runs under CSM but gets a device not found error when it tries
to acquire the correct geocode. How is it possible to ask for and
receive info out of the COM user exits under the client architecture?

Thanks!

Konrad Underkofler
Director of IT
Hoshizaki  America, Inc.
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