DMAS Enhancement Brief

Transcription

1 DMAS Enhancement Brief A DMAS enhancement from I/O International, Inc. Inventory Management Enhancement with Additional Tools and Reports The Inventory Management Enhancement for iseries 400 DMAS from I/O International provides significant ease-of-use functionality based on standard DMAS Work with architecture to a number of inventory management entry functions. It also adds functional reporting tools that the user can use to measure and report the actual service level achieved over a specified period of time for individual items as well as groups of items. This enhancement provides: A new inventory management item inquiry function based on work with architecture. A Work with architecture front-end for the inventory management item maintenance function. The capability to enter demand patterns as either multipliers (as previously) or as percentages. Standard F4=Lookup functions added to most inventory management maintenance functions. Standard DMAS item search added to several functions to aid in finding items in the DMAS item master file. A new history load function for new inventory management items, loading up to 52 periods of history if the DMAS inventory control history function is active. The ability to define which inventory control warehouse record statistics, for a given item, should be accumulated into a single inventory management item record. Several reporting tools to help the user determine such things as which items in the item master are not in the I/M item file, actual service level achieved at an item and/or group level over a period of time specified by the user, etc. Inventory Management Enhancement The focus of the I/O Inventory Management Enhancement is to provide for inventory management entry functions, similar ease-of-use work with architecture as other DMAS functions, and F4=Lookup capability for entry capable fields that relate to records in compainion DMAS files. This enhancement also provides an easy to use inventory management item inquiry function, making it extremely easy for a buyer to quickly view various pieces of inventory management data, including item history, current forecast, etc., for I/M items. In addition, this enhancement offers the ability to customize (performed by I/O personnel at the time the enhancement is installed) how statistics are to be calculated, what is to be included or excluded, and if records in multiple inventory control warehouses should be accumulated into a single inventory management record, by item. This enables the user to have specific DMAS warehouses to be considered as overflow warehouses to a base warehouse. In turn, passing item statistics to inventory management that much more closeley represent the actual activity for each item and thereby produce more meaningful and accurate item forecasts. 6/23/2006 2:57:00 PM EB_IME.doc Page 1

2 Interactive Item Maintenance Item maintenance (for the inventory management item file), within the inventory management application, is upgraded significantly with this enhancement. A new work with front-end is provided and displayed as the first screen when initiating I/M item maintenance. The functionality of the I/M item maintenance work with approach is very similar to the design and functionality as provided in the User Friendly Maintenance enhancement from I/O for the DMAS Item Relationship, Contract, and Price Book maintenance master files, and other data entry functions in DMAS that are based on work with architecture. This approach to item file maintenance significantly improves user productivity and reduces data entry errors. Instead of being required to know the complete item number (which the user may have to look up in a report or determine from some other source), existing item records are displayed in a list from which the user merely selects a record by keying a simple option adjacent to the item desired. Selection fields are provided for the user to search for items and/or limit the list of displayed records to only those that meet the keyed criteria. In many cases, the list screen (in one of the available alternate views) displays data pertinent to each item and may be sufficient for the user s needs so that it is not even necessary for the user to display the detailed record. If the user intends to change the record, the detail record is displayed via a change option and data that is allowed to be changed may be easily changed by the user. To add a new item record, a function key is provided that causes a modified version of the previous Begin Maintenance screen to display. The new version of this screen however, is populated with F4=Lookup capabilities for the vendor number and descriptive search fields. In addition, the standard and powerful DMAS Item Search function (that searches the DMAS item master file) has been added and may be invoked by pressing a function key. This search function may be very helpful when adding existing inventory control items to inventory management. Maintenance screens for maintaining various item details, such as inventory information, buyer overrides, item demand history, and forecasting, remain essentially unchanged. However, F4=Lookup functions have been added to support the purchasing vendor item number input 6/23/2006 2:57:00 PM EB_IME.doc Page 2

3 capable field (on the Inventory Information screen) and the demand pattern number input capable field (on the Forecasting screen). I/M Item Inquiry The I/M Item Inquiry function is a new function (with its own menu option) that is also provided and installed with the I/O Inventory Management Enhancement. It is actually a sub-set of functionality found in the new I/M item maintenance function, but does NOT allow the user to make any changes, deletions or additions. I/M Item Inquiry includes the initial work with screen that lists existing items, has two alternate views in addition to the initial view, and provides access to the new Buyer item Information screen for any given item. The initial view of the Inventory Management Items list screen displays basic information about the listed items including item number, warehouse, item description, vendor number and vendor name. The user may use the selection line to search any one or more of the listed fields. Alternate view 2 displays the item type for each listed item, the most recent demand forecast, and the six most recent months of history. Alternate view 3 displays buying related data such as vendor, item type, demand pattern id, demand forecast, absolute deviation in units, service level objective, current quantity available and month to date demand. Additional item information, in which the buyer may have interest, is available by simply keying an option adjacent to the item of interest. The Buyer Item Information page displays item data that previously was only available during the process of reviewing suggested orders. Vendor Maintenance & Review Time Analysis Both the vendor maintenance and analyze review time functions have been updated with the addition of an F4=Lookup function being added to the respective Begin screens. 6/23/2006 2:57:00 PM EB_IME.doc Page 3

4 The F4=Lookup function has been added to the input capable vendor number field on both screens. With the F4=Lookup capability, if the user does not know the exact vendor number, a window is displayed listing the existing vendors. The vendor lookup function may be used to find the vendor by scrolling through the vendors listed in the window or using the selection fields to search for the vendor by vendor name or buyer number. The analyze review time function works in a similar fashion. When maintaining a vendor master record on the Vendor Information screen, the F4=Lookup function has also been added to the input capable fields Demand pattern number and Purchasing vendor number. In either case, existing records are displayed in a window for the specific field. From the window the user may select a specific record or search for other records by using the selection fields. Demand Pattern Maintenance The demand pattern maintenance function has also been updated with the addition of the F4=Lookup function being added to its Begin Maintenance screen. The lookup window displaying demand patterns also has selection fields, allowing the user to search for demand patterns based on demand pattern descriptions. In addition, the window displays 12 periods of multipliers for each demand pattern as well as the total number of periods for each demand pattern and the value to which the demand period values total. The user may choose to view the monthly demand pattern values as percentages by merely pressing a function key. When doing so, each demand period value is then displayed as a percentage of the total. When maintaining a specific demand pattern, the demand pattern values are displayed as both multipliers and percentages, each on a separate line. The user may select either type of values as input capable by pressing a function key, and then entering new values according to the line selected (multipliers or percentages). 6/23/2006 2:57:00 PM EB_IME.doc Page 4

5 Daily / Monthly Updates from Inventory Control The daily and monthly inventory management update jobs have been updated in a couple of areas: 1. The daily update job now writes records to a new item statistics file in inventory management. This file records demand activity at an item level on a daily basis and is used as the primary data source to the new Inventory Management Item Service Level Statistics Report, also added when installing this enhancement. 2. Daily and monthly update functions may now be customized to include or exclude various types of item activity as the demand data and item statistics for each item are determined and written to inventory management. This customization capability gives the user the ability to determine whether or not certain types of item activity should be included or excluded as values are calculated for inventory management such as direct sales, existing item demand in open orders, inter-warehouse transfer activity (if the I/O Inter- Warehouse enhancement is installed), items going into assemblies (if the I/O Work Order enhancement is installed), etc. Customization also gives the user the ability to define which warehouses in inventory control should be accumulated as a single warehouse in inventory management and which warehouses should be kept unique, providing more meaningful and accurate item forecasts and allowing centralized as well as decentralized buying policies. NOTE: The customization referenced above is performed by I/O technical personnel at the time the Inventory Management Enhancement is installed. It IS NOT a tailoring option directly available to the DMAS user. I/M History Load Previously, the inventory management history load function was used to load sales history from DMAS sales files for items newly added to inventory management. The sales activity was limited to 12 periods of history and was a total accumulation of sales for all warehouses. It was not possible to load history into inventory management at a warehouse level basis if so desired by the user (to support forecasting and buying on a warehouse by warehouse basis). The updated inventory management load function now loads history from the inventory control history file (if inventory control history is being captured) and includes loading up to 52 periods of history per new item. In addition, the history values retrieved from the inventory control history file will include and exclude in the update, various transaction types as defined in the customization (as described in the discussion above under the topic Daily / Monthly Updates from Inventory Control). Miscellaneous Tools and Reports The I/O Inventory Management Enhancement also provides various inventory management reporting tools. These tools allow the user to determine discrepancies between item files in DMAS inventory control and the inventory management item file, such as items in the inventory control item master but not in the inventory management item file, items in the inventory control item balance file but not in the inventory management item file, etc. In addition, a new report, the Inventory Management Service level Statistics Report, is provided with this enhancement. The Inventory Management Service Level Statistics Report gives the user the ability to view actual service levels attained within a specific period of time, at an item level and/or an item group level. The user can look at a single or all vendors, a single or all warehouses, a single or group of selection group ids, and a single item or all items. The user also determines the beginning and ending dates of the time frame that the report is to consider. 6/23/2006 2:57:00 PM EB_IME.doc Page 5

6 SUMMARY In summary, the I/O Inventory Management Enhancement for the DMAS provides a significant ease-of-use and functional improvement to the DMAS inventory management application, raising it up to a level that is more consistent with other DMAS customer service applications. Additionally, it provides new reporting capabilities that may be used as tools to better understand service level achievements and manage items within the application. And, perhaps most important, it can be implemented rapidly within your business, because it is not some offline, standalone application it s an already developed solution, specifically designed by I/O International to be fully integrated in real-time with DMAS, the enterprise platform that is the foundation of your systems. I/O International stands ready to help you with any and all aspects of implementing this enhancement as needed, from initial consultation, to customized services, hardware, and ongoing support. In addition, we ve developed a number of other enhancements to DMAS. If you re interested in the I/O Inventory Management enhancement, you might also want to consider: User Friendly File Maintenance (for the Item Relationship, Contract, and/or Price Book master files) Inventory Control Transaction Entry Inter-Warehouse Transfers Work Orders for Light Manufacturing & Assembly For more information about these or other DMAS enhancements, please contact: Joel Kabe (770) jkabe@iointernational.com -or- Timothy LuBell (914) tlubell@iointernational.com Enhancements for iseries 400 DMAS from Suite 2002 Pinewood Business Center Somers, New York iseries and iseries 400 are registered trade marks of International Business Machines Corporation DMAS is a trade mark of Infor (previously Agilisys, Aperum, Software Solutions, Inc.) IBM is a registered trade mark of International Business Machines Corporation Copyright I/O International, /23/2006 2:57:00 PM EB_IME.doc Page 6