BPCS Item Undertaker Putting old items to rest with less digging

Transcription

1 BPCS Item Undertaker Putting old items to rest with less digging More details about Item Undertaker functionality The software has some very intriguing and unexpected features which are presented below in the form of responses to questions potential users are likely to have: Question A: We have a very, very large number of items to deactivate. Does Item Undertaker have a way to deactivate them en masse? Yes, a Mass Delete function is available that allows the entire list of Items on Death Row to be removed at one time, without use of the BPCS Item Master Maintenance program. The process is submitted as a batch job when a function key is selected. This function key is unavailable to the user until all manual roadblocks have been removed for all items on Death Row, regardless of Category. The en masse deactivate function key requires password verification. Note: Some of our customers have reported successfully deactivating several tens of thousands of records over a single weekend. Here s an approximate educated guess: using vanilla BPCS / ERP LX functionality for that size job would probably require ± a decade of 40 hour weeks. Question B: We d like to know more about how nomination score points are assigned to each of the pre-programmed selection methods. Can we change the relative weight of those point assignments based on the needs of our business? Yes, you can move the point weightings as often as you like. When the selection analysis process is then run again, the content of the nomination list will change according to each point weight adjustment. It s also possible to assign a negative point value to a selection method. Let s say you have a database of items that can t be deactivated for regulatory reasons. You could employ the exit point functionality (see Question A above) to search for presence in that regulatory database. A large negative point value could be assigned to items discovered by that selection method, negative enough to overwhelm any other database selection results. That would cause those regulatory database items to be excluded from any Item Undertaker nomination list. Question C: Will we be able to figure out why a given item ended up in Item Undertaker s deactivation candidate list? Affirmative. Users will be able to inspect the component parts of each item s nomination score. In addition, users have the option of selecting candidates by reason(s) for selection and/or type(s) of roadblock encountered. That selection functionality would enable a user to consolidate items with the same roadblock finding into a deactivation approval batch. Page 1 of 5

2 Question D: Is the database scan nomination process the only way to populate the deactivation candidate list? Can we select items for deactivation analysis in other ways? Yes, and here s an example: Let s say you ve got thousands of items carrying a **** discontinued part # **** warning in the item description field. It would be easy to perform an Item Undertaker selection on that field and then consolidate some of those items into a deactivation approval batch. The product s manual selection functionality supports a wide array of selection criteria to isolate a group of item master records and then move those items into the deactivation candidate list. Question E: What happens when an item is assigned to a deactivation approval batch and then the engineering change analysis process reveals that the item should definitely not be deactivated? When information emerges to save an item from Death Row, the user would then remove the item from the deactivation approval batch. Item Undertaker will then prompt the user for a Reconsider Date decision. If the user responds by entering a date six months into the future, that would postpone any further Item Undertaker attention until the system clock advanced beyond that horizon. An entry of 12/31/9999 would permanently exclude the item from prospective Item Undertaker nomination lists. The Reconsider Date response for a given item can be maintained. Question F: For those items that are transferred from a deactivation approval batch to Death Row, which categories of roadblocks are removed automatically by Item Undertaker? Some manual roadblock removal attention is demanded by good business practice. For example, it s not a good idea to remove a Death Row item from a bill of material without figuring out what part number should replace it. Automatic roadblock removal commences for a Death Row resident once Item Undertaker determines that all the need-to-go-look references have been resolved. Item Undertaker then overwhelms and defeats everything else, including roadblocks that can t even be seen without very extensive and sophisticated database digging. For example: Vanilla INV100 occasionally gets stuck at a roadblock that directs the user to use CST100 to delete CMF record. However, CST100 doesn t show any trace of the CMF record that INV100 is complaining about. That s because CST100 doesn t show or permit maintenance on 0 Bucket records. That genre of hidden puzzle might cause a BPCS user to throw in the towel and suggest **** obsolete part # **** text for the item description but Item Undertaker automatically finds and cleans the mess out, defeating even invisible roadblocks. Page 2 of 5

3 Question G: We would ask different subject matter experts in our company to clean out different categories of need-to-go-look manual roadblocks. Would Item Undertaker facilitate that kind of segregate-the-work-effort approach? Affirmative. Items residing in Death Row can be grouped by type of manual roadblock and then a Removal Action Plan can be generated for a given group. For example, Death Row items which required resolution of bill of material issues could be assembled into a group. A Removal Action Plan for that group could then be forwarded to an individual with product structure savvy. He/she could then use the Removal Action Plan like a roadmap to efficiently resolve all BOM references. In like manner, a Removal Action Plan for Death Row items which have a non-zero inventory balance could be prepared and forwarded to a subject matter expert in the warehouse. Question H: Internal control requirements at our company would require us to route each nomination batch to several different people so they could review/approve any transfers to Death Row. How does your software facilitate that batch review process? Once the population in a deactivation approval batch is finalized, the Approval Solicitation Report can be produced. From that point forward, the integrity of each batch is sustained. Items can be removed from a batch per Question E above, but no additional items can be added to a batch. Item Undertaker tracks each item through the entire process. The tracking continues through the nominated for deactivation analysis stage, the Death Row transfer decision, and the final soft deletion. A given item s relationship with a specific batch is sustained even once the item has been transferred to Death Row. Rejected nominations and Reconsider Date assignments are also tracked. Any individual who is authorized to approve a transfer to Death Row can enter the deactivation approval batch for a given item. That instantly connects him/her to drill-down details under each category of roadblock that Item Undertaker has discovered for that item. For example, Item Undertaker would present all of the BOM structures which include the nominated item. This drill-down functionality is interactive. The information is also available in printed form in Removal Action Plans generated for Death Row residents (see Question G). Page 3 of 5

4 Question I: Will your Item Undertaker software be compatible with our particular version of BPCS or ERP LX? The version of Item Undertaker we deliver will depend upon the version of BPCS your company is using. Before delivering a demo of Item Undertaker, it will be necessary to complete a data gathering form about your iseries configuration and the BPCS version you use in production. Item Undertaker performs every conceivable roadblock check for every version of BPCS. The number of checks that arrive with vanilla BPCS has increased from the v4.x level; however, not even ERP LX/v8.3 approaches Item Undertaker s degree of thoroughness. You are invited to call one of our technical people for illustrations: (888) Question J: If an item number resides in a deactivation approval batch, will Item Undertaker exclude the item from prospective nomination lists? Affirmative. Death row residents are also excluded from nomination lists as are items which are already soft-deleted. Question K: What if we make a mistake and end up soft-deleting an item that should have never been transferred into Death Row in the first place? That unfortunate possibility inspired us to program a password-controlled hook into Item Undertaker that can be used to enforce engineering change sign-off before any transfers to Death Row can be executed. If your company elects to by-pass the internal control discipline provided by Item Undertaker, then accidents may happen. Your company could recover from a mistake like this with substantial manual effort. Item Undertaker software records and saves a complete history of data record removals that it automatically performs. This history would be available interactively and also in the form of a printed Removal History report. The data removals can t be reversed automatically, but at least you would have a list of the damage done. The product does not control nor maintain history for data that has been manually removed by users. However, if you had saved the Removal Action Plan report pertinent to the accidentally deactivated item, that would help. That report would have a list of each item reference that had required need-to-go-look roadblock removal attention. With that report, at least you d have a starting point to search for, copy, and restore data from a back-up copy of your iseries environment. It s a big job but it could be done. Page 4 of 5

5 Question L: Our manufacturing company has customized BPCS. Some of the non-vanilla data introduced by these customizations would be pertinent to both the nomination point accumulation process and the process of automatically removing roadblocks before deactivation. How does Item Undertaker handle that? Unbeaten Path thought about that during the initial design phase for this software. Item Undertaker can be easily configured to employ user-designed custom programs that look for or automatically clean out item number references in non-vanilla BPCS databases. If required, user-invented need-to-go-look roadblocks can be added to the predeactivation analysis process. Item Undertaker is delivered with fullycommented sample source code programs for each of these purposes. Users have the option of launching these programs through an exit point in Death Row processing. Unbeaten Path Page 5 of 5