We all know the term “current documentation” is an oxymoron, right?  As soon as the words hit paper, something changes. Then processes become outdated. Assess the current state of documentation Some businesses – especially those who are federally regulated – have very good business process documentation....

01 June, 2021

Tennessee is a hotbed of manufacturing. We are so proud of our state! As of 2017, nearly 350,000 Tennesseans were employed in manufacturing. During this time, the state exported nearly $32 billion worth of manufactured goods. Additionally, at a national level, U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders totaled...

25 January, 2021

We had the privilege to sponsor and present at the recent Tennessee Manufacturing Association Road Show focused on Recovery. It is a multi-week event spearheaded by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Tennessee Manufacturing Association. National and state manufacturing experts shared their...

18 November, 2020
On June 12, 2020, Infor released Version 8.00B of Fourth Shift® ERP, the most recent update of Fourth Shift® available to the public. Within release 8.00, Fourth Shift provided the ability to control which accounts can be used for Inventory Adjust (INVA) and Expense (G-type) Purchase Order (POMT) transactions. However, this functionality is not enabled out-of-the-box, and instead must be turned on to be active.  Once this logic is turned on, only accounts that can be used for these two transactions will be allowed.  Selecting an account that is not permitted will generate an error message and not allow the transaction to be completed.
30 June, 2020
The Gateway Work Center (WC) field in Fourth Shift is maintained on the ‘Item Master Planning Detail’ screen. However, most companies don’t know what it is used for and often leave this field blank or use the default value of ‘GATEWC’. Let’s take a quick look at why this field exists and how your business could be leveraging this functionality. 
24 June, 2020
Within Fourth Shift, purchasing items to receive into inventory is a straightforward process.  To start, create a purchase order header that identifies the supplier. Then, add a line for the item to be purchased including the item, quantity, price, delivery date, and line-type ‘P’, the most-commonly used in this situation. However, there are other line-types that can be used on purchase orders. Most buyers are familiar with ‘G’ type lines for expense or general ledger purchases or ‘S’ type lines for sub-contract manufacturing purchases. But, have you ever used the ‘M’ type line for direct purchases to work-in-progress (WIP) for a manufacturing order (MO)? Let’s briefly explore how this works.
22 May, 2020
Is your business really capturing every cost associated with production? What happens if products need to be reworked or repaired due to errors in production, or engineering changes that didn’t get caught in time? Let’s take a look at rework manufacturing orders (MO) and how they can be used to capture incremental production costs you may be missing to complete your total financial picture of the shop floor.
12 May, 2020