Research and Development BAAN IV b New Functions in BAAN IV b
Contents
1. 8 Tools Log points will be inserted in the standard program and at any place in 4GL scripts These log points functions make use of the available data at the moment of logging for example a session name For identification reasons two numbers need to be added The bshell number involved A log event number The server needs to add these indexing numbers for two reasons 1 Each server adds the bshell number of the bshell by which it is started there is no need to send this bshell number to every session that is started 2 The server can ensure a unique incrementing event number Considering the logging events the important information is Date Time e User name additional not necessary Level e Session code Section name for level 1 or higher e Start end Comment optional 8 6 SQL processor enhancements Several enhancements are implemented in order to improve the performance and stability of SOL processing These enhancements do not affect the functionality of the database driver they merely enhance the internal functioning of the SQL processing 8 7 BBASE enhancements Various enhancements are added to BBASE especially in the areas of data consistency and recovery As with the SQL processor enhancements the functionality of the driver is not affected only the internal functioning of the driver is improved 8 8 Oracle driver with distributed option The Oracle driver has been extended wi2. Full update using actual master data Interfaces Interface between Sales Statistics SST and Commissions CMS Changes to Standard Code for Multisite Introduction Replication Central Purchase Contracts with Decentral Purchase Orders Multiserver Customer and Supplier Files Finance Accounts Payable ACP Central purchase invoice matching amp decentral purchase order processing Authorization procedure for purchase invoices Document tracking Parent child structures for suppliers Cash Management CMG Receipts for multiple companies Improved customer statistics Improved cash forecast General Ledger GLD Ledger and dimension history Column balance Multisite structure Performance optimization Manufacturing Performance improvements Splitting of MRP amp CRP parameters Lead time offsets Net change MRP Net change MPS Enterprise Modeler Enterprise Modeler BRG Wizards 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 1 3 2 3 2 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 4 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 New Functions in BAAN IV b v New Functions in BAAN IV b 8 2 8 3 8 4 8 5 8 6 8 7 8 8 8 9 9 1 9 2 9 3 9 4 9 5 9 6 9 7 9 8 10 10 1 10 2 10 3 New Functions in BAAN IV b vi Transportation Distribution Requirements Planning DRP Containers in DRP Constraint Planning Intelligent Resourc
3. are used to set company specific parameters e Wizards can be changed built into the repository and linked to business functions New Functions in BAAN IV b 5 1 5 Enterprise Modeler New Functions in BAAN IV b 5 2 BAAN 6 Transportation 6 1 Distribution Requirements Planning DRP Containers in DRP In BAAN IV a containerized items were introduced in almost every relevant module except DRP With the introduction of BAAN IV b containerized items are also fully supported in all business objects of DRP In the bill of distribution a hierarchical structure is implemented The system first consults the bill of distribution on item container level If data is not available at this level the item level will be consulted and so on BAAN New Functions in BAAN IV b 6 1 6 Transportation New Functions in BAAN IV b 6 2 BAAN 7 Constraint Planning 7 1 Intelligent Resource Planning IRP The main change in BAAN IV b is the support for hybrid production situations with MPS MRP for both non Process and Process items based on multilevel BOMs and formula structures This functionality is designed for situations where Process and non Process items are produced together BAAN IV b contains IRP which provides most of the MPS functionality required for the Process package IRP introduces constraint planning techniques on MPS level The BAAN IV b release of IRP combines constraint cyclic planning and traditio
4. earlier versions it was not possible to change the base company once it had been entered by the user Now the base company can be changed if necessary for example if the company structure must be changed at a later implementation stage A report has been added to print intercompany relations for a selected range of intercompany relations A report has been added to print intergroup relations for a selected range of intergroup relations A report has been added to print a selected range of non posted intergroup transactions Performance optimization In BAAN IV b the performance of many sessions has been improved The most significant improvements are achieved in the area of posting integration transactions and the finalization of batches New Functions in BAAN IV b 3 2 BAAN 4 Manufacturing 4 1 Performance improvements BAAN software opts for an optimal support of business procedures which cannot be reached without the best performance To ensure a high level performance for various critical sessions new features are available in BAAN IV b From now on programs can be run parallel to each other which means that from a program running in any bshell another program can be started in a separate bshell This enables BAAN to spread workload across the available processor capacity Another feature to run programs faster than ever is loading various tables in cache memory to realize a very fast data access Sever
5. non Process items and uses them in planning PMG batches and SFC orders In this way hybrid planning structures are supported for situations where both Process items PMG production batches and non Process items SFC orders are used in production processes New Functions in BAAN IV b 7 1 7 Constraint Planning New Functions in BAAN IV b 7 2 BAAN 8 Tools 8 1 Baan Windows BW configuration The configuration and and set up of BW and its environment has been redesigned Storage of variables BWINI Save variables p Save and Get variables r lt user gt i gt Get variables l registry i or WIN INI l l Figure 8 1 The old architecture Storage of variables Executables BW INI j SETUP EXE Configfile BW EXE registry dm i249 CONFIG Figure 8 2 The new architecture BW can directly connect to the BAAN system or start the configuration tool Functionality has been added to the configuration tool which makes it more flexible to the end user BW EXE config lt file BWC gt BW EXE lt file BWC 4 Login dialog m Y Y Configure create file EWC Yes Get Username Get Password Y Start configure Run No Configure Y Connect BW Figure 8 3 Flow of Start up and C
6. seconds New information in the statistics includes the average days overdue the credit limit and the percentage of the credit limit used Improved cash forecast In the Cash Management CMG module a cash forecast can be generated The purpose of this forecast is to provide information about the expected liquidity position for any currency on any date in the future The cash forecast includes information from both the financial and the logistical applications sales invoices purchase invoices sales orders purchase orders sales quotations project orders standing orders and budgets Several inconsistencies in the cash forecast have been eliminated in BAAN IV b 3 3 General Ledger GLD Ledger and dimension history In BAAN IV b more options are available for inquiries into the ledger and dimension history It is possible to view transactions in the history for a range of periods In addition it is now easier to browse through the history information Column balance In addition to the trial balance reports a new report is available to print debit credit columns New Functions in BAAN IV b 3 1 3 Finance Multisite structure Some changes have been made regarding intercompany and intergroup relations Transactions between two or more groups of companies are temporarily recorded in the base company These transactions become non finalized transactions after running the Create Intergroup Transactions session In
7. the Exchange Tool and Distributed Data Collection DDC have failed to meet all of the following requirements for a BAAN API e Absence of code duplication e Direct access to BAAN business logic e No requirements for customer access to or use of BAAN application source code e Easy transition from one version of BAAN to another next version The API provides external non BA AN applications access to the same business transactions that users have when using BAAN IV b through one of the standard user interfaces By using the API tools such as DDC and Exchange can meet all the requirements mentioned previously To this end the standard program has been extended The standard program with API provides a standard set of primitives that external applications can use to perform actions against the BAAN database using BAAN business logic This set of primitives corresponds to the current choice commands available to users of the BAAN applications Since this version of the standard program is derived from the original the environment remains the same The primitives are accessed by means of the BAAN Message System BMS protocol available in the bshell BAAN A possible usage of this product is shown below 4GL DLL s Std Prog w API A ASCII File Bshell In this diagram a 3GL I O Handler program reads an ASCII file and updates the BAAN database by using the primitives provided by the standard progr
8. BAAN IV b m New Functions in BAAN IV b Functional Release Information P3000C US BddN Research and Development New Functions in BAAN IV b New Functions in BAAN IV b BddN New Functions in BAAN IV b Document information Document Number P3000C US Type Development Document Department Research amp Development Name New Functions in BAAN IV b Version GC Date December 1996 Baan Development B V All rights reserved The information in this document is subject to change without notice No part of this document may be reproduced stored or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical for any purpose without the express written permission of Baan Development B V Baan Development B V assumes no liability for any damages incurred directly or indirectly from any errors omissions or discrepancies between the software and the information contained in this document New Functions in BAAN IV b BAAN New Functions in BAAN IV b New Functions in BAAN IV b BddN Table of Contents 2 2 2 3 2 4 3 2 3 3 5 1 5 2 BddN Common Electronic Data Interchange EDI Error handling Previewing incoming data Single file layout option Performance boosters Distribution Commission and Rebate Management System CMS Commissions paid to employees Purchase and Sales Statistics PST SST Random selections for all statistics levels Sublevel of discount code
9. Commissions CMS In BAAN IV a the commission and rebate CMS module was added to the standard package In the BAAN IV b release the interface between sales statistics and the commissions rebates module is new This makes it possible to present commission and rebate information together with statistical information Two new entries Commission amount and rebate amount are available in addition to the existing entries amount quantity alternative quantity discount cost of sales and gross profit All functions for the existing levels are also available for the new entries 2 4 Changes to Standard Code for Multisite Introduction Baan has made several changes to standard multisite functionality Below you find a description of the modifications as well as background information on why the changes were made In most cases the changes were required to accommodate multiserver situations The changes are Central purchase contracts with decentral purchase orders Multiserver customer and supplier changes Replication There are numerous references to replication of data in the following descriptions Baan does not provide synchronous replication tools for these specific changes Decisions must be made within each implementation as to the appropriate method and procedure for replication of data The Baan Exchange Tool or a replication mechanism provided with the database may be used New Functions in BAAN IV b 2 1 2 D
10. DDC message queues and for general performance tuning New Functions in BAAN IV b 9 2 BAAN 10 Available Documentation 10 1 Product Information New Functions in BAAN IVb GLO P3001A US Sizing Guide TRITON 3 1 TRITON Tools 6 1 Sizing Guide BAAN IV P3002A US P3004A US 10 2 User Documentation Installation Guides Installation Guide for BAAN IV on UNIX Installation Guide for BAAN IV on ORACLE Installation Guide for BAAN IV on INFORMIX BAAN IV Installation Guide for DB2 Conversion Guides Conversion Guide TRITON 3 0 3 1 to BAAN IV User Manuals Common User Manual 1 COM MCS Parameters Common User Manual 2 EDI Constraint Planning CLP RMP RPD RPU Distribution User Manual 1 CMS RPL SMI Distribution User Manual 2 PUR PST Distribution User Manual 3 SLS SST Finance User Manual 1 ACP ACR CAL FBS Finance User Manual 2 CMG GLD Manufact 1 ITM HRA BOM ROU CPR RPT Manufact User Manual 2 MPS MRP CRP SFC BAAN U7016A US U7028B US U7029A US U7030A US U7025A US U7007A US U7006A US U7002A US U7008A US U7009A US U7010A US U7011A US U7012A US U7013A US U7014A US Manufacturing User Manual 4 GRT PCF Param Process Reference Manual Keywords amp Methods Process User Manual FRM ROU PMG Param Tools Programmer s Manual U7015A US U7004A US U7005A US U7021A US For User Manuals about o
11. Error processing and transaction logging Transactions arriving to DDC in offline mode that contain errors are not returned to the front end for correction because the DDC module assumes that the user is no longer available at the data entry device for error correction The incorrect transaction is logged to an error log for later correction and processing The user is provided with a transaction error correction screen in the DDC module to correct errors in this log The corrected transaction will be immediately submitted to BAAN IV b for processing The user has the ability to report and manage the error log Since online transactions that fail validation are immediately returned to the front end and to the data collection device for direct correction no online transactions are written to the error log All transactions that successfully update BAAN IV b are written to a DDC transaction log Capability to report and manage the DDC transaction log is available New Functions in BAAN IV b 9 1 9 Utilities 9 5 Function servers Function Servers are the BAAN sessions that e Perform a transaction e Validate a field against a table Download data to the front for local validation The following BAAN functions were originally released in 3 1b GLO and are now available for BAAN IV b Labor Hours Accounting HRA Manufacturing Deliveries SLS e Receipts PUR e Cycle Counting The following BAAN functions are new in BAA
12. IV b contains a report for printing all postings that have been made for an invoice The report shows all registration approval and correction postings for a particular invoice After the invoice has been authorized by all persons and departments defined in the authorization scheme it can be approved Parent child structures for suppliers Parent child structures can be created by means of the existing factoring company functionality The factor company is used as the supplier s parent company It is possible to print open entry reports including data of related suppliers BAAN 3 2 Cash Management CMG Receipts for multiple companies In BAAN IV b the process of assigning unallocated receipts in a multisite situation has been improved In earlier versions an unallocated or advance receipt for invoices from several companies could not be assigned in one step The received amount first had to be distributed over the companies after which the amounts could be assigned to the invoices In BAAN IV b the unallocated and advance receipts can directly be assigned to invoices of several companies Improved customer statistics In BAAN IV b the customer statistics customer rating based on his payment record have been improved It is now possible to update the statistics for a range of customers As it is no longer necessary to do a complete run of this program the user can get up to date information on a particular customer within
13. N IV b Deliveries for ILC SLS e Receipts for ILC PUR Generate and Release Inbound Movements ILC Generate and Release Outbound Movements ILC Enter Inventory Transfers ILC e Cycle Counting ILC 9 6 Function server generation A new tool for generating function servers is being introduced in BAAN IV b This tool significantly cuts down the development time in creating new function servers Creating a function server is simply a programming process that converts a standard BAAN session into the function server This typically includes writing 4GL code to convert the basic session function into the function server as well as making additional changes to handle error checking and handling The function server generator cuts down the development time by creating most of the code for a new function server It uses the original script of the session that is being converted to create the actual function server Depending upon the complexity of the original session a generated function server script is anywhere from 75 to 95 ready to run 9 7 Function server testing A function server testing process is introduced in BAAN IV b to let the user test a new function server without requiring the use of actual collection devices This function is useful in testing and debugging new function servers without disrupting the DDC system already in use on the shop floor 9 8 Miscellaneous Utilities are available for maintaining
14. al sessions have been improved with these two kinds of performance functionality Splitting of MRP amp CRP parameters A major change is done in the Capacity Requirements Planning CRP calculation principles In former BAAN versions the planning horizon for Material Requirement Planning MRP and CRP could not be specified separately Now changes were made so that MRP CRP parameters can be split A separate planning horizon can be specified for CRP This useful and practical change will substantially reduce the MRP runtime to approximately 50 of the previous runtime The sessions affected in this case are Generate Planned MRP Orders timrp1210m000 and Plan Production Orders ticrp0201m000 Lead time offsets In addition to the split up of the MRP and CRP horizon BOM items can have a Lead Time Offset LTO This means that if a CRP horizon has been specified and the requirement date is after the date determined by the CRP horizon the start date will be calculated with the LTO data kept per BOM component So the start date will in such cases not be determined from the corresponding routing which optimizes the run since data so far ahead do not have to be that accurate Net change MRP To simplify MRP net change runs the net change option will no longer be set for all components of one BOM but only for the component affected by a modification This reduces the impact of a BOM change considerably These three topics all will rai
15. all servers have complete data for all customers and suppliers in all companies All existing sessions that read these fields have been changed to read from the new tables e g credit checking BAAN 3 Finance 3 1 Accounts Payable ACP Central purchase invoice matching amp decentral purchase order processing In earlier versions the purchase tables of companies within one group had to be linked physically This could cause the following problems e If for some reason or other the server goes down and one central purchase order file is used a large part of the companies can not work anymore e The shared purchase tables became very large which can result in disk space and performance problems e If several companies made use of the same order number series the six positions available for the order number in some cases were not enough to produce unique order numbers In BAAN IV b all logistic companies belonging to the same group can get their own purchase tables This solves the problems mentioned previously Authorization procedure for purchase invoices The authorization procedure which was already available for preregistered invoices is now also implemented for registered invoices This makes it possible to link an authorization scheme to a purchase invoice After the invoice has been authorized by all persons and departments defined in the authorization scheme it can be approved Document tracking BAAN
16. am with API It is possible to replace the T O Handler with an Exchange Object or a DDC function server The users of this product are application programmers constructing interfaces between BAAN and other third party programs Due to the nature of the primitives provided the standard program maintains a state or set of values for its variables This restricts the architecture so that one instance of the standard program can only talk to a single instance of the I O Handler or another process like that This product will be superseded by the new interface methodologies being developed in BAAN V and BAAN VI The functions provided in this interface will be supported in these new releases The functions will become available in DLLs in later versions 8 5 Code instrumentation Code instrumentation as a built in facility of BAAN IV b is meant to obtain insight in the processing time consumed by the standard program and the 4GL sections it handles It is designed for workbench developers without tools authorizations to test the performance of their newly developed software In order to gain time performance insight the beginning and ends of sessions 4GL sections and other user defined program parts are logged The logging itself must be distinguished from the storing and retrieval of the time flow information The following picture shows the logging of events on different levels for sessions 4GL sections and user defined log poi
17. ase Acknowledgement Despatch Advice Iss x Despatch Advice Sales Invoice SLS X Finance Purchase Invoice Remittance Advice CMG Transportation BONNET Transportation Order Transportation Order Acknowl troc X Inbound Order Inbound Order Acknowledgement TOC X Outbound Order Outbound Order Acknowledgement troc X Supply Chain Oo Purchase Schedule psc X Sales Schedule SSC Sales Shipping Schedule ssc x Purchase Shipping Schedule Advanced Shipping Note ssc X Advanced Shipping Note Application Advice psc X Application Advice Receiving Acceptance Advice psc x Receiving Acceptance Advice SSC The current structure of the EDI module provides the user the flexibility to add new messages in an easy way Each combination of a message and a direction requires a specific program dll For a new message only a new dll needs to be developed which can be included in the EDI structure without changes in the EDI module itself 1 2 Performance boosters Several boosters have been introduced to influence the performance of particular sessions Totally new are table boosters to set tables the user wants to load into cache memory This kind of reading data will provide fast data access and result in a considerable performance improvement In addition performance boosters can be maintained A new feature is that sessions can be run using multiple bshells which is enabled by the new performance booste
18. ation or an upgrade The objective is to prevent installations being aborted or having to be repeated The tool may also be used to check operational BAAN software environments The main checks conducted by preinst are e Kernel parameters e Database parameters versus kernel parameters e Checking single multi byte database e Using raw devices or file systems in case of a RDBMS e Disk space and available space in table spaces e Maximum file size e BAAN users e TCP IP configuration e Environment variables e Runtime environment versus data dictionary New Functions in BAAN IV b 8 2 Possible options for faster installation e Install data e Checking tables e Customization VRC e Existence of fixes e Client server installation The tool uses a configuration file which can be adjusted to new operating systems new versions of BAAN software etc The tool uses this configuration file to perform the checks The output of the checks are written to a log file which may be used to solve problems but which is also used for dynamic kernel tuning if the operating system allows such tuning to take place 8 4 Application function server Most businesses today use a heterogeneous mix of applications As these applications have to communicate with each other each application must provide an Application Program Interface API The BAAN family of applications is no exception Thus far the two major ways of interfacing with BAAN
19. ay e An Activity Category may be linked to an activity e A Start State and an End State of a process can explicitly be determined AFile Browser has been created for importing an Enterprise Modeler version dump The help pulldown menus of the editors now have the appearance of MS Windows applications Help information on an activity or business function can be displayed by clicking on a help topic and selecting a component The user will then be asked if the Common repository or Specific model help must be started When leaving the business function Project Model the user is asked whether or not to apply wizards If all wizards are filled correctly the user is also asked whether the parameters must be saved to the database If the Model is changed by adding or deleting business functions the user is asked to perform consistency checks transform BF Models into Business Process Models set parameters based on rules set static conditions based on rules and save parameters to the database An extra description can be defined by version and reference model This description is displayed and printed at the bottom of the diagrams The extra description of the version is displayed in the repository and the extra description of the model in the model diagrams BddN 5 2 Wizards A start wizard is used to configure model the BAAN application e In the business function Project Model user friendly wizards
20. cular system with BAAN IVb compared to TRITON 3 1b is now 20 instead of 30 This is observed in the host mode with the Oracle database and TTY interface Batch processing Also batch processing is in many sessions optimized The optimizations are achieved by reducing database Input Output I O and through parallel processing The first way of optimization reduces the overall load of a batch process The second way reduces the runtimes of batches by utilizing multiple CPU s in a system The achieved improvements of the runtimes from batches is in between the factor 2 and 10 This depends on the type of batch session and the underlying data structure MS Windows GUI The MS Windows GUI makes higher demands on system requirements and resources BAAN IV b includes a number of performance improvements One example is the handling of menu bars and toolbars As these are almost identical in all sessions templates have been introduced to reduce network traffic The reduction of network traffic is achieved by specifying the changes in the template instead of sending the complete menu bar or toolbar information This performance measures does not affect the look of BW in any way 8 3 Pre install checks A new tool called preinst has been developed This tool checks during an installation whether several conditions are met It does not update or change any parameters and or environments It only gives an advice The tool is used before an install
21. e Login Dialog Box Figure 4 shows the Login Dialog Box in which the user must enter a password The user name can be changed The Connect button activates the BW connection the Start Config button activates the configuration tool 8 2 Performance improvements General BAAN IV a has made a far greater impact on system resources than was expected during its development To improve performance the tools have been optimized in several areas Since the increase in load of BAAN IVb is in the application layer due to the GUI it is recommended to use a client server solution The client hardware application server can be based on Windows NT and can be implemented in two different ways One way is to implement an Windows NT application server serving a group of users The other way is to have every user running Windows NT on his desktop as an application server fat client Baan Development will test over the next couple of months what the requirements are to implement the latter The server hardware database server could be either UNIX or Windows NT based depending on the environment New Functions in BAAN IV b 8 1 8 Tools The improvements on the interactive processing are achieved by moving scratch tables to memory removing the skip io command in many sessions and changing SQL statement to avoid unnecessary database I O This has reduced the incremental load of BAAN IVb The decrease of the maximum number of users on a parti
22. e Planning IRP Tools Baan Windows BW configuration Password security Performance improvements General Batch processing MS Windows GUI Pre install checks Application function server Code instrumentation SQL processor enhancements BBASE enhancements Oracle driver with distributed option DB2 6000 database driver Utilities Distributed Data Collection DDC DDC setup Communication Error processing and transaction logging Function servers Function server generation Function server testing Miscellaneous Available Documentation Product Information User Documentation Installation Guides Conversion Guides User Manuals Miscellaneous Training Materials Module Descriptions BddN 6 1 6 1 6 1 7 1 7 1 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 1 8 2 8 2 8 2 8 2 8 3 8 4 8 4 8 4 8 4 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 1 9 2 9 2 9 2 9 2 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 10 1 New Functions in BAAN IV b About this Document Highlights of BAAN IV b This document describes the new functionality of BAAN IV b as opposed to BAAN IV a The main change in BAAN IV b is the support for hybrid production situations with MPS MRP for both non Process and Process items based on multilevel BOMs and formula structures This functionality is designed for situations where Process items and non Process items are produced in combination BAAN IV b contains Intelligent Requirements Planning IRP which provides most of t
23. eases the amount of network traffic among the data collection devices as well as between the front end and BAAN IV b The attributes include data typing template matching and prefixes data identifier Each field in a transaction can contain a data identifier prefix to make sure the bar code is of the appropriate data type The prefix is part of the bar code but not part of the data item itself BddN It is stripped off of the bar code before presenting the rest of the data field for validation if required ANSI FACT 1 data identifier standards are used for prefix support 9 3 Communication Each transaction can be configured from the front end with the desired method of communication with the DDC module On line offline and on offline communication methods are all provided Prior to the BAAN IV b release the user had to choose one of the following download options when starting the DDC server Menus only Functions only Neither menus nor functions Both menus and functions As of the BAAN IV b release the user now only has the options to start the DDC server with a full download of both menus and functions or no download If No Download is specified the devices simply come online with their previous menu structures If Full Download is specified the new downloaded menu structure will replace the old menu structure on the devices This was done to make programming for the front end vendors less complex 9 4
24. for a particular fiscal year and period Paid and partially unpaid commission are made visible in this business object 2 2 Purchase and Sales Statistics PST SST BAAN IV b includes the following enhancements to the purchase and sales statistics Random selections for all statistics levels In previous releases it was only possible to print consecutive ranges of information In BAAN IV b it is also possible to specify random nonconsecutive selections In the layout codes it is possible to define a nonconsecutive selection of customers for printing statistical information Sublevel of discount code In BAAN IV a multiple discounts per order line was introduced It was possible to link a discount code to each discount level BAAN IV b offers the possibility to define budgets and to compose reports based on discount codes In budgeting a total discount amount has to be defined which can be divided over various discount codes BAAN The print sessions allow the user to select on discount level and to print a specification per discount code Full update using actual master data Full update of statistics can now be done either on the basis of historical data or based on the actual data in the master tables For each statistics level country customer and so on it is possible to choose whether the update should be based on historical data or on actual data 2 3 Interfaces Interface between Sales Statistics SST and
25. he MPS functionality required for Process The release of IRP combines constraint cyclic and traditional infinite MPS planning with coproducts The BAAN IV b development focus for Electronic Data Interchange EDI and Distributed Data Collection DDC was primarily to develop the following standard requirements Reconstruct the EDI technology base Enhancements to selected EDI transactions Moving DDC functionality from the GLO localization to the standard BAAN package Several performance improvements have been made to BAAN IV b In BAAN Tools the Windows interface bshell and the standard program have been optimized For applications it is possible to spread the workload of critical batch programs across the available processor capacity This is possible for example for a Material Requirements Plan MRP run BAAN New Functions in BAAN IV b vii New Functions in BAAN IV b New Functions in BAAN IV b E BAAN 1 Common 1 1 Electronic Data Interchange EDI The BAAN IV b release includes a number of enhancements to the standard EDI module These enhancements provide improved functionality in the processing of incoming EDI messages and fall into the following three categories e Error handling e Data preview and manipulation Single file layout option The underlying process by which documents are imported into BAAN IV b has been modified to improve the processing viewing and manipulation of incoming EDI d
26. istribution Central Purchase Contracts with Decentral Purchase Orders Background of the Change Prior to this change the standard functionality assumed that purchase contracts would not be centrally managed The functionality did not provide an option for storing and analyzing contract history for multiple logistic companies from a single company Many of Baan s customers do however manage purchase contracts centrally The entry maintenance and analysis of the contracts is done by one department while the contract terms and pricing apply to the entire organization and therefore to all logistic companies in the organization For this reason Baan has changed the standard software so that central contract management is possible Description of the Change The logistic company number is now stored in the purchase contract history with this information being available in the sessions accessing contract history If contracts are to be centrally managed the contract tables may be logically linked If the structure consists of more than one server replication of data across servers not logical linking is advised This method is preferred because network downtime on the contract server would cause contract data to be inaccessible to the logistic companies How this functionality is used depends on the initial setup of the logistic company tables Restrictions If contracts are created at both the central company and other
27. logistics companies ranges of contract numbers should be used From the central contracts company it is not possible to define delivery schedules or binding quantities per company Multiserver Customer and Supplier Files Background of the Change Prior to this change standard functionality allowed central management of the customer and supplier tables through logically linking the tables When the structure consists of more than one server Baan advises against logically linking tables across servers because network downtime on the central server would cause downtime for processing in finance and logistic companies on other servers The replication of data can usually be used to keep master data consistent across companies and servers However the fields New Functions in BAAN IV b 2 2 order and invoice balances and the five turnover values are dynamic and may be updated by any company For this reason Baan has changed the standard software so that while not logically linking the tables across servers the values of these fields are updated for all companies on all servers and are available to all companies on all servers Description of the Change Two new tables have been added to manage the balance and turnover fields from the customer and supplier files These tables may be logically linked within a server where they will store the data by company number The data in the tables must then be replicated across servers so
28. nal infinite MPS planning with coproducts Another important functionality includes extensive Available To Promise ATP techniques that can also be used to accept customer orders and determine delivery dates based on the availability of capacity and components ATP can be checked and updated on item as well as on product family level IRP also supports central and decentral supply chain planning both on item level as well as on product family level Supply chain planning takes into account the constrained availability of capacity and or components of supplying sites by using the advanced ATP techniques of IRP IRP supports MPS for containerized items There are various possibilities to use the MPS planning for containerized items In case of non containerized items this distinction will not be made See the following table Main item MPS Main item not MPS End item MPS Combined MPS Containerized MPS End item not Aggregate MPS Not considered by MPS MPS An end item is a container and a main item is a container related item Containerized MPS In this case all end items are MPS items it is not possible to have only one end MPS item while the main items are not planned by MPS So MPS planning and forecasting are only performed for the containers The planning of the main item is less relevant Aggregate MPS In this situation the MPS planning is only done for the main items It is not possible to use MPS planning for containe
29. nts The solid arrows stand for the log points The Code instrumentation addition to BAAN IV meets the following requirements e Logging time flow data Time flow data is logged to gain insight into the performance of BAAN IV sessions by placing time logs at carefully chosen source code points BAAN 8 Tools J ASCII File begin end user def log begin ends of 4GL sections f session x 1 begin end of session x begins of bshells n amp nl ends of bshells n amp n 1 Levelled logging The points for placing time logs can be divided into different levels level 0 start end of 4GL session level 1 start end of every 4GL section e g before input after choice update etc other levels start end coded by the user in the 4GL scripts e Optional logging Running BAAN IV with or without time logging depending on the user s choice The following picture gives an impression of the BAAN IV environment in which the logging mechanism is integrated The picture shows one bshell although the user can activate multiple bshells Each bshell starts its own server It is the server that handles the multi tasking of different sessions Both sessions standard program and the 4GL scripts and the server are able to execute DLL functions session xt session x standard progam 4GL bms functions b shell New Functions in BAAN IV b 8 3
30. ocuments The module now supports the following functional requirements Error handling Improved error handling provides users with the ability to easily view correct and resubmit incoming documents processed with errors using BAAN IV b sessions Facilities for online error review and online data review and correction are available Previewing incoming data Users have the option to view by trading partner and message type incoming documents prior to the EDI processing Optionally users can also view and manipulate incoming data via BAAN IV b sessions prior to bringing documents into the BAAN IV b base application If this option is not used documents will be processed and updated into the BAAN IV b base application directly without user intervention Single file layout option In earlier BAAN versions the EDI module required incoming documents to be split across multiple files one for header data one for line item data and so on In many cases however third party EDI translators used in conjunction with the EDI module expect all data associated with a particular document to be contained in a single file In order to provide maximum flexibility BAAN IV b supports both single and multiple file layouts BAAN The matrix below shows all the messages supported in BAAN IVb Message by package Direction m Out Distribution Purchase Order IPUR X Sales Order SLS Sales Acknowledgement Isis X Purch
31. onfiguration BW The configuration of BW can be started by running BW with the option config from the login dialog or during initial setup BW can be started with BW lt file BWC gt BWC stands for BAAN Windows Configuration file The configuration file can be activated by an icon or by the File Manager Associate BWC files with BW EXE In the old situation all information such as defaults and configurations etc was stored in the BW INI file Due to the inheritance of BX running under UNIX there were r lt user gt files These files have now been removed BAAN This means that algorithms have changed We have now introduced configuration files The BWC configuration files hold all information needed to connect BW for only one connection to a server These config BWC files can be started directly by BW Password security In the old situation when creating a new configuration you needed to add the encrypted password to the BW INI file In the new lt config gt BWC file it is still possible to add the password in the configuration file but it is not necessary The password field can be left empty Before BW starts the Login Dialog Box will pop up in which user name and password can be specified at runtime The password is not stored in a file Connect Hostname Cancel Username jan Password donee Start config Figure 8 4 Popup of th
32. r Number of Servers New Functions in BAAN IV b 1 1 1 Common New Functions in BAAN IV b 1 2 BAAN 2 Distribution 2 1 Commission and Rebate Management System CMS Commissions paid to employees In BAAN IV b a business object is added to the CMS module in order to handle commission payments to employees sales representatives Calculating Commissions To Employees CTE was already possible in BAAN IV a but the procedure to handle the actual payment was not yet available Since actual payment of CTE is not done by invoicing procedures but via payroll payments this additional business object manages the financial aspects of CTE After the CTEs have been calculated and financial reservations made a report can be generated which shows the re calculated CTE This report can be handed over to the financial controller handling the payroll transactions After actual payment of commissions by means of payroll transactions debiting the correct ledger account for reserved CTEs the financial controller informs the CMS controller about these payments by passing on the listing of re calculated CTEs This is where the new business object starts The CMS controller can register the actual payments with it Within this business object a balance report shows the balance of calculated CTEs and after handling this payment procedure the balance amount will be equal to the ledger account balance in Finance indicating the reserved CTEs
33. rized items aggregate data Combined MPS In this scenario the main item is handled as a product family and is planned by MPS The containers end items are also planned by MPS So the MPS has multiple levels Using this BddN scenario short term planning and ATP checks can be performed at the container level Long term planning after the container specification time fence can be done at the main item level family level The following MPS functionality is supported by Manufacturing Process rather than by IRP e MPS planning BOMs are applicable to containers e The MPS bill of critical materials may include both BOM and formula data For example an MPS bill of critical materials can contain lines not only for critical materials but also for critical co and by products e Bills of material are not applicable to containers only to non containerized process items Formula and Process routing information is considered e nterplant supplying sites are applicable to containers e Orders are generated by Manufacturing Process rather than by IRP If IRP is used MPS production orders MPS production batches MPS interplant orders and MPS purchase orders are generated by MRP and stored as planned MPS orders These are applicable to containers e Scheduled production batches derived from the MPS are generated by MRP and stored as planned production batches MRP considers the requirements for both Process items and
34. se BAAN to a higher performance level BddN Net change MPS A great new functionality of BAAN IV b is the possibility to generate Master Production Schedules MPS based on net changes similar to net change MRP The Net Change MPS option can be set to Yes when a modification has occured which would cause an adjustment to the schedule So from now on it is possible to choose whether a regenerative or a net change run should be done or not New Functions in BAAN IV b 4 1 4 Manufacturing New Functions in BAAN IV b 4 2 BAAN 5 Enterprise Modeler 5 1 Enterprise Modeler BRG e A version may be protected by setting authorizations Users can be authorized for all versions or for specific versions The setting of authorizations is protected by a password Versions without specific authorizations are fully accessible by every user tis now possible to save utilities by version Employees and Roles by Employee are now stored by Project Model The number of positions for the employee code has been increased from 6 to 8 Parameters can be retrieved by their descriptions Only a part of the description will suffice to find the parameter Templates for the different text types can now be defined by version An example of a text type is Business Function Text in the repository A Petri Net syntax check can be run on a number of Business Processes Loops Deadlocks and Loose States can be traced in this w
35. th a feature that enables the driver to access data in distributed databases using Oracle s Distributed and SQL Net capabilities database links This allows distribution of application tables across different Oracle instances on different systems while transaction consistency is enforced by Oracle s two phase commit protocol New Functions in BAAN IV b 8 4 The distributed option when enabled through an environment variable or resource requires a new format of the Baan configuration files ora users ora groups and even requires additional configuration files Therefore this methods must be considered a completely new setup which also touches security issues like users groups and roles The option is available for the combi driver which means for both the level 1 and level 2 driver 8 9 DB2 6000 database driver DB 2 is a popular database from IBM that runs on MVS AS400 and RS 6000 BAAN IV b supports DB2 6000 running on the RS 6000 under AIX BAAN 9 Utilities 9 1 Distributed Data Collection DDC DDC was originally released as a GLO Global Localization for North America enhancement in the 3 1b release With the release of BAAN IV b DDC is included in the standard product while being imported at the same time DDC lets users enter data into Baan IV b in real time by using devices other than traditional data entry terminals as well as letting users use foreign control systems A number of different bar coding ke
36. ther modules see the documentation for BAAN IVa Miscellaneous BAAN IV b Rapiditas Performance Guide 10 3 Training Materials Module Descriptions Constraint Planning Resource Planning Data Constraint Planning Resource Plan Units Constraint Planning Resource Master Planning Constraint Planning Cyclic Planning Enterprise Modeler Supply Chain Sales Schedule Control Supply Chain Purchase Schedule Control Supply Chain Self Billed Invoicing SBI M2002A US T6013A US T6014A US T6015A US T6016A US T6004A US 7796 US 7797 US 7798 US For other Module Descriptions see the documentation for BAAN IV a New Functions in BAAN IV b 10 1 10 Available Documentation New Functions in BAAN IV b 10 2 BAAN
37. ypad devices can be used to enter data These devices can be handheld batch or RF controlled as well as direct connect entry terminals The DDC system currently supports bar code wands badge swipe readers laser scanners CCDs and keypad entry DDC is independent of the bar code hardware selected by the customer However the hardware vendor must supply a software front end that controls their devices in order to communicate with the BAAN IV b interface The hardware suppliers EPIC and Intermec provided the original interfaces to DDC for 3 1b The DDC communication functions with the hardware will vary by vendor 9 2 DDC setup The exact menu of transactions available for a particular factory data collection device is controlled by DDC Menus are defined in DDC and downloaded to the front end to control the data collection devices The flow of the transaction prompts are also controlled by DDC The transactions are defined in DDC and are also downloaded to the front end DDC supports multiple methods of data entry validation The three methods supported include e Field validation within BAAN IV b e Field validation by front end e Transaction validation within BAAN IV b Attributes can be assigned for each data field These attributes are used by the front end for doing data validation locally before passing the request to BAAN IV b for full validation This allows many errors to be caught at the data collection device level and decr
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