Implementation Accelerator Food & Beverage Solution Overview

Implementation Accelerator

Food & Beverage

Solution Overview

Attribution Patrik Sjoberg

Stewart Williams

Laurence Ledoux

Michelle Srour

Date January 2019

Infor M3 – Solution Overview 2

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Table of contents 1. The Food & Beverage IA Solution Characteristics ............................................. 4

1.1. Collaboration ....................................................................................................... 5 1.2. M3 Role Management ........................................................................................ 6 1.3. Ming.le Homepages ............................................................................................ 6 1.4. Pre-Configured Database and Workflows .......................................................... 6 1.5. Predefined Process Descriptions / Test Case Documents ................................. 6 1.6. Predefined e-learning Material ............................................................................ 7 1.7. Predefined Mashups ........................................................................................... 7 1.8. Multi-Unit Coordination (organization) ................................................................ 8 1.9. Logistics Organization ........................................................................................ 9 1.10. Customers ......................................................................................................... 10 1.11. Products and Items ........................................................................................... 11 1.12. Real Time Execution ......................................................................................... 13 1.13. Other Industry Specific Fundaments, Processes and Structures ..................... 13

2. Delivery of Business Process Support.............................................................. 14 2.1. Process area Master Data Management .......................................................... 14 2.2. Process area Order to Cash ............................................................................. 18 2.3. Process area Warehouse Management ........................................................... 22 2.4. Process area Distribution to Internal Invoice .................................................... 23 2.5. Process area Procure to Pay ............................................................................ 25 2.6. Process area Production to Inventory............................................................... 31 2.7. Process area Inventory to Managed Packages ................................................ 38 2.8. Process area Inspection to Approval ................................................................ 40 2.9. Process area Graphical Lot Tracker ................................................................. 42 2.10. Process area Demand to Plan .......................................................................... 43 2.11. Process Area Freight Costs to Charges ........................................................... 45 2.12. Process Area Financial Plan to Report ............................................................. 46 2.13. Process Area Maintenance to Work Order ....................................................... 50

3. Delivery of General System Support ................................................................ 51 3.1. Security configuration ....................................................................................... 51 3.2. Electronic Signature .......................................................................................... 51


1. The Food & Beverage IA Solution Characteristics

The IA Food & Beverage solution has been designed to meet the demands from the fast-moving industry supply chain considering short order-to-delivery cycles as well as the handling of perishable products and raw-materials through all processes.

Retailers and wholesalers specific demand for advanced prices and discounts is taken care of. Order entry variants for repetitive ordering from retail and food services as well as less frequent and even ad-hoc ordering from industry and Specialty customers are all catered for.

The procurement, manufacturing and warehouse processes are all designed to handle the highly focused issues around food safety and quality assurance. Quality inspection activities and lead times securing safe products are built in as natural components of the overall solution. Lot handling and expiry dates, last sales and best before dates enable traceability and fresh products on the store shelf and on the table.

The finance area is pre-configured supporting financial management processes as well as financial controlling. Main process areas such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, general ledger, product costing and internal accounting is part of an integrated solution. For more complex operations, you will also find processes for multi-legal companies spanning one or more countries. The multi-unit coordination concept (MUC) has been activated and documented to cover these processes.

In planning, we focus on customer service levels and the availability of the final products. In all areas, we try to highlight the crucial components improving the availability. We have identified the following areas as crucial for the Food & Beverage Company:

Forecasting (manual) with effective follow-up of forecast versus demand and the accuracy measured as Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD).

Lead times including any time required for inspection of materials and end-products.

Delivery & departures issues and goods receptions with the possibility to define rules down to the minute.

Stock levels reflecting the actual situation in the warehouse at any point in time.

Shelf life and last sales dates on lots and the calculation of excess stock levels during the material requirements planning (MRP) triggers actions to consume materials or increase demand of end-products.

In the warehouse area, the goals are set on enabling accurate availability as well as the possibility to secure FEFO-deliveries and accurate traceability sets some specific demands on the processes. Stock transactions must be performed close to the actual event minimizing any delays causing discrepancies between actual and system stock levels. Reporting of stock issues must be accurate down to the lot level to ensure the customer receives the correct goods and to enable the increasingly important capability of tracing goods through the supply chain.

The critical measurements of the results in terms of sales, revenues and profitability are possible through the advanced price and discount handling measuring each discount reducing your profit margin. Online sales statistics sets your eyes on the target from day one.

Finally, the most crucial master data management processes, covering item, products, customer and suppliers, are designed to set a solid foundation for the integrated solution and processes delivered by the proposed solution for the Food & Beverage Company.


Picture: All major processes across your company are designed to create an integrated solution to grow from – never losing the focus on simplicity.

1.1. Collaboration

The pre-configured processes and workflows all focus the issue of smooth collaboration across departmental boundaries. Every process is described from a business activity point of view as well as a responsibility perspective. All the hand-shakes needed to secure the crossing of boundaries and domains within the company are clearly defined.

The value of this focus on collaboration and process integration is well-defined actions and outputs from the processes securing superior quality at the customer side. Collaboration and integration also help you reducing lead times in all processes and specifically in the customer facing processes where the time between order and delivery is in matter of hours rather than days.

The IA database is ready for integration with the following applications:

Graphical Lot Tracker (Version 16.1.0 only)

Scheduling Workbench

Factory Track

Warehouse Mobility

Fresh Food Planner

Analytics

PLM Optiva through the Item Data Interface.

Most of the transactions performed at the warehouse, inbound, in-house or outbound, may be reported through M3 in an interactive mode or through Factory Track with a portable device. Whenever possible, both options have been described.

The IA solution provides the documentation to complete the configuration in M3 Business Engine (BE) and in M3 Graphical Lot Tracker (GLT) once GLT has been installed and the main users and roles have been defined. It also helps the M3 users to use M3 GLT in close relationship with M3 BE through a set of typical situations and scenarios encountered in the F&B industry.

EDI and other customer integrations are outside the scope of this IA solution.


1.2. M3 Role Management

The Infor H5 user interface enables the users to personalize views by means of: hyperlinks, shortcuts, and document links. Infor M3 IA F&B supports various roles within your company. A number of industry-related roles have been configured and each of them has a specific role-based menu tailored to support their daily tasks to be performed in Infor M3. The following roles have been pre-defined:

Customer Service / Sales Manager

Customer Service Operator

Buyer

Purchase Manager & Operator

Manufacturing Manager & Operator

Warehouse Manager

Logistics / Warehouse Operator

Finance Accountant & Financial Controller

Accounts Receivable, General Ledger & Accounts Payable Controller

Plant Maintenance Manager & Technician

Quality Manager / Lab

Planner

Systems Manager

1.3. Ming.le Homepages

Example Infor Ming.le Homepages, an example IA Workflow and Homepage user guides and an overview document are included within the IA solution. These Homepages have been developed with certain roles and associated M3 users in mind and in line with the M3 Role Management detailed above.

1.4. Pre-Configured Database and Workflows

One major deliverable in the IA solution is the pre-configured database containing comprehensive set of settings and tables. Many settings and transaction types have been defined to control the proposed processes and workflows suitable for the Food & Beverage Industry.

General tables such as currencies, languages, terms and conditions have been pre-defined where applicable. External terms texts have been translated into 5 languages.

To support the system interaction for the individual roles we have defined many workflows (sequences of screens), views and sorting orders (online queries) to support the specific needs from the industry.

All the processes and workflows have then been verified and approved by experienced Infor services personnel.

1.5. Predefined Process Descriptions / Test Case Documents

Implementation Accelerator process description / test case documents are provided in all pre-configured function groups detailing step-by-step activities involved in completing each process. They contain process maps (Visio drawings), overviews and for each activity there are sections for the input required, the process overview, detailed tasks involved in the process, the resultant output, important settings configured in making the process operate in the described manner and a section on useful tips. In addition, to double up as a test case that can be used as a base for the testing phases in the implementation, there are also as set of test case variants for project teams to consider.


1.6. Predefined e-learning Material

One of the main features of the IA solution for each industry solution is e-Learning content generated from the Infor BPM product and published on a web portal. There is a series of around 500 connected HTML pages which connect all the elements of a solution using easy-to-locate links to other supporting documentation including the process maps, sample documents and process descriptions / test cases by navigating through “point and click” methods.

Examples - HTML pages for a sub-process using e-learning

1.7. Predefined Mashups

The IA Food & Beverage solution comes with five mashups. These mashups use the IA F&B settings, especially sorting orders and views.

They can be used with the H5 user interface


They are part of the following processes:

Process area Order to Cash

Customer Service: Starting from the list of customers, the user can display and manage different types of information: either linked to the customer: main customer information, addresses, blanket agreements, item/customer information, or linked to its offers, batch orders, orders, deliveries and invoices.

Process area Procure to Pay

Purchase Planner: Starting from the list of purchase order proposals, a responsible can display and manage different types of information: purchase order proposal main details, item and supplier data, planned transactions, alternative suppliers, agreements, availability in all warehouses, stock transactions history.

Process area Production to Inventory

Product Overview: Starting from a product, a user can display and manage different types of information: main product information, costs, bill of materials with the cost of components, bill of labor, manufacturing orders, product stock and plan, stock history, QI specifications.

Manufacturing Controller: Starting from the list of manufacturing orders, a responsible can display and manage different types of information, either linked to the manufacturing order: main details, bill or materials and bill of labor, or linked to the product: product plan, stock transaction history, manufacturing statistics.

Process area Master Data

Item overview – Starting from an item you can display item details, logistics and planning information, planning, on-hand balance, transaction history, costing, item statistics and QI specifications.

1.8. Multi-Unit Coordination (organization)

IA for F&B is set up for a multi company environment across different countries. It covers deliveries from different divisions, facilities, and countries as well as transfer between warehouses. This is obviously supported by the necessary internal invoicing activities that go along with these types of transactions.

The basic setup has been designed to scale for companies or enterprises spanning multiple legal units and countries. The Multi Unit Coordination concept (MUC) has been activated including three different divisions representing 3 different legal units. There is one legal unit in the US, with a full set of processes including manufacturing, another legal unit in Ireland acting as a sales and distribution unit and a third in Germany used to build in a separate chart of accounts with German language translations across several finance functions.

The different needs for handling VAT, Intrastat and Sales Tax has been implemented in each of these divisions along with separate charts of account.

M3 IA F&B recognizes the following entities: Company, Consolidated divisions, Divisions, Facilities and Warehouses. Roughly the company and division level are the “financial” areas whereas facilities and warehouses are considered to be the logistics and planning areas. The configuration set up is shown in the following standard company structure:


The financial and logistical structure is prepared to handle multiple legal units and multiple warehouses.

1.9. Logistics Organization

The internal logistics configuration includes 6 warehouses representing a manufacturing site (in the US), four distribution warehouses (in the US, Ireland and Germany) and a warehouse representing a subcontractor site.

The Warehouse

Within a warehouse we divide the warehouse into stock zones and stock locations where stock zones are used for grouping locations within an area. Stock zones are then further used for searching and selecting locations during put-away and for dividing the task of picking a delivery into multiple picking lists. Another classification of stock locations is location types which we will use for quantity controlled allocation during picking. A typical use would be to control allocation of pallets or large quantities towards pallet- and bulk-locations while small quantities are allocated towards the pick-face location.

The priorities for setting the warehouse structure within the Food & Beverage Company are:

A location structure for finished goods which is detailed enough to guide the pickers and ensure the right products and lot-numbers to be picked are actually found and shipped. If quantity based picking is an existing practice this will be implemented also.

Avoid the need for a “shadow” book-keeping (existing excel sheets etc.) of stock due to missing locations in the solution.

Our consultants will demonstrate the possibilities by defining and categorizing the warehouse. The actual definition and categorization is then performed by the Food & Beverage Company.

The pick teams and pickers is another dimension that can be added to the warehouse. This is not incorporated in the IA solution and initially we see the use of stock zones to divide picking lists etc. as sufficient.


Picture: A warehouse can be divided into zones and location types. The picture shows different zones that serves different purposes. The zones and location types supports the processes of selecting the correct locations during put-away as well as allocation during picking.

1.10. Customers

Within the IA solution we have included a number of customer templates enabling quick establishment of new customers. A number of customer examples have also been added for training and educational purposes. The main customer channels to be regarded during the configuration of the sales and order fulfillment processes are:

Retailers and retail chains.

Food Services

Independent Wholesalers

Industry customers

Specialty customers

For each category, we have proposed several basic coding and settings to support the process variants described in the process area Order & Delivery.

1.10.1. Customer Business Chains

Specifically, in retail and food services, large organizations own chains of retail stores or food service operators. In our solution, we use the Business Chain concept to build and describe relationships in the multi-layer retail- or food service chains. The business chains can then be used for various purposes needed by “The Food & Beverage Company” such as:

Grouping of statistics.

Controlling pricing and various business rules.

Used to generate target groups for promotions.

Used to assign assortments and customer item/specific data.

Goods Receipt

Raw Mtrls

(GR)

Goods Receipt

Packaging (GP)

Production Area (PR)

Freezer (FR)

Cooler (CO)

Raw materials

- Non Temp (RM)

Packaging materials (PM)

QI

Buffer (BU)

Pallet Rack (RA)

Pick Face (PF)

Pack / Dock (PA/DO)

Cross Dock (CD)

QI

Rejected goods

Rejected goods


Used to assign payer.

Etc.

1.10.2. Customer Assortments

For some customers, you need to control which products a customer can buy or should buy from your company. In the solution, we recommend the assortments to be used for both purposes. Assortments can be linked and coded on customers to achieve for examples:

The customer can only buy from specific assortments.

The customer service representative can enter an assortment and bring up all items for quick entry of order lines.

An assortment is automatically proposed for quick selection during order entry.

1.11. Products and Items

Within the IA solution we have included several item templates enabling quick establishment of new customers. A few item examples have also been added for training and educational purposes.

The Food & Beverage industry faces some very specific challenges due to the characteristics of the materials consumed and the products produced. Direct materials and products have been grouped into the main categories described below.

1.11.1. Purchased Items

Raw materials / Ingredients:

Raw materials are faced by variability and a limited “shelf-life”. In the IA solution, we propose closer care and control of lots and quality inspections to comply with industry standards and regulations. The raw material may then be divided into two sub-groups applicable in those cases when one or a few raw materials dominate the planning and costing issues. For examples in a dairy the planning and costing of the raw milk component is crucial and may here be separated into a specific element in the costing model. The remaining raw materials are also important to cost and plan but are grouped together in “other” raw materials.

In addition to this high-level grouping into a “main raw materials” and “other raw materials” item type, other more detailed groupings exist to be used in searching, reporting etc.

Packaging materials

Packaging materials are usually more straight-forward than raw materials, without the issue of shelf-life and variability. Still packaging materials are divided into two item types:

Labeled packaging materials which are printed or marked. They are often uniquely connected to one or a few end-products. The life-cycle of labeled packaging is often shorter since packaging tends to be re-designed frequently. Therefore, these items are separated into a specific group enabling specific care and focus during planning and acquisition. Quality inspection may often be applied to verify the actual print and content of the labels during goods receipt. Specific goods receiving methods are designed to handle labeled packaging.

Other packaging materials include packaging that are shared across multiple products and that are planned without the close link to one end-product.

Indirect Materials

Indirect materials can include a variety of purchased items that are NOT directly related to the production of food products. This also means that the purchase process is not driven from the automatic MRP-generated purchase proposals, but from a request that has been initiated manually. Types of items classified as indirect materials include:


Office supply or other consumption driven materials from outside the main food production process.

Spare parts driven by the need for maintaining or repairing equipment in the production process.

Larger investment items such as office equipment, furniture, machines etc.

All these categories of items follow a process that is very much different from the highly automated and repetitive process represented by the direct materials. The process often includes a requisition and approval process before a purchase can be performed.

1.11.2. Finished Products

The finished products will be grouped based on the following main categories and classifications:

Product States:

Fresh, Chilled, Frozen and Canned are used to control the handling and transportation of the products as well as the rules and methods needed to support the planning of the products. The shelf-life is implicitly affected by the states of the products and it strongly affects the planning processes and the need to handle demand variability through agility rather than stock-build. Sales of products in multiple states to the same customer may affect rules for which transportation equipment and routes to be assigned to a specific order line – causing a split into multiple shipments for one order.

Product Groups:

Product Groups are the main statistical grouping available in many places for controlling business rules, querying and grouping as well as following up in finance and statistics.

Product Hierarchy:

The hierarchies are multi-level grouping mainly used for searching and statistics. They can be used to support your multi-layered groupings into main categories, sub-categories etc. down to the individual item.

1.11.3. Product Costing

Two different costing models have been configured to enable to follow-up the different types of materials and production resources consumed in the Food & Beverage manufacturing environment. Both contain the same basic cost elements.

Materials can be followed-up in three cost components:

Main Ingredients (the company’s main input such as milk in the Dairy)

Other Ingredients

Packaging Materials

Production resources are followed-up as:

Labor costs

Processing / Machine Costs (energy, gas, water)

The “integrated” model generates labor costs and processing costs based on planned time and consumption rates defined in the routings. This model requires that the company already have (or must be prepared to do it themselves) synchronized their routings, lead times, and cost rates with the product cost.


The “simplified model” assumes the company knows or has estimated values for labor and processing costs but cannot integrate it into the routings during the IA project since the task of synchronizing the product costing and the planning values is too time-consuming or will generate a large discrepancy in inventory value – not desirable to handle in a very rapid implementation. If the company starts with the simplified model, there are no limitations for them to move to the integrated model later. The simplified model means that materials are calculated from the bill-of-materials while the labor- and processing costs are manually assigned as amounts to each product.

1.12. Real Time Execution

The Food & Beverage industry is a truly real-time industry. The IA industry solution deals with many aspects in the real-time world of Food & Beverage:

Customer Delivery and departure time calculations down to the minute using Infor M3 route pre-selection functionality.

Point-of-time tables enabling planning within the day for manufacturing- and purchase order goods receipts. With the material plan linked to the detailed planning for outbound route departures, availability and order allocation can be controlled and executed within the day.

All processes are defined and proposed to be executed in a “real-time” manner, whenever possible. This means that we propose that the execution and reporting of all transactions to be closely linked making sure system availability of materials and products reflects the real-world availability. It also indicates a fairly delegated style of working with the system, especially in the warehouse and production area, making sure information is captured close to the source.

1.13. Other Industry Specific Fundaments, Processes and Structures

1.13.1. Perishable raw-materials and products

The main characteristic defining the Food & Beverage industry supply chain is the perishable raw-materials and products. The level of freshness of a raw material and products control and set the boundaries for all activities and processes within the supply chain. The fresher the product, the quicker the turnover and repetitiveness in all processes from purchase through to sales. Infor M3 handles products ranging from very fresh, requiring close control down to the daily level as well as more shelf-stable products.

1.13.2. Quality Assurance & Food Safety

In today’s world of demanding customers and frequent incidents related to non-safe products or products with questionable quality hitting the marketplace quality and food safety has become highest priority. The Infor M3 solution contains integrated support to match the demands from controlling your materials and products at every step of the supply chain. The IA solution provides processes and templates matching the needs both from receiving and handling raw-materials as well as controlling and assuring safe products from your production process.

The IA solution provides an optional LIMS tool: The Quality Management System, or QMS, module. Examples are shown for raw materials or manufactured products. Customer specifications are also considered: when a customer has specific requirements, only the lots that fulfill these requirements can be allocated.

Infor CloudSuite for Food & Beverage includes M3 Graphical Lot Tracker (GLT). The IA solution provides the tools to take full advantage of M3 GLT and quickly isolate and recall all finished goods and raw materials associated with any suspected product quality or safety issue.


2. Delivery of Business Process Support

2.1. Process area Master Data Management

Master Data Management is an often-neglected process area, but it is crucial as a foundation for an integrated solution since it, in many cases cuts across multiple departments and processes. All the basic data needed to operate the solution has been assigned to the correct roles and responsibilities and then added to the menu structure for those roles. Some specific master data processes are regarded as more complex cutting across multiple roles and departments and therefore need be described in more detail. The processes defined and described as part of the solution include the following:

Item and product data management processes, with process variants covering purchased materials as well as produced items.

Customer data management processes including all actions needed to establish a new customer but also functions needed mass change or to inactive or hold a customer.

Supplier data management process to manage supplier data.

Establishing the correct company structure

How to create calendars and periods within M3.

How to create the correct financial master date, i.e. the account groups, accounts and accounting setups.

Setting up M3 to generate email messages.

Deletion of IA master data

Integration settings relevant for certain add-on products

Creating and configuring system monitors

How M3 helps to fulfil the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Tranaction Archive Management

As part of the solution we try to promote the importance of keeping your data up-to-date in order to avoid erosion of your solution and the processes.

2.1.1. Processes – Item Creation to Release & Establish Product Structure

Item and product data management is by far the most comprehensive basic data process as it often cuts across almost all major departments in your company. People from purchasing, finance, production, logistics, sales and QA/Lab are all involved in adding content during the establishment of a new item. Below you see the master process for establishing both materials and the product where the materials are consumed.

In the Food and Beverage industry probably more than any other, there is often a requirement to handle materials and products with dual units of measure, often called catchweight. These items are usually ordered in individual units but will be priced and paid for by weight. Items with these characteristics have been preconfigured and the setup and processing has been fully-documented within the IA supporting deliverables.

Items may also be sublot-controlled; sublot controlled items may or may not be catchweight items. Items with these characteristics have been preconfigured and the setup and processing has been fully documented within the IA supporting deliverables.

Manufactured items may be produced through discrete or process manufacturing. Examples and setup explanations are provided for both types.

The process for deleting or archiving items is also explained.


Picture: This process-map combines the activities related to establishing purchased materials and creating a new product using the same materials. The process explains the interrelationships and the sequence making sure you deliver a proper result – a sellable finished product.

2.1.2. Process – Customer to Order Management

Establishing and maintaining customers involves many components and departments but is far less complicated than the item management processes. Still we have defined a similar process to make sure customers are setup properly and that all information is in place when entering a customer order.

2.1.3. Process – Supplier to Purchase Agreements

Establishing and maintaining suppliers is similar to managing customers. We have defined similar workflows and processes to secure that suppliers are setup properly and that all information is in place when entering a purchase order.

2.1.4. Process area Pricing to Customer Agreement

Within the Sales process area, we enable the order processes by setting up the structures and rules supporting these processes. The wider area of sales processes often defined as CRM, covered by the complete CRM solution, is not part of the IA Solution. The data established can later be integrated to a wider CRM-solution. Information such as customers, business chains, promotions, discounts etc. will then be shared with the CRM-solution.

2.1.4.1. Pricing

In the pricing area, the advanced requirements on various kinds of discounts are managed. Infor M3 advanced discount models will be configured by our consultants to meet your specific needs. Pricing and discounts may then be automatically assigned to orders and order lines. During invoicing, each individual discount can be closely monitored through the sales statistics as well as in the general ledger. The following pricing concepts are included in the solution for the Food & Beverage Company:

Price Lists


Price lists can be freely defined. Any customer may then be connected to several price list IDs in a specified order of priority. This means that a master price list may be defined as lowest priority and additional sales channel-, business chain- or customer-unique price lists may be defined at higher levels of priority. Only items with unique prices have then to be defined at the unique levels.

Discount Models and Campaigns

The Discount Model was developed from the unique requirements from the Food & Beverage industry. As requirements from the sales team and customers change, simply adapt the discount model to cope with the new pricing structure. In the vast majority of cases the M3 Discount Model can cope with the innovations from sales and customers.

The discount model supports up to 6 discounts on one single order line. Each of these 6 discounts can be highly configured and controlled by dates limits and quantities.

Here is an example of a possible Discount Model:

Customer Discount - Chain/Customer

Pallet Discount – full pallets only

Promotion Discount.

Grouped Discounts per product group controlled by number of cases.

Order Discounts controlled by gross order value

Discount campaigns in M3 are used to handle promotional campaigns which are valid for a set period of time and override any discounts assigned to a standard discount model. The ability to enter an expiry date on the campaign means that overriding percentages can be applied to a discount number within a model without having to set up a brand-new model for a short period. It also becomes possible to apply the discount to selected product or customer ranges. The campaign identifier posts through to the detailed sales statistics which makes it easier to measure how successful the promotional campaign has been.

Promotion Agreements

Promotions are separate agreements which are typically active for a short period. Items are connected to customers in these agreements where special promotional prices and/or discounts can override the values retrieved from sales price lists and discount models. Sales statistics and general ledger postings are updated with the promotion identifiers to facilitate performance tracking

Bonus & Commissions

The Bonus & Commissions concept and process has been configured to manage retrospective rebate agreements where you need collect sales data to accrue and reserve funds for future payments to customers or sales agents. The system will automatically make reservations in the general ledger based on anticipated future payment rates.

Actual payments to customers and agents are performed periodically and/or at the end of the agreement period. The Bonus & Commissions agreement always keeps track of the status of accruals as well as any periodical payments and the final payment takes all this data into account.

Customer Blanket Agreements

The examples of blanket customer agreements have been pre-configured to demonstrate a need for defining a closer relationship between you and your customer. Examples of areas where blanket agreements come into play include agreements with customers for producing and delivering unique products such as private label production. The blanket agreement can include detailed and specific conditions about a deal covering a few products or a larger group of products for a customer or a chain of customers.

2.1.4.2. Assortments

The use of assortments in M3 enhances the control features of the order line entry process. Some of the major benefits from the assortments in M3 include:


Control who buys what

Customers only allowed to purchase a defined part of your product range will use the “Assortments” to control which products can be purchased.

Proactive selling

The “Assortments” will also be used to strengthen the customer service rep. during customer order entry by pro-actively propose a set of items to be purchased each time.

2.1.4.3. Sales Follow-up and Analysis

Several datasets, containing accumulated sales statistics, forecasts and budgets, and the related reports are pre-defined to cover your day-one requirements. They cover areas such as following up on revenues and profitability as well as customer service levels. The following reports are predefined for immediate use:

Detailed revenue and profitability analysis.

Sales versus last year and budget.

Customer Service Level Analysis

Lost sales Analysis

Sales Forecast versus Actual demand – with MAD-analysis.

Promotion performance measurement

Sales/invoice statistics contain quantities, weights, volumes, gross sales, 6 discounts, charges, cost of goods sales and much more.

Customer service level analysis is based on the comparisons between requested date and actual date as well as the comparison between confirmed date and actual date.

Sales comparisons versus budget is also supported but we assume that sales budgets are developed outside Infor M3 and can then imported into the Infor M3 format for comparisons reasons.

2.1.5. Process area – General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection. It is applicable to any business located in or dealing with the EU and, as such, will affect many organizations across the globe.

The M3 GDPR functionality allows for searches and updates of data and so the following can be done:

Supply the personal data of the data subject

Correct any data mistakes

Delete redundant personal data

2.1.6. Process area - Transaction Archive Management

The Transaction Archive Management (TAM) module allows transaction archiving to be managed centrally and pro-actively by setting business archiving rules and policies for application areas and allows flexible scheduling of the archive runs. There is a full archiving audit trail, visibility of archived transactions within M3 and user specified archived transactions can be exported to Microsoft Excel.

Transaction Archiving covers;

How to configure archiving management and set the archiving policies

Running the archiving functions, including exporting to Excel

Archiving financial transactions

Displaying the archived transactions

How to schedule the running of the archiving functions on the job schedule and the job schedule calendar.


2.2. Process area Order to Cash

The development of the IA solution was originally designed based on the very demanding requirements from a number of Food & Beverage companies facing huge volumes of orders and very short order to delivery cycles. The whole process area of order and delivery is further configured to cope with these volumes of orders with same day or next day deliveries. Order entry handles the volumes through automated pricing and rules based delivery patterns assigning routes and delivery times automatically. Picking and dispatch is designed to respect packaging sizes, FEFO-rules and last sales date while securing a required level of traceability.

The overall process starts with capturing orders online or through the batch order entry. The focus here is simplicity and automation of pricing and delivery date assignments to secure perfect deliveries and invoices. Also, standing customer orders are predefined customer orders that initiate the creation of real customer orders at regular intervals without the need for repetitive manual entry. Automatic line closures and action reasons for rejected order lines are included in the preconfigured content.

During order entry shipments and delivery dates are automatically assigned based on the decided pattern of departures and deliveries to your customers. For selected ranges of products, the available to promise (ATP) quantity may be controlled up-front during order entry while for the very fresh products availability and priorities may have to be confirmed later once the detailed production plan has been established. The manual work of assembling or adjusting shipments from orders should be minimal due to the pro-active shipment assembly process.

Allocation of individual lots and locations takes place close to the actual picking to conform to the FEFO-rule (first-expired-first-out) during picking. The allocation process will also respect customer priorities, allocating your important customers first, as well as respecting last sales dates. Efficiency in picking is reached through quantity controlled allocation of pallets and individual cases.

Picking lists are divided into defined stock zones and picking equipment making sure picking lists are separated to serve the different equipment and teams in the warehouse. During packing, labels for the packages may be printed to mark the goods. Package-based picking and pick reporting by package are enabled; the full process is described in the Inventory to Managed Packages process area.


The operations in the warehouse may be reported in M3 in an interactive way, or through Factory Track: moving, packing, dispatching goods and / or packages, printing labels or documents.

In certain markets and with specific customers Proof-of-delivery (POD) needs to be reported from the customer before you can invoice the customer. Process-variants support a process with or without POD-reporting.

Use of the freight cost management functionality is also optional and, if used with CO charges, then the CO Freight charge needs to be updated before the shipment/delivery can be invoiced.

Invoicing your customers can be performed during the dispatch to send the invoice with the goods OR you may define periodical invoicing sending all invoices with specified intervals to your customer. During periodic invoicing, rules may define if invoices should be grouped or kept separate for each delivery.

2.2.1. Process – Order Entry

To meet the demands on the pace and frequency of ordering from the different customer categories four main order entry processes have been defined:

Frequent / Repetitive ordering from the retailer/wholesale and food service channels.

Less frequent ordering from industry or less active customers.

Basic specialty order processing.

Simple customer order flow

The process supporting the first category of frequent ordering customers is designed to scale and cope with the volumes by offering a highly automated process with minimized manual interactions or additions while capturing basic demand for products and quantities. All pricing/discounts and delivery/route assignments are fully automated.

The process supporting the second category of less frequent ordering customers is designed to have more interaction with the customer while securing that all customer information is still valid. It also includes more manual steps for adding or changing conditions and charges etc. All pricing/discounts and delivery/route assignments can still be fully automated.

The process supporting the Specialty customers is similar to the second category and is also designed to have more interaction with the customer while securing that all customer information is still valid since Specialty customers often tend to be less frequently ordering. The need for adding more information to be printed on a larger set of documents is also expected. We have also added the possibility of having a preliminary status and joint-delivery coding of the order lines to secure the availability of the complete delivery before confirming dates or delivering to the customer.

The Simple Customer order flow has been added to support companies or departments where processes such as shipments and transport planning are unnecessary. This process variant can either be used when parts of the process is managed outside M3 or for smaller less advanced scenarios where shipments becomes unnecessary.

Wherever it is possible to create customer orders with many lines there are often requirements to add different salespersons to different customer order lines within the same order. An example of a realistic scenario is where there are two different product groups sold to the same customer. It might not be enough to have the salesperson attached to the customer defaulted to all the order lines since there might be different salespersons per product group per customer. Salesperson selection tables make it possible to default the correct salesperson for each customer order line.


2.2.2. Process – Delivery & Dispatch

The dispatch process is designed to cope with the high pace and at the same time making sure the demand on FEFO-rules and traceability can be met. A number of concepts and features are central to provide high productivity and efficiency:

- Proactive Shipment Assembly with delivery date assignments. - Shipment capacity control. - Allocation rules (including soft allocation).

Proactive Shipment Assembly with delivery date assignments:

During order entry the rules based route assignment automatically groups all orders for the same route and departure time slot to the same shipment. The same business logic assigns and calculates all dates needed to plan the delivery – down to the hour and minute. The dates/times calculated includes, delivery date/time at customer, planned departure date/time, closing point for shipment, time to start picking, planning date indicating when products must be available in the warehouse.

After all orders have been entered and automatically assigned to a shipment the task of adjusting the transport plan should be minimal.

Picture: An example of the delivery date assignment logic that coordinates available to promise with route departures.

Shipment capacity control:

If capacities of vehicles / transportation equipment are known and the items can be assigned proper weights, volumes, or the alternative freight capacity unit, shipments can be automatically or manually grouped/split to match these capacities. Final adjustments and fine tuning is made possible from the Shipment Workbench.

Allocation Rules:

The advanced allocation rules supported by Infor M3 include several features. Features relevant to the Food & Beverage industry include:

Quantity based allocation of pallets towards pallets/bulk areas and less than pallet quantities towards pick-face locations.

Allocation respecting last sales dates meaning that released lots that have passed last sales date will not be automatically allocated to an order.


Customer unique shelf level requirements – We have pre-defined examples and setups to define unique shelf life requirements on group of customers or even individual customers.

Picking and packing:

Picking and packing activities are resource consuming with the volumes involved in the Food & Beverage-company. Pick lists are generated based on allocation into the defined stock zones and the equipment needed to serve in these zones. This means that the pick tasks assigned to fork lift drivers and the tasks assigned to personnel performing manual picking is divided into separate picking lists. As an effect picking and packing can be executed and reported in many places in parallel.

The packing of goods into pallets or other types of packages can be handled manually or automatically based on rules. The package information is then used on delivery documents and to generate transportation labels to mark each package. If the item is managed by package, package-based picking and pick reporting by package are enabled; the full process is described in the Inventory to Managed Packages process area.

The final dispatch is reported later when the goods for the shipment are loaded and the vehicle departs from the warehouse. By dividing the pick- and pack from the final dispatch, responsibility for capturing the information can be moved closer to the operators on the floor and enables a quicker feed-back and release of stock locations for inbound goods. The goods are still part of your stock balance until it leaves the warehouse.

Pick-face location replenishment:

If dedicated pick-faces are used, they need to be continuously replenished not to interrupt the process of manual picking. The location replenishment rules will generate replenishment tasks to move pallets from pallet or bulk areas into the pick face.

2.2.3. Process - Proof-of-Delivery

When the agreed process with the customer requires POD-reporting you will define a process-variant where the customer order is held for invoicing until you have reported what the customer actually received. Once reported the delivery is released and this POD-information, in terms of quantities, becomes the basis for what to invoice the customer.

2.2.4. Process – Credits and Adjustments

The process of handling customer claims resulting in crediting or adjusting invoiced amounts and quantities is frequent and time consuming. We have designed five main process variants helping you to cope with this task. All variants make it possible to credit each individual component (prices and all discounts) automatically or manually making sure sales statistics remains correct:

Crediting returned goods with the generation of a credit note and the update of stock levels.

Crediting with the generation of a credit note but without update of stock levels. The scenario is valid when the customers keep/scrap the goods or never received the goods. This variant updates both revenues and costs.

Price adjustment used when incorrect prices or discounts has been invoiced. This variant is also valid when crediting the customer afterwards based on promotion volumes. This variant only affects revenues and no cost of goods sold

Customer returns using the more detailed functionality is also configured and documented. This involves the registering of goods to be returned, receiving, inspection


and generation of credit notes. The movements in the warehouse may be reported in M3 in an interactive way or through Factory Track using a portable device.

Charge only orders have been configured to allow for the missed or additional charges to be billed to a customer.

A mechanism for correcting invoices is also configured to create a corrective document which makes an unambiguous reference to an original invoice or credit note, thereby satisfying legal requirements.

1.13.5. Mashup – Customer Service

The Customer Service mashup provides the user with a holistic view of customers and related information.

From the list of customers, several types of information are provided such as the customer details, addresses, agreements, as well as customer orders in different statuses, deliveries and invoices.

All basic and related options are available for the different functions. List headers can be expanded if the user needs to change settings: data, sorting order, view.

2.3. Process area Warehouse Management

This process area covers processes that take place within a single warehouse and processes covering the movement of goods between your own warehouses and sites. The warehouse is part of each and every operational process such as delivery, goods receiving, manufacturing etc. Many of the major warehouse tasks are therefore described as part of other processes. The focus while designing the processes related to warehousing is based on the major requirements for real time information, clear responsibilities across departmental borders and lot-management enabling shelf-life handling and traceability. In order to support these major goals events, need to be captured close to the source to reduce lead times as well as the risk of delivering the wrong goods.

The movements in the warehouse may be reported in M3 in an interactive way or through Factory Track using a portable device.


Except for the internal distribution order process (DO), activities linked to the sales, purchasing and manufacturing processes representing Goods receiving and delivery/dispatch are explained as part of those other process areas.

2.3.1. Process - Stock Take

The IA solution supports a few standard stock-take methods based on either periodical or cyclic inventory counting. The scope of the stock take can be based on various criteria such as a selection of items and/or selected areas within a warehouse. To avoid or control feedback of large inventory variances limits for acceptable variances may be defined. A number of additional supporting functions such as resetting counts, zero-reporting and displaying variances are fully explained in the IA supporting material. In addition to the planned inventory process ad-hoc inventory transactions may be performed for individual balance IDs. If the item is managed by package, the process is slightly changed; this is described in the Inventory to Managed Packages process area.

2.3.2. Process – Lot Management and Tracing

Lot is a central concept in the Food & Beverage solution. Each lot has several attributes such as manufacturing/supplier, manufacturing or harvested date, expected release date, re-inspection date, best before date, last sales date and expiry date etc. A lot may be physically located in many locations and still be managed and controlled as one entity. The lots are crucial in the planning process with information about expected release date and expiry dates etc. They are also crucial part of controlling all kinds of allocations, movements and tracing in the warehouse.

2.3.3. Process – Inventory Adjustments

Except for all order-based inventory transactions the solution supports ad-hoc inventory adjustments needed for instance when scrapping items that has been discontinued or passed expiry date or items that have been damaged during handling in the warehouse. Also, manual positive transactions exist for receiving goods into the warehouse without a purchase or manufacturing order. Requisition orders provide one controlled mechanism for such adjustments and are fully documented in the IA solution.

2.3.4. Process – Reclassifications

Reclassifications can be used to reclassify goods between different statuses such as released, under inspection and rejected. It is also possible to reclassify an item due to quality reasons into another item id and thereby also adjusting the inventory value. Reclassifications can be performed on various levels such as the lot, balance-id or item number level.

2.4. Process area Distribution to Internal Invoice

2.4.1. Process – Internal Distribution (DO)

The need for moving goods between your own warehouses is covered by the Internal Distribution process and includes activities such as the ordering of a movement of goods, the dispatch, the transportation and the receipt at the other warehouse. In M3 this process is covered by the Distribution Order (DO) concept. The planning of distribution is part of the overall Material Requirements Planning (MRP) concept.

Distribution orders can either be triggered by automatically generated proposals or they can be manually initiated. In the setup two warehouses are connected covering two different legal units and countries. This means that the included process also deals with internal pricing and all the financial transactions generated by the internal “buy” and “sell” of the goods.


2.5. Process area Procure to Pay

In the purchasing area, the solution has been configured to match the characteristics of the various items to be purchased. We can group purchasing into two major variants namely direct goods and services purchasing and indirect goods and services purchasing. Direct goods purchasing is driven by the direct requirements generated for raw materials and packaging to be consumed in the production process. Indirect goods purchasing relates to items often initiated manually by other processes. Indirect items include office supplies, spare parts etc. The purchase of subcontracted operations in the manufacturing process is described in the Manufacturing process area.

If the item (finished goods, raw materials) is managed by package, several steps in the purchasing process are changed. This is described in the Inventory to Managed Packages process area.

Most activities in the warehouse may be reported in M3 in an interactive way or through Factory Track using a portable device.

One of the main goals with the purchasing process is to automate the generation of the increasingly frequent purchases based on purchase order proposals generated by the MRP-calculation. Reduced order cycles call for smaller quantities per purchase and an increasing need for automating the process. Frequent purchasing also means an increasing number of purchase invoices to be matched. The process of registering and matching purchase invoices is therefore also crucial.

The three main categories of items to be purchased as direct materials include raw materials / Ingredients, labeled packaging and generic packaging. We have decided to identify these three main categories since we see a number of main characteristics affecting the purchasing process.

Raw materials face quality and food safety issues stressing the need for quality inspections routines and safe handling. Raw materials may be purchased under long term agreements but may often be purchased on the spot market or from alternative suppliers depending on season and availability.

Labeled packaging is defined as the packaging materials that are linked to one or a few end-products. The items often require agreements with one dedicated supplier producing these unique items. Also the lead times may be longer if the supplier does not keep it in stock for you. During goods receipt the quality of the labeled packaging is often verified to secure that printing and graphical layout meets the specifications.

Examples of generic packaging are cardboard items, bottles etc. that is not unique for your company or at least easy to acquire from one or more suppliers without major costs or time related to it.

The final category of purchases is indirect materials driven by manually generated requisition or purchase orders. We have defined a process variant to support this process which is quite different from the purchasing of direct materials.


The process for direct materials starts with transforming automatically generated purchase order proposals into purchase orders. The purchase order is then printed and sent to the supplier. The supplier may or may not confirm and advice the order before the actual delivery. These steps are therefore optional depending on the requirement from your process and the individual supplier. The next critical sub-process involves receiving, inspecting and putting away the item in the warehouse. We have defined three alternative sub-processes to match the different kinds of items to be received. When the purchase invoice has been received, it can be matched and controlled directly towards the order simplifying and taking away the need for manual invoice control by the purchaser.

2.5.1. Process – Purchase proposal to order

As mentioned above one goal is to automate the purchase order generation using purchase order proposals. The purchase order proposal workbench has been configured to help you select the proposals due to be processed and then group them into purchase orders to be released. The proposals generated respect all the planning rules setup to automatically assigning quantities and dates useable for release without further adjustments.

2.5.2. Process – Goods Receipt

The goods receiving sub-process has three main variants illustrated and briefly described below.


The goods receiving process proposed for generic packaging is the simplest requiring no quality inspections. We propose a process of reporting goods receipt directly when the goods arrive and then reporting put-away as it happens, avoiding any delays causing differences in actual and reported stock levels.

The goods receiving process called labeled packaging makes it possible to include quality inspections. The purpose is mainly to secure correct printing and content on the unique packaging materials.


The goods receiving process variant proposed for raw materials include more steps than the others to ensure any kinds of required quality assurance take place before the goods are released for input into production or sales. QA-activities may physically take place at the warehouse, the laboratory or actually at the supplier when using raw material certificates.

Advanced rules for when to perform inspection control (every 3rd time etc.) is not included within the IA scope.

2.5.3. Process – PO-invoice Control

The volumes of PO-invoices are driven by frequent ordering of direct materials. With an integrated process between purchasing and the accounts payable purchase invoices are matched against purchase orders avoiding mistakes and time-consuming tasks of controlling invoices in the field.

2.5.4. Process – Purchasing of indirect material

The process of purchasing indirect materials may be a main process requiring solutions such as e-procurement. But for many small companies a simplistic process for managing manual purchasing of indirect- or non-MRP driven materials needed to support the main operations is needed. These materials include categories such as equipment, spare-parts, cleaning materials, office supplies etc.

The main process we describe is shown in the diagram below:


The Indirect Procurement process starts from a manual request rather than from a MRP-generated proposal.

2.5.5. Process - Grower Purchase to Final Settlement

Companies buying crops, livestock or aqua culture from their suppliers often do this based on an agreement stating what to deliver, how much to deliver, what quality, where to deliver from and how the settlement for the delivery will be calculated against a complex pricing model.

The final settlement with the grower is a self-billing process where the receiver calculates what to pay the supplier. A settlement document is produced listing the details of what has been delivered and what additions and/or deductions have been made to the base price. Both the base price and the bases for additions/deductions are often changed after an initial settlement and payment, and this requires the settlement to be re-calculated several times, and the difference to be paid or claimed.

The Grower Contracts Management (GCM) process is aimed at answering the needs for managing advanced contracts between a grower and its customer regarding different aspects:

Establish agreements with all linked conditions

Fully manage the goods receipt

Fully manage the settlement


2.5.5.1. Process – GCM Enablement & Grower agreements

GCM requires a certain setup of general parameters, parameters at item and several tables, especially in the following areas:

Custom data

Costing models and costing elements

Attributes

Formulas

QMS tests and specifications linked to the purchased goods or to the purchase agreements

Purchase agreements

The IA database has been preconfigured with a typical example in the crops area. This complete example shows how to deal with other micro-industries.

2.5.5.2. Process – Goods Receipt and Inspection

Goods are received from the grower using purchase orders linked to grower agreements.

QI requests results are reported so that all costing elements that are necessary for the settlement are fed through values entered at receipt or test and calculations through formulas.

2.5.5.3. Process – Supplier Invoice & Settlement

A supplier invoice for self-billing is created from the pending received PO lines to self-bill and from customer invoices for settlement. The supplier invoice is validated and the self-bill is printed. The supplier invoice is then updated to the AP ledger.

The settlement may be updated afterwards. If so, a recalculation occurs and a new transaction for the difference is created, which will be used to create a new supplier invoice.

2.5.6. Supporting Processes

The following supporting processes are described:

Purchase agreements

Transportation time

Charges management


Send the PO document by email to the supplier

Purchase order lines toolbox

Procurement statistics

Quality inspection with tasks setup

Receiving documents management

Purchase costing

Monitoring activities

2.5.7. Mashup – Purchase Planner

The Purchase Planner mashup provides a holistic view of the purchase order proposals the user is responsible for.

From the list of purchase order proposals, several types of information are provided such as the item and supplier data on one hand, the on-hand, planned or historical stock levels, or the alternative suppliers and agreements on the other hand.

All basic and related options are available for the different functions. All headers in the list panels can be expanded and the settings changed as needed.

2.6. Process area Production to Inventory

To support the process area manufacturing we have configured two base process variants with different levels of ambition and sophistication. The first process variant contains all steps possible and necessary to control the process from Infor M3 and thereby also capture valuable information about the production process. This first variant aims at collecting input close to the source and thereby also keeping the system status up-to-date at all times. The second process variant is a “light” process setting lower levels of ambition and also minimizing the number of reporting points necessary to execute the process in Infor M3. As an effect the feedback of data is further from the actual event and could be viewed as more reactive, telling the system what happened rather than using the system to tell you what to do.


Within these process variants you may have various categories of materials being consumed and end-products being produced. We have configured templates and examples guiding you how to configure your Recipes/Bill-of-Materials and routings to adapt to some of the major characteristics driven by the different kinds of materials and products. The handling and reporting of materials consumption are mainly dictated by if the materials are lot-controlled or not and how they are stored and retrieved to the production line prior to the processing.

In addition to the Full-version and the Light-version we have also two other characteristics affecting the overall manufacturing order flow:

The management of outsourced production using sub-contractors or co-packers.

The management of customer order initiated manufacturing orders, in parallel to forecast/plan-driven manufacturing.

Both these concepts have been defined and described as variants on the process and/or activity level within the process area manufacturing.

When an item (raw material or manufactured product) is managed by package, the process for either consuming the raw materials or receiving the manufactured product is changed accordingly. These modified processes are described in the Inventory to Managed Packages process area.


2.6.1. Process – Manufacturing Execution – Full Version

The full version contains a number of steps – not all of them necessary for all companies or for all products within the company.

The process starts with securing material availability before initiating a number of activities on the production floor. Next you initiate execution by printing a set of manufacturing order documents used as input / instructions during manufacturing but even more important as basis for reporting resource consumption and put-away. If materials should be brought in from the warehouse picking lists are produced at this step imitating tasks at the warehouse department. Alternatively, to print documents most information can be reached from the Manufacturing operations workbench. Once the actual production has started it is possible to use Infor M3 to collect QA and processing data (manually fed back) related to the specific manufacturing order.


If end-products are packaged on a line goods receipt and put-away may be fed back continuously to move products from the production area into the warehouse and to keep stock figures constantly up-to-date. The goods receiving and put-away can be divided into two clearly separated reporting points if necessary – two-step put-away. This kind of process configuration will clarify responsibility and ownership of the actual goods as it crosses the line between the production department and the warehouse department.

If no quality inspection time applies the product is now available for consumption or sales. Otherwise it is stored in the warehouse in status under inspection and with a planned reclassification date respecting the time needed for quality inspection. The laboratory department will release or reject the product based on the results from the quality inspection.

The reporting of resource consumption may be manual or automatic based on operations reporting. Some materials and operations may be defined as back flush meaning that they are consumed based on manufactured or put-away quantities. Some other materials and operations may be defined as manually reported. These are either reported as they are moved into the production area by using the picking list OR they may be reported re-actively based on actual consumption. Still materials moved by picking lists can be reversed or adjusted to match actual consumption and to return materials to production.

2.6.2. Process – Manufacturing Execution – Light

The light variant is as mentioned a re-active process making sure material consumption and produced end-product are reported correctly even if it is done with some delay. The time spent on manufacturing reporting is minimized with only highly prioritized information stored in Infor M3. If quality inspection is used, we strongly recommend to implement quality inspection operations and lead-times in Infor M3 in order to provide true lead times and availability in planning and to secure that only safe products are made available in the warehouse.

So, this process variant excludes a number of process steps and activities related to Infor M3. We assume that all material consumption is reported at one time either manually or using flush back where ever possible. Receipt and put-away is made simple with only on-step. Still we make sure that any quality inspected product remains “under inspection” until results are known.


2.6.3. Process – Subcontracted Operations

Outsourcing of production differs depending on what and how much of the process you have outsourced. The more complex scenarios appear when you and the subcontractor are tightly interlinked in the processing of a single manufacturing order. This scenario often appears when a subcontractor is responsible only for a part of the process – packaging of a bulk product for instance. In one of our scenarios we describe this complex relationship where you provide plans and bulk-products to the subcontractor and the subcontractor executes and delivers packaged and/or processed products for you to further process or sell.

The process involves delivery of goods in both directions, it involves tracking and tracing of WIP and the matching of invoices from the subcontractor for the value of services and materials that they have added (in addition to the material you sent) to the end-product.

This is the subcontracting process covering the most advanced scenario including the need for tracking goods being shipped in both directions.

2.6.4. Process – Make-to-Order

The Make-to-order process can be an effective process when dealing with less frequently sold- or produced products OR products being produced for a specific customer (private label or similar). These items are not normally kept in stock and will be manufactured only if a firm customer order is received. The production of these items is NOT driven by forecasts and their minimum stock and reorder point is zero. Instead, their production is triggered by customer orders.

This is a “make-to-order” process which differs from the more usual “make-to-stock” process. When a customer order line is entered for such an item, a linked manufacturing order proposal is created. The manufacturing order proposal will be released to a manufacturing order. When the manufactured product is received, the linked customer order line is allocated and can be dispatched.


2.6.5. Process – Process Manufacturing

Process manufacturers are commonly found in the Food & Beverage industry.

Key characteristics are:

• Production of goods in bulk as well as discrete or countable units. • Several versions of formulas and recipes. • Many different pack sizes. • Batch optimization to minimize waste and reduce costs. • Heavy regulatory compliance (FDA etc).

The M3 Process Manufacturing solution provides a set of functions/features that support customer operations in this environment, such as:

• Process product structures, managing both versions and alternate processes. • Consolidation of planned orders to optimize manufacturing batch sizes. • Output balancing to minimize waste. • Simplified process to use up stock or produce on demand. • Bulk redistribution to manage costs more accurately. • More efficient production reporting, enabling management of several orders jointly.

2.6.6. Supporting processes

The following supporting processes are described:

Work center schedule

Reschedule an MO

Adjust data on an MO

Selection of put-away locations

Reverse – Adjust an MO goods receipt

Reverse – Adjust material issue reporting

Reporting against manufacturing schedules

Manage about-to-expire components lots

Lot blending and tank cleaning


Time and attendance basic setup

2.6.7. Pre-Configured Workflows and Queries

To support the process variants described in this chapter we have defined some order types controlling the workflow. We have also defined many sorting orders and views to present relevant information in workbenches supporting the various steps in the process.

Manufacturing Order Types

Three order types have been defined for different ways of putting-away the product:

Direct put-away used for a single step put-away of final products.

Two-step put-away used for a two-step process of receiving goods and then putting away.

Two-step put-away staged used for a two-step process where the selection of the final location is delayed to be done by the person executing the put-away.

MO-Workbench with Pre-set Views

From the “Work Center Schedule. Open” most actions related to a manufacturing order (MO) can be performed. We have pre-defined several views designed to support the different phases in the manufacturing execution process. The pre-configured views support the Initiation phase, the monitoring of progress and the final closing of MOs.

2.6.8. Mashup – Product Overview

The Product Overview mashup provides the user with a holistic view of products and related information.

From the list of products, several types of information are provided such as the product structure –Bill of material, Bill of labor -, the components and product costs, the list of manufacturing orders, information about on-hand stock, planned and historical stock transactions and QI specifications.



2.6.9. Mashup – Item Overview

The Item Overview mashup provides the user with a holistic view of items and related information.

From the list of items, several types of information are provided such as item details, planning and logistics information, costing, statistics, on-hand stock, planned and historical stock transactions and QI specifications.


2.6.10. Mashup – Manufacturing Controller

The Manufacturing Controller mashup provides a holistic view of the manufacturing orders the user is responsible for.

From the list of manufacturing orders, several types of information are provided such as the manufacturing order’s details or structure (components and operations), the product plan and transaction history, the manufacturing order statistics.

All basic and related options are available for the different functions.


2.7. Process area Inventory to Managed Packages

Dealing with packages is often part of the Food & Beverage industry process. Packed raw materials, purchased finished goods or manufactured finished goods may be received, managed in stock or issued. Managing those packages effectively from the source to the final delivery address is supported within the IA solution. M3 package management supports efficient working with packages by re-using the information from the early start in the chain, and therefore avoiding the need for repacking, relabeling or loss of data.

Package management includes:

Master data; includes the setup of all relevant settings and tables when using packages throughout the supply chain

Inbound; how the inbound processes are changed when managing packages. We consider the following inbound processes:


o Procurement of raw materials – ingredients – and finished goods: electronic shipment advices, staging and receiving of packages are considered. The process is described up to the supplier invoice match.

o Manufacturing of finished goods: finished goods may be automatically packed at receipt. Packed raw materials are issued in different ways.

o Move between warehouses: packed goods are received and stored after they have been shipped from another warehouse.

In-House; display of packages, package operations like moving, physical inventory

Outbound; how the outbound processes are changed when managing packages. We consider package-based picking and pick reporting when dispatching customer orders or distribution orders.


The IA solution provides examples – preconfigured data, process descriptions – with single-level packaging. This is what is mostly used in the Food & Beverage industry. This does not mean that the process is limited to single-level packaging: other configurations may be set up.

2.7.1. Process – Master Data

Package management requires a certain set up of general settings, packaging tables, goods receiving methods, order types, dispatch policies and packaging types.

2.7.2. Process - Inbound Processes

Several inbound processes are considered:

Procurement process

Raw materials for production purposes or sourced finished goods are considered. The procurement process is changed in several ways:

Shipment advice – ASN (Advance Shipping Notice): the supplier sends an electronic shipment advice for a delivery note. Details about the package structure and the characteristics and content of each package are sent. When the shipment advice is reported, a supplier delivery note is created. It keeps the structure and details sent by the supplier.

Transport notification: the transport notification of the delivery note may be reported.

Report goods receipt: an initial step consists of staging the packages when they are received at the warehouse. The delivery note goods receipt confirms the receipt of the staged packages.

Report put-away: the put-away operation may be reported by delivery note or by package; it will be often reported by package.

Report inspection: similarly, the inspection may be reported by delivery note or by package; it will be often reported by delivery note.

Match supplier invoice: the process description explains how to match, not a purchase order but, more adequately, a delivery note or, if necessary, packages included in a delivery note.

Manufacturing process

Although it is part of the inbound process, this part deals with inbound and outbound processes in the manufacturing execution process:

Issuing packed components: packed components may be issued in several ways: we have considered two ways: through a picking list or by reporting the issue directly.

Receiving manufactured products: finished manufactured goods may be automatically packed at receipt, following preset rules.

Move between warehouses process


If packed goods have been shipped from a warehouse, they are received in the consignee warehouse and the package structure is kept.

2.7.3. Process – In House Activities

Once packages are put away in the warehouse you may want to display, move the packages in stock. The package operations also include the printing of labels for packages and quick physical inventory for packages.

2.7.4. Process - Outbound Processes

Within the warehouse the process of picking and packing should be as efficient as possible. The outbound process described in the customer or distribution flow is focusing on delivering order lines whereas in the package management outbound process the flow focuses on picking by package.

2.8. Process area Inspection to Approval

The Food & Beverage industry is subject to particularly strict regulations on Quality and safety of its products. Mistakes or lack of Quality control could result in serious consumer’s health problems. Recalls can be damaging for the reputation of the company.

The Quality Management System (QMS) in M3 provides a best of breed Quality system with the goal of providing all the data for the user to make better decisions and create new controls and corrective actions.

QMS in this Implementation Accelerator (IA) solution incorporates the following concepts:

Inspection of raw materials and procured items

In line inspection during production

Product inspection or re-inspection

Compliance with custom specification


2.8.1. Process – QMS Enablement

QMS requires a certain setup of general parameters, parameters at item and a number of tables.

One important part is made of the test specifications that may be different for a first receipt or in other circumstances: retesting, reclassification, at pre-shipment, at blending or linked to a grower agreement.

Quality groups and sets of tests accelerate the setup of quality specifications.

2.8.2. Process – QMS when Acquiring

The process flows are changed when purchased or produced items are received and put-away.

Procurement

The IA solution describes where and when the specifications and tests are created for purchased lots and how QMS is integrated in the procurement flow. Purchased items may be ingredients or finished products.

Manufacturing

Similarly, the IA solution describes where and when the specifications and tests are created for manufactured lots and how QMS is integrated in the production flow. Manufactured products may be semi-finished or finished products.

Specifications may be created at manufacturing order creation, which allows for quality inspection during production and/or product receipt.

Reporting QI results

Before reporting the overall inspection result in the procurement or manufacturing flow, the QI tests and the QI requests results are reported. A Certificate of Analysis (COA) can then be printed.

2.8.3. Process – QMS in Warehousing

Lots have been acquired, inspected and put in stock.

New QI requests may be created for lots in stock for different reasons. A typical process is when a lot has reached its follow-up date and must be re-inspected: a new QI request must be created with specifications that may be different from the original specifications: for example, only one property must be checked.

2.8.4. Process – QMS when Distributing

QI requests may be created when the goods leave a warehouse or when they are received in a warehouse.

Additionally:

A specific Certificate of Analysis (COA) may be printed when the goods leave the warehouse

It is possible to set special specifications for some warehouses in the same way as for customers

It is possible to default test results when the goods are received in a warehouse.


2.8.5. Process – QMS when Selling

Custom specifications

Some customers may need special specifications.

These custom specifications must be setup. They may be changed in the customer order line where they are attached.

Only the lots that fulfill the customer conditions are allocated to these customer order lines.

Tests at pre-shipment

It is possible to create QI requests for tests at pre-shipment. The tests may be standard or specific to the customer. The tests at pre-shipment are normally not used for the lot allocation.

Certificate of Analysis

When a certificate of analysis (COA) is needed for a customer, it may contain different kind of information:

Either it is a COA for the lot and nothing in it is specific

Or customer-specific information is printed

2.9. Process area Graphical Lot Tracker

Please note that this is only valid for Infor CloudSuite for Food & Beverage version 16.1.0.

M3 Graphical Lot Tracker (GLT) is a powerful and configurable web-enabled application with capability to query and visualize M3 supply chain data. Through the population of a purpose-built database based on M3 stock transaction history, M3 Graphical Lot Tracker provides the ability to perform these activities:

Trace the supply chain, through all steps, occurrences, and activities, from the semi-finished or finished product to the original raw materials lots.

Track raw material lots along the supply chain to the semi-finished or finished product supplied to the customer

The documentation included in this Implementation Accelerator solution is a complement to the M3 GLT user and administrator documentation. It is intended for the project teams to empower them to make the best use of this powerful tool in various use cases in industries where lot traceability is a key concern.

2.9.1. Process – GLT Enablement

Some settings must be checked or setup in M3 and GLT before the initial data loading and subsequent updates and operations. Most settings in M3 are provided as a basis and should be completed to fit the actual needs and specific user roles. The settings in GLT are initiated with default values which enable the GLT processes.

The IA solution provides the documentation to check and complete the initial mandatory settings as well as subsequent optional settings.

2.9.2. Process – GLT Scenarios

We have described six scenarios that are typically encountered:

Trace and recall general process

Supplier recall a component


Distribution quality issue

Manufacturing quality issue

Customer initiated complaint

Attribute and item

Depending on the business case, the user will select the most appropriate scenario. If we consider a typical scenario where one or several customers complain about one or more lots, here are the steps included in the scenario:

Following these steps ensures that:

The origin of the defect is quickly found

All lots that may be defective are held in stock

All defective lots that have been delivered to customers are recalled.

2.9.3. Process – GLT Supporting Processes

The following processes are described:

Compare raw material usage: The starting point for this process is typically a quality problem that may be encountered at different levels: during production, during quality control performed on manufactured items or when customers complain about defective or poor-quality items and lots. The report shows correlations between the raw material lot characteristics and the produced items.

Audit MO-reporting in M3 from GLT: This tool helps identifying and analyzing issues linked to components reporting or components quality issues in the manufacturing process.

2.10. Process area Demand to Plan

In the Planning process area, we focus on getting the fundamentals in place. Previously we have described the transactional and operational processes such as manufacturing, purchasing and sales. In these transactional processes, we have emphasized the importance of capturing information close to the source and to make sure stock levels are correctly updated respecting any quantities being held under inspection or lots being out-of-date due to passed last sales dates or expiry dates.


In the planning process area two other fundamentals are focused upon, namely the demand side and the lead times. On the demand side our goal is to make sure we base the forecast on proper input and that we follow-up against actual demand (not sales) when trying to improve our forecasting. Lead times need to respect time for quality inspections as well as the actual pattern of goods receipts and manufacturing within a day. Here we use the point-in-time tables to allocate the expected receipts at proper days and times during the day matching the actual delivery patterns from suppliers and manufacturing.

Some basic instruments are offered to verify the demand against the overall available resources. Here the aim is to roughly plan for the major resource obstacles created by heavy promotions or seasons generating peaks of demand.

As part of the more operational planning we rely heavily on an exception based workflow enabled by the very versatile action messages notifying the planner when to take action due too low level or too much of stock or when getting inside the firm planning time fences. The action messages help the planner in his daily tasks setting focus on the most critical issues. For the very fast moving products any changes to the operational plan can be directly verified against the current order stock helping you set the right priorities and allocate products to the most prioritized customers.

The proposed solution is based on a robust Material Requirements Planning/DRP-engine with the flexible exception management concept. Still, if the company requires more advanced planning solutions these are excluded from the IA F&B solution but are available in a separate Implementation Accelerator Plus package connected to the Infor M3 Demand Planner product (DMP).

2.10.1. Process – Demand Management

The solution for demand management is based on the so-called datasets – online accumulated tables and reports containing instant information about orders, delivery, invoices and lost sales. Any changes in demand can easily be analyzed and compared to the current forecast and prior periods etc. Any adaptations of the forecast can then be quickly transferred and integrated into the material plan generating new demand against stock, production or purchasing.

The dataset contains the following data to be used when manually establishing a forecast:


Sales Budget (if the company can provide the values on a relevant level of aggregation/detail).

Actual sales this year and previous year or previous periods.

Lost sales.

Demand = Actual sales plus a proportion of lost sales (if activated)

Mean Absolute Deviation to measure accuracy of the forecast.

The forecast can be transferred into the material plan as often as needed. In the fast-moving environment of the Food & Beverage Company anything less than once a week seem to be inadequate. When incorporated into the material plan the forecast is netted or consumed against actual customer orders. This netting is recalculated as you receive new orders and as the time passes. Some basic consumption methods are pre-defined as part of the IA solution but can be further refined as the use of the solution grows.

NOTE: Automatic statistical calculation of forecasts is not included in IA.

2.10.2. Process – Master Planning

The Master Planning process helps the Food & Beverage Company to reach a correct level of planning with proposals for manufacturing and purchasing verified against a high-level production plan. If serious future resource constraints do exist, the planning horizon needs to be extended and planning proposals to be firmed up to schedule for a stock build – if possible.

To reach more advanced levels and reaping the benefits from all your resources such as scarce materials and production lines we recommend implementing our advanced planning solutions in a second phase.

2.10.3. Process – Operational Planning

Within the operational planning we cover areas for detailed manufacturing planning, internal distribution planning and purchase planning. The frequency and horizon for planning your production, internal distribution and procurement of products and purchased items depends on the freshness of the products and the frequency of producing/purchasing the items.

For the items produced against daily demand patterns we propose daily planning against a forecast (distributed down to the daily level) consumed against customer orders. The point-in-time tables can then help you generate a plan down to the hourly/minute level and thereby signaling the correct availability and allocation to the routes and shipment within the day.

For other items, production plans will be revised on a weekly basis and with less need for daily knowledge about forecasts and orders.

A few planning rules and parameters help you tune the system to generate “perfect” MO-, DO- and PO-proposals. Some of the parameters include:

Safety Stock Level (can vary over time)

Max Stock Level

Order Quantity and Multiple

Max and Min Order Quantity

and much more

2.11. Process Area Freight Costs to Charges

M3 freight cost management allows the freight costs to be allocated to shipments or deliveries for a clearer view of the order costs. Furthermore, where margins are small, the actual freight costs may be passed on to the customer.


Example freight agreements have been preconfigured to automate the distribution of freight costs and the purchase order process flow. The process scope includes:

Creating freight agreements

Distributing the freight costs and creating the customer order charge to recover the freight costs

The freight purchase order costs

Freight accessorials

Freight detention

2.12. Process Area Financial Plan to Report

Financial Plan to Report combines the M3 areas of Financial Controlling and Financial Accounting and offers a complete set of tools to enable you to analyze and plan, as well as to display detailed management views of your organization’s key business processes and financial results.

Together, the components in M3 Financial Controlling and Financial Accounting offer an integrated, enterprise-wide approach, providing access to all essential information needed for managing revenue, costs and keeping you competitive.

The close integration between the financials and the other modules / pre-systems creates great opportunities for close and real-time audit and control of your costs. The internal transactions generated from events in pre-systems can be monitored and/or adjusted and automatically transferred to the general ledger. By eliminating the barriers between your business units and existing business processes, the application delivers secure, real-time access to information without duplicating efforts in the organization.

As each company has their own chart-of-accounts and different countries have differing legal requirements, we provide a sample chart-of-accounts. This way the consultants have a good template for configuring any Food and Beverage company´s requirements. Note that the accounting dimensions in M3 use a 70-character dynamic accounting string, as opposed to a rigid 15- or 20-digit account code, for attaching accounting information to a transaction. The accounting setups are pre-configured based upon the sample chart-of-accounts. The accounting setups automate many of the accounting transactions and, in particular the accounting transactions generated from internal business processes.

2.12.1. Process - Accounts Payable

The Accounts Payable solution enables you to focus on important payable activities such as cash management, internal control, and partner relationships. The payable process is a complete solution for processing invoices and payments efficiently and intelligently.

Infor M3 Accounts Payable also handles the international marketplace, including all types of payment methods, electronic payments, multiple currencies, tax and reporting requirements.

Preparing Supplier Invoices for Payment

The proposed solution covers manual registration of supplier invoices. Both non-purchase order-based invoices, with a recoding and approval process, and invoices tied to a purchase order—3-way match: invoice matched to purchase order and goods receipt—are supported.

Application messages are configured to alert the authorizer to the invoice status and what further action needs to be taken.

The solution also covers processing a ‘period’ or ‘prepaid’ expense and illustrates how the integration between accounts payable and the general ledger works in this process.


Paying Supplier Invoices

The actual paying of supplier invoices can be performed manually or automatically through electronic transfers to the bank.

The payment proposal for the automated routine can include checks, manual bank transfers, or drafts. Manual recording of payments supports payments made in cash, drafts, checks, and manual bank transfers.

The IA solution includes paying suppliers via a payment proposal using a check payment method.

The configuration covers most methods of payment and it is expected that the use of these settings would be determined during the implementation and that any necessary changes would be made to the process configuration.

Monitoring Accounts Payable

Several standard reports help you in controlling your accounts payable in areas such as periodic supplier reporting and analyzing your supplier statuses.

2.12.2. Process - Accounts Receivable

The Accounts Receivable solution easily handles complex transactions quickly and automatically, and minimizes the need for manual processing. The process provides you with the complete administration, monitoring and control of your customer invoices, credit, and collections.

M3 Accounts Receivable also provides enterprise-wide credit management, enabling you to define customer groups and rules for payments, terms, credit limits, tolerances and payment follow-up.

Managing Invoice and Payments

Customer order invoices and credit notes are created from the customer order fulfillment process and update the customer accounts within accounts receivable. The IA solution covers creating customer statements, payment reminders and adjusting customer payments received. Manual invoice generation is included in the IA solution; there may be occasions where sales invoices need to be raised for a one-off or infrequent sale of an item other than the standard inventory items.

The configuration covers most methods of payment, payment terms and cash discount terms. It is expected that the use of these settings would be determined during the implementation and that the necessary changes would then be made to the process configuration.

Processes like direct debiting, factoring and debit note management are also included within the IA Accounts Receivable content.

2.12.3. Process – General Ledger

Infor M3 General Ledger benefits your organization with cost-effective internal control, speed, accuracy, and maximum reporting capabilities. The General Ledger is a comprehensive solution for enhancing financial control and reporting, as well as for information access and collection throughout your entire enterprise. A flexible chart of accounts and accounting calendar, posting options and information views are all featured in the solution; Journal entries can be automated, and its flexible accounting design generates information for statutory and business requirements.

Infor M3 provides numerous ways to view and print financial data. General Ledger balances

are automatically updated as transactions occur. Balances for any combination of accounting

strings can be viewed or printed at any time. Balance inquiries include on-line links to the


underlying financial transactions. Financial transactions can be viewed in multiple formats

choosing any start and end dates.

Transactions for inventory and other operations related to inventory are captured as each transaction is recorded by manual entry or scanning. The related general ledger accounting transactions are generated periodically in batch. The frequency of this batch update is normally daily but is entirely user-determined and can be run at any time. Infor M3 provides multiple inquiries and reports to facilitate review and analysis of these transactions at the detail level with on-line links with the summary general ledger transactions and related balances.

The IA preconfigured solution offers a basic chart of accounts upon which the accounting setups are based with the accounting dimensions defined as follows;

Dimension 1 – Account code

Dimension 2 – Cost center

Dimension 3 – Product group

Dimension 4 – Project

Dimension 5 – Element

Dimension 6 – Order

Dimension 7 – Accounting rule

It is expected that during the project implementation the chart of accounts, setups and use of the dimensions would be reviewed. This would include assessing and creating the required underlying information, such as product groups etc. to enable and provide efficient financial displays and reports.

Note that the IA solution is based on perpetual, not periodic, accounting.

2.12.4. Process - Cost Accounting

The close integration between the financials and the other modules / pre-systems creates great opportunities for close and real-time audit and control of your costs. The internal transactions generated from events in pre-systems can be monitored and/or adjusted and automatically transferred to the general ledger.

The internal accounting processes allow the following-up of variances for manufacturing orders and enable analysis of costs. As part of the internal accounting we support the process of reconciling cost accounting accounts and managing costs associated with internal movements of materials between facilities.

The internal accounting is made possible by M3’s flexible accounting rules, using the events in conjunction with related transaction objects to dynamically assign values to every accounting dimension. A proposed set of rules have been pre-configured and our consultants will help fine-tuning these to your needs.

The proposed solution supports product costing from the raw material purchase all the way to the finished manufactured product, and the internal accounting that follows, all using standard cost. The task of adjusting and updating standard costs, which should match the pace of major cost/price-changes and the needs of the company, is easily performed using the concept of ‘valid from’ dates.

Certain internal accounting transactions have been covered in the Cost Accounting section to provide extra support and understanding for these integrated processes.

2.12.5. Process – Fixed Assets


Infor M3 Fixed Assets is a comprehensive asset accounting tool, enabling you to select the optimal accounting and tax strategies for your enterprise. You can administer, track and control your investments in property, plant and equipment throughout your enterprise and around the world.

Infor M3 Fixed Assets helps you improve and control the accessibility and flow of asset information. It supports the asset lifecycle from purchase or construction to disposition, and

has a flexible fixed asset record that provides access to the information you may need ⎯ including asset information for accounting, acquisition, inventory, location, insurance and tax.

Example fixed asset settings have been preconfigured and should be checked, changed and expanded to meet the local business requirements for each Infor M3 division.

2.12.6. Process - Current Assets

Infor M3 Current Assets is the Module for Inventory and Work-in-Progress (WIP) Reconciliation and Valuation. The tools enable you to value your inventory using different methods or principles. These methods include financial or regulatory reporting, internal measurement or tax accounting.

2.12.7. Process - Risk Management

Infor M3 Risk Management is a sophisticated tool that assists you in protecting your organization's more liquid assets. A broad range of features provides for defining, identifying, analyzing and processing corporate assets and related transactions.

As an advanced tool for all aspects of risk management, including trading, currency and customer risks, Risk Management offers flexibility when tracking, monitoring and enforcing an organization’s risk management policies.

The IA solution includes foreign currency exposure, credit management and how to process letters of credit.

2.12.8. Process - Reporting and Budgeting

For on-line or off-line analysis, the solution offers a simple template which can be used to review specific reporting requirements. The consultants can create and customize reports for your needs.

The solution includes an Income Statement Example report preconfigured in divisions AAA and BBB and three Finance Key Ratio Reports preconfigured at the company/blank division level. These reports are a quarterly balance sheet, profit and loss and ratio report which should be run in that order and feed into the M3 Analytics solution.

M3 Budgeting plays a major role in helping your enterprise reach strategic, tactical and operational goals. A broad range of features is provided for defining performance objectives and supporting your asset focus.

As a sophisticated profit planning aid for all aspects of the budget process, M3 Budgeting offers flexibility in budget creation, roll-ups, inquiry and reporting. Other features include comprehensive budget analysis, multiple budget views, and budget integration.

The IA solution covers manual entry of a budget and creating a budget from last year’s values.


2.12.9. Process - Audit and Accounting

Infor M3 provides a standard audit function that extracts SAF-T information from various financial tables. An electronic file is produced in XML format that is the basis required for auditing.

2.12.10. Process - Taxation

Infor M3 Tax Management is the complete, integrated tool for administering the myriad of tax requirements the world over. The application eases the burdens of tax compliance and assists your operations in the highly complex world of transaction taxation and reporting.

The solution is pre-configured with one division located in the EU using VAT and Trade Statistics and the other division located in the US using Sales Tax.

Note: We have assumed M3 Sales tax will be used and have not pre-configured for the Vertex or any other 3rd party solution.

2.12.11. Process – Period Routines

The tight integration between finance and the other modules—sales, purchasing, warehouse, manufacturing—helps you simplify your periodic reconciliations. This process applies to inventory-based items, work-in-progress, accounts receivable, supplier invoices on clearing account, accounts payable, customer sales and deliveries, goods delivered not invoiced, and goods received not invoiced. It is expected that the areas to be covered would be reviewed during the project implementation and the necessary consulting support given.

The benefit of an integrated system shows itself in the period closing process: since the ledger and sub-ledgers are all in-sync, a period end-proposal can be run when all transactions performed during any period are entered into the system. Note that M3 uses ‘soft-closes’ during the year, and a ‘hard-close’ at fiscal year-end.

2.13. Process Area Maintenance to Work Order

2.13.1. Process Area Maintenance to Work Order

Effective equipment maintenance is critical to all organizations in this industry to not only maximize product output but to also help ensure the quality and safety of the end product as well as helping to protect the significant investment that is made in the production equipment. Out of calibration equipment such as checkweighers can not only lead to customer dissatisfaction but can also lead to prosecution, likewise badly maintained product equipment could cause contamination to the product leading to similar outcomes. Unplanned equipment breakdowns can have a dramatic impact on product output and therefore overall profitability, a simple and avoidable equipment failure might only take a few moments to correct but for many companies that disruption can lead to a break in the product flow leading to scrapping of whole batches of raw materials. It is therefore important to not only manage an effective planned and predictive maintenance strategy but also have an effective breakdown management process in place to minimize the impact of any unplanned failures.

Infor M3’s Maintenance Management module was originally designed based on the requirements of manufacturing companies. Its capabilities allow customers to manage all the different types of maintenance required in that industry including scheduled maintenance and inspections, breakdown maintenance, planned shutdowns as well as statutory inspections. The solution can be used to manage the planned and corrective maintenance of all types of equipment from whole production lines to individual items such as motors, pumps etc. The solution can also be used to support the maintenance of services such as air systems, lighting, heating, ventilation etc. The solution can also be used for managing the maintenance of statutory inspections on equipment such as lifting beams etc. M3


Maintenance Management has also been designed to support industry specific processes such as clean-in-place. The module also supports integration to other M3 modules such as manufacturing, inventory, procurement and financials. Using this integration, users can for example see manufacturing orders and maintenance work orders in the same view (PMS230) so production planners can see the impact of any maintenance work on the product schedules.

3. Delivery of General System Support

3.1. Security configuration

Nothing is included in the preconfigured IA Solution apart from menu versions connected to the preconfigured roles.

3.2. Electronic Signature

Electronic signature provides a tool for regulated customers.

The basic settings and the process are explained in this IA solution.

Implementation Accelerator Food & Beverage Solution Overview

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Transcript of Implementation Accelerator Food & Beverage Solution Overview