Our engineers have expressed interest in doing a mass item number change for most all of the items in the system. :eek:

Has anyone attempted this? Developed any tools for this?

Thanks,
John

Hi John,
I take it that by "Item Numbers" you meant "Item Codes"... Why would you want to change the existing codes? Why not push into baan (using exchange schemes) new item codes of their (your engineers) desire?

Just a suggestion!!

sk

Engineers (corporate driven) want to go from 16 character alphanumeric item code structure to a 10 digit numeric structure for the item codes. Over 100,000 items in the item master, inv700, sls051, pur051, etc. Baan IVc4.

For many reasons, you will still need to keep the old item code references in the system - audit requirements, historical references, government requirements. I am thinking you should not just replace the old item code with the new.

Not that I have done this before, but one approach could be (and you will be able to define this in better details, since you have a much better knowledge of your systems) to write just enough new sessions to COPY the old master records to the new master records. This assumes that you have a cross-reference list of the old item code to the new item code (either as a flat file or in a table in BAAN).
For example:
- Item Data
- Bill of Material
- Routing Data
- All the price masters
- etc. etc. etc.


With the master data for the new item codes in place, it will be possible to do many of the next steps, for example:
- Remove the planning data for the old item codes
- Create planning data for the new item codes
- Cancel all Purchase Orders for old item codes, place new purchase orders for new item codes
- Complete all production orders into stores, and adjust inventories down for old item codes and up for new item codes
- Transfer inventories on hand of all the old item codes to the new item codes
- etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

It is difficult to be very exhaustive here, but this looks like a multi-department project - almost like implementing BAAN all over again.

The second alternative, if it is acceptable to all, is to stay with the OLD item codes, BUT define the cross reference in BAAN using the following sessions:
- tcmcs0127m000 - Maintain Alternate Item Code Systems
-- Here, define a new code which has Type = "General" - that way, it is not dependent on Supplier or Customer.

- tiitm0112m000 - Maintain Item Codes by Item Code System
-- Here you can define the Alternate Item Code as the NEW Item Code
[We wrote a simple session to upload this information into BAAN from a flat file that had the two codes, because somebody had taken the trouble to create the cross-reference list manually].

THEN, in the sessions where it is important, add the Alternate Item Code as a DISPLAY field.

So, the business will be using the OLD item code as usual. Any brand new items can be assigned code according to the new coding scheme. After some time, at least the MANUFACTURED item will expire if they are no longer manufactured. The Purchased items will take longer to expire.

Now this, at least, is what we have actually implemented at our work place.

The reason for this approach in our case is that, the 'old' item code is referenced in so many places, including in many hard-copy documentations, that it was not cost-effective to convert to the 'new' item code (not considering the fact that each and every worker would have to be retrained to the use of the new item code - they practically have most common used item codes by heart!). The 'new' item code is now available where it is relevant for reference.

Your last suggestion is exactly the choice we have proposed and looks like it will be accepted. We already have an upload session for the alt item code session that we use for customer and supplier numbers.

We will display the alt item code on the screens where needed.

Our third change will be to create a drop down menu when someone is doing a lookup by item code to allow lookup by the current item code system or the alt item code system.

John