We have archived production orders in a series 10-19. We then reset the series back to 10 to start over. The users who create production orders noticed there was a gap when creating new ones. The statements below describes what they notice:

"I have just transferred 5 production orders. They started at 103087 and ended at 103118."

"I just transferred 16 production orders. They started at 103177 and finished at 103253"

We noticed the hours accounting table had production order information contained. We then archived the hours accounting table hoping the production order skipping would decrease or disappear. It hasn't.

I submitted a case to baan support and they found there was a link in the tdltc104 table (lot controlled production orders) that was not getting archived.

The following is baan supports solution:
If an item/order is Lot Controlled, a record will be left in the tdltc104 table. This record is not deleted by archiving (of SFC orders) in order to keep lot tracing ability in place. If these records were removed, lot tracing would not be possible. Also, if the archiving moved these records to a new company, a "re-used" SFC Order number may refer to an incorrect lot.

If we don't do anything the 10-19 series will fill up again and we will not be able to created any more production orders. We cannot use another series 20-29, 30-39, etc. because they are reserved for other divisions. We would prefer not to create another baan company either.

Does anyone have suggestions of what we could do?

Thanks!
-Tim

Hi Tim,

I think the best solution for that would be for Baan to add the production date to the key index in tdltc104, to make it possible to have more than one record per order/item combination. In absence of that, there are a few things to consider:

1. Lots can be tracked in two ways: a) with the Lot Tracking functionality in "Lot Control" and b) through the inventory location history (table tdilc301). In session "Print Inventory History by Location" (tdilc3410m000), you can print out all inventory movements for a certain lot (if you enter projects and items in addition to the lot, it goes faster). The inventory location history is archived anyhow and most companies I worked with preferred tracking their lots that way. Check if you really need to have lot tracking implemented.

2. I don't see a problem with adding a session that will archive the records in case you want to keep them. (In standard lot tracking information is just deleted with the session "Delete Lots".)

Also, if the archiving moved these records to a new company, a "re-used" SFC Order number may refer to an incorrect lot.

The way "Lot Tracking" is usually needed is: you have a warranty case or a customer complaint and you want to know with which production order the lot was produced. The lot will still only refer to one production order and you'll see the production date. If you enter it in the original company, you wouldn't get any information since the order + lot tracking information would have been archived. You'd then go to the archive company and look it up there. Now you might want to check which other lots have been produced with that production order. You'd do that in the archive company too and the production date will allways give you the opportunity to distinguish between new and old order.

To summarize that, there are three possibilities:

1. If it's necessary to track old lots in the original production company through the "Lot Tracking" functionality: Keeping the records in tdilc104 in the original company and loosing the order numbers.

2. If it's necessary to keep the records but they can be moved to an archive company: Archiving the records and deleting them out of the original company. (Creating a session for that is fairly easy).

3. If the records can just be deleted: either write a session for deleting them, revert to GTM, or use the standard "Delete Lots", which will then delete all other lot information too. (Beforehand you'll have to archive/remove the sales orders in which the lots were used, the inventory on hand has to be 0 and references in qms might not exist.)

So, first I'd find out out if the lot tracking functionality is needed at all (or if the location inventory history will suffice), if the records in tdilc104 need to be kept and where the records need to be kept (original or archive company).

If you want consulting help, let me know. You can find some general information about archiving on my website www.maxsc.com .

Karin

Just saw that Baan support has released a new solution (# 164208) which archives lots and lot tracking information instead of just deleting it.