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November
6, 2008 Volume 7 - Issue 2
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MAC-PAC® XE™ eNews is published periodically by TDCI and
contains a summary of announcements and updates related to the
MAC-PAC XE Enterprise Resource Management System. Most
information highlighted here is also available on the MAC-PAC XE web
site at www.tdci.com/macpac.
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Improve Your
MAC-PAC XE Online Operation with New Enhancement from TDCI
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New Monitor
Notification Capability Minimizes Downtime by Alerting When There
is a Problem with Any MAC-PAC XE Asynch Program
As previewed at
Perspectives 2008, an important new MAC-PAC XE enhancement providing
great value to all MAC-PAC XE users is now available. The
Monitor Notification enhancement (LB01) minimizes the time on-line
processing is unavailable in the event of a system problem or when
on-line processing is not initiated on the normal schedule. It
also reduces the time to resolve any problems encountered in
asynchronous processing. More>>
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Moss Supply
Company Goes Live with MAC-PAC XE™ and BuyDesign® Configurator at
Ashland, VA Plant
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Moss Supply Company
(Moss), a leading manufacturer of vinyl windows and doors in the
Southeastern United States and the newest company in the MAC-PAC XE
user community, is now live with MAC-PAC XE and the embedded
BuyDesign Configurator for MAC-PAC XE at the company's Ashland,
Virginia manufacturing plant. MAC-PAC XE financial management
applications are already live at the corporate level. In the
next six months, the implementation will be expanded to include the
company's manufacturing plants in Charlotte, North Carolina and
Cartersville, Georgia. More>>
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Swiss
Manufacturer, UMV, Joins TDCI's MAC-PAC XE Maintenance Program
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Swiss manufacturer,
UMV (Usines Métallurgiques de Vallorbe SA), has recently signed a
MAC-PAC XE Maintenance Agreement with TDCI.
A long-time MAC-PAC user, the company had been off maintenance since
Andersen Consulting turned support over to TDCI in 1998. UMV
recently performed a structured evaluation of potential ERP
strategies, including options to move to SAP or other packages, or to
continue with MAC-PAC. The evaluation compared the cost and
benefits of each option and concluded that UMV's best strategy is to
continue using MAC-PAC for at least several years because of its
proven functionality and low cost of operation. More>>
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MDI
Shows Signs of Progress, using EDI Integrator™ from EXTOL
International
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Marketing Displays
International (MDI), a MAC-PAC user since 1993, is the latest company
to implement EDI solutions with MAC-PAC XE from EXTOL International,
Inc. (EXTOL).
MDI is a provider of indoor and outdoor point-of-purchase displays
such as illuminated signs, merchandise racks, curb signs, pump-top
displays and store canopies. They supply signage to chains of gas
stations, restaurants and retail stores, shopping malls, airports and
casinos, consumer and industrial products manufacturers, as well as
construction contractors working on government-related projects.
"The reason we chose EXTOL was simple - they are the leading
provider of EDI solutions for the iSeries, and a TDCI Solution
Partner," said Jim Ward, MDI Senior Systems
Analyst. More>>
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Watch for
MAC-PAC XE Solution Partner Webinars
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Beginning this month,
TDCI is sponsoring another series of webinars put on by MAC-PAC XE
solution partners. These webinars will provide a convenient way
for MAC-PAC XE users to learn about complementary solutions and
services, and about special topics addressed by various
partners.
Take advantage of these convenient "right in your office"
events to learn about solutions such as EDI, Sales Forecasting,
Manufacturing Execution Systems, Sales Tax, Data Collection,
Distribution Management, Business Intelligence, iSeries Systems, and
more.
The first webinar in
the series was: "EDI - Has Your Need Outpaced Your Solution?"
presented by EXTOL, TDCI Solution Partner and a leading provider of
EDI solutions for the IBM iSeries. If you missed that
webinar and would like to arrange a one-on-one session with EXTOL,
contact Shelley
Horn.
Over the coming months, webinars will be scheduled periodically, with
each month's topics & dates announced the prior month.
Watch your e-mail for announcements!
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Sales
Activity Analysis Added to BuyDesign® 6.0 Guided Selling and
Configuration Suite from TDCI
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BuyDesign 6.0 Also Delivers Enhancements to Product
Configurator, Quoting & Ordering, and Distributed System
Management
In early September, TDCI announced availability of BuyDesign
Insights, a new sales activity analysis application, along with
Release 6.0 of the BuyDesign guided selling and configuration
solution suite. BuyDesign Insights extends the BuyDesign suite
to provide sales management with visibility and analysis of quoting
and ordering activity across all indirect and direct sales
channels. In addition to BuyDesign Insights, BuyDesign 6.0
delivers a number productivity and performance enhancements to the product
configurator, quoting & ordering, and distributed system
management components of the suite. More>>
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Aritco Lift
AB, Great Plains Manufacturing & Thermo-Tech Windows Select
BuyDesign®
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Manufacturers of a
wide range of products have selected TDCI's BuyDesign Guided Selling
and Configuration solution for integration with various ERP
systems. Read the press releases:
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Limited Time
Offers on IBM iSeries Upgrades from MAPSYS
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As TDCI's partner for
IBM hardware systems, MAPSYS wants to make all MAC-PAC users aware of
two important limited-time special upgrade offers:
Power 6 Upgrade Discounts
A special financial incentive is now available from IBM to its
business partners surrounding the adoption of the latest Power 6
iSeries technology. As the exclusive MAC-PAC partner, MAPSYS
will pass this discount to you as a TDCI customer, rather than keep
it as additional margin. But you need to act now - the
additional discount decreases with time: it's worth more in November
than in December, and disappears at the end of the year.
Power 5 to Power 6 at Nominal Cost
If you are a Power 5 customer and you want to get to Power 6, MAPSYS
has several options to get you there; some options are at a lower
cost than what most other IBM Business Partners can do for their
customers.
MAPSYS has been very
successful at helping the MAC-PAC community balance cost with staying
current with technology.
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MAC-PAC XE™ and BuyDesign® Users Gather, Learn &
Share at
11th Annual
TDCI Customer Forum
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New
Solutions, User Successes, Informal User Networking and "Tropical
Night" are Highlights of the Conference
Despite the slow economy and the remnants of Hurricane Ike (in Ohio of
all places!), Perspectives 2008, held September 14-17 in Columbus, was
another very successful TDCI Customer Forum. Even though some
attendees arrived a little late and a few were unable to make it to
Columbus because of the weather, over 125 attendees from more than 45
companies were at the conference, with a few others participating in
specific sessions by phone. Fortunately the hotel had power
throughout the conference, even though there were widespread outages in
the Columbus area. Most local TDCI people were without power at
their homes, but the energy level at the conference was high!
This year's Customer Forum was the 11th annual TDCI user
conference. The first conference was the initial TDCI-run MAC-PAC
user meeting held in 1998.
More >>
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Solution Partners Demonstrate Complementary Solutions
for MAC-PAC XE™ and BuyDesign® Users
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Solution Center Features Broad
Range of Complementary Solutions and Services
Representatives from a number of complementary solution
and service providers presented solutions that extend MAC-PAC XE and/or
BuyDesign at Perspectives 2007. These included:
Crossroads RMC
Independent Systems (Avalara)
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New MAC-PAC XE PTFs Available
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Many new MAC-PAC XE core application PTFs have been
completed over the last several month. Problems resolved are:
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Description
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L2AI
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Trial balance and
multi-currency trial balance use original currency instead of cash
currency for on-account payments.
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AR530L &
AR560L
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L2AB
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AR092 error report shows incorrect messages
when there are no records to process.
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AR090P
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L2AH
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I5/OS V6R1 RM option to journal physical
files generates CPF700A message with (C D I R).
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RM600C
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L2AG
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(Critical) Upgrade
to V6R1, getting ABT0788 in OP100E3 after call to EC210E.
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ECDSPFFD (N), ECDSPF....
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L1DK
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Getting MPC1654 when processing closed MO'S
using IC130AP batch processing.
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IC130E, IC135E
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L2AE
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Multi-location backflushing
with master operations is not issuing components correctly.
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SF120E, SF127E
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L1CW
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(Critical)
Expanded configuration code data posting failure from BuyDesign
configurator.
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EC232E
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L1DA
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(Critical)
Reconfiguration of child components not loading option values in
BuyDesign configurator.
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EC206AP2(N), CT120M
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L1DM
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(Critical)
Sales order line LT action code keeps order in use by manufacturing
configuration.
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EC201E
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L1BZ
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Duplicate record write with IC100CL (R0518)
causes endless loop with batch MO creation.
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IC102E
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L1CT
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Asynchronous PO receipt does not copy
potency percent from part master to lot file record.
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PO220E
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L1CB
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SO lines are incorrectly displayed using MFG
CFG request.-++
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EC350E
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L1CP
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Error handling is insufficient in M.O.
dispatch list - on-line inquiry.
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SF800E
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L1DB
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(Critical) Post configuration data (EC232E) is
not writing all option values from BuyDesign Configurator to EC DATA.
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EC232E
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L1DC
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(Critical) Configured EDI sales order not
saving the configuration code from BuyDesign Configurator.
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ED140E
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L1DD
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(Critical) Configuraton
code template value from BuyDesign Configurator not converted to
uppercase.
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EC232E
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L1DF
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(Critical)
BuyDesign Configurator variable length value greater than 99 causing
abort in EC232E with MCH1210.
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EC232E
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L1DG
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(Critical) Post configuration data (EC232E)
fails on %FLOAT function for a null value.
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EC232E
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L2AF
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PTF L2AD causing invalid ABT0148 async transaction file missing message.
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SF127E
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L2AD
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Multi-location backflushing
not issuing configured components correctly when component is used
multiple times.
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SF120E
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Full descriptions of these and other MAC-PAC XE PTFs and enhancements
are available for download at www.tdci.com/macpac.
Click 'Support Login' at the top of the screen, then click either
'Software Fixes' or 'Enhancements' after logging in.
MAC-PAC XE Online Support is available 24x7 to companies that are
currently active on the TDCI MAC-PAC XE Maintenance & Support
Service.
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Tip of the Month
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Each MAC-PAC Tip of the Month is a selected Expert
Reference Note (ERN) from the MAC-PAC 'Helpful Hints' database in the
MAC-PAC website. You can get the full text of this note or search the
database by logging in to customer support and selecting 'Helpful
Hints' at www.tdci.com/macpac.
Expert
Number:
MROH-5JRUS5 Version: 11.1
Call Area(s):
RP
Program(s):
Question: How
can we have RP schedule parts to be in stock early?
Answer:
MAC-PAC normally plans to have parts in stock the day before they
are needed (except for JIT mfg parts which are due on the required
date) - either to satisfy a requirement or to prevent falling below a
designated Safety Stock level. However, there are several
features that would cause planning to have parts in prior to when they
would normally be considered as "needed".
Offset Days
(Product Structure). The field "Offset Days" on the
component record in the Product Structure file is used to cause the
component requirement to be calculated as being this many days before
the DUE DATE of parent's supply order. This applies to both MRP
parts and JIT parts. If this field has 4 in it, the component
requirement will be 4 days prior to the parent's due date, regardless
of the leadtime of the parent part. This may be earlier than
normal or later than normal. This feature affects the requirement
for the part, and standard logic of having the part due in the day
before the requirement would still hold true.
Target
Inventory (Part Master). For MRP parts, Target
Inventory acts like a "safety lead-time" and causes
inventories to be planned earlier than required. There are many
options with the settings for Target Inventory. This
functionality works better in V11.1 with the application of PTF C1OO
and other related PTFs than previous versions of MAC-PAC. Options
range from bringing all of next week's material in by Friday of the
preceeding week to having it in a certain number of days early.
Stock Queue
Days (Part Master). For JIT manufactured parts,
planning will cause parts to be in stock this many days earlier than
they are required. It is best to use Stock Queue Days for JIT
parts rather than Target Inventory. They produce the same
results, but the Stock Queue days produces less confusing planning reports.
Stock Queue Days does not work for Purchased parts designated with Prod
Type of JIT.
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Tell us your wish!
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Now you can
easily submit any idea you have for any MAC-PAC XE component to TDCI
development. Just send an e-mail describing your idea to the
appropriate e-mail address for the product you wish to see enhanced.
TDCI will acknowledge receipt of your input, review it, and take it
into consideration in future planning. Please be as specific as
possible when describing your request - the clearer your request, the
easier it will be for us to consider.
e-mail
addresses for MAC-PAC XE products are as follows:
> Core MAC-PAC XE applications: macpacwish@tdci.com
> BuyDesign: buydesignwish@tdci.com
> TDCI Integration Server: iswish@tdci.com
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