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Ask the Experts
 Does your company have IFS-related questions? Perhaps you are facing Manufacturing, Financial, or Distribution problems that are begging for a solution? Do you have a technical issue that needs to be resolved?
Here is your chance to ask IFS-related questions to our team of highly qualified experts.
Email us your questions. Our team of experts will get back to you with our best answer. If your question is featured in The Edge, we will send one of our favorite toys. |
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Consultant's Corner
| Automating the Picking and Shipping Process
In this article, Don Nedved, eNSYNC Business Analyst and Data Collection Specialist, discusses a company that manufactures and distributes product in high volumes. Their products have barcode labels that contain part numbers, lot numbers, and production dates. This data needs to be captured, but the product moved so quickly that it was difficult to capture product data and execute IFS transactions on the fly.
That was the challenge presented to eNSYNC Solutions by a large food and beverage manufacturer and distributor. This company delivers between 5,000 and 9,000 units of product daily, with order sizes ranging from a few items to dozens of items per stop. Customer orders are picked and loaded onto 20 or more trucks that make deliveries to a large region, up to 250 miles from the plant. During the pick process, part and lot numbers must be captured in IFS in a real time manner so delivery notes can be printed for use by the drivers.
Read the full article here.
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Technical Tips & Tricks
What's a nice DBA like you
doing in a JOIN like this?  Wouldn't it be nice if every piece of data you needed were stored in one table? Well this is obviously never going to happen. IFS uses a normalized data model. This means that data is not duplicated across multiple tables. It only occurs in one place. Usually, when you want to extract data, part of it is in one table, but the rest of what you need is stored in one or more other tables. To extract or view this data means that somehow, you have to associate one table with one or more others.
In most cases you don't need or want to use a table JOIN. Joining is one of the most misunderstood concepts for the beginning DBA or report writer. In this article, Alan Clark, eNSYNC Oracle-certified DBA, discusses the different types of JOINs and how to use APIs to find the right data quickly without the overhead of table JOINs
Read the full article here.
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Greetings!
eNSYNC Cranks Up "The Works" at IFS Summit
It was great to see everyone at the IFS Customer Summit October 6-8! I think you'll agree IFS hosted a wonderful event affording all a great opportunity to network, learn, and certainly helped us get closer to you, our customers! We hope you had an opportunity to visit our exhibit and place your order for Cranky or Zecar! These little mechanical mascots were a great way to introduce three new and exciting extensions for IFS Applications 7.
 With "Configure Works" we used our powerful web-based configuration tool to configure orders and release them to IFS for production. Our Mascot Manufacturing Co. made extensive use of bar code data collection through the production process which was an optimum way to introduce our all new "ScanWorks7" automatic data collection solution for IFS App 7. With Cranky and Zecar produced, picked, and packed, shipping was handled with eNSYNC's comprehensive EDI solution for IFS, "eWorks". It was indeed a busy couple of days at eNSYNC's Mascot Manufacturing Co. as "Summit" customers interacted with the demonstrations to ship Cranky or Zecar back home. They should be arriving any day!
We do hope these unique mechanical critters will be a reminder of some exciting new tools to "Crank up" your total IFS business solution!
Thanks for visiting with eNSYNC at the Summit and Best Wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!
Best Regards, Roger Resley
President & CEO
eNSYNC Solutions, Inc.
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The Company We Keep
IFS Applications Help InkCycle Win Kansas City's Top Small Business Award
 When eNSYNC Solutions president, Roger Resley, first met with InkCycle CEO Rick Krska, hopes of a potential IFS software license sale appeared slim. A fast growing printer cartridge re-manufacturer, InkCycle was just days away from signing a contract with Microsoft for a new ERP system. But Rick listened as Roger explained perhaps the ERP world's best kept secret for growth companies like InkCycle: IFS Applications. Rick had not heard of IFS but was intrigued by the technology and its breath and depth of functionality compared to all the other packages they had evaluated.
Read the full article here.
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ScanWorks Scoreboard
Kim Hotstart Implements ScanWorks™ from eNSYNC Solutions
 Kim Hotstart specializes in manufacturing electric pre-heaters for diesel engine blocks. Applications range in size from large ocean-going ships to locomotives, gas pipeline compressors, to small standby emergency generators. Kim Hotstart products have passed industry and U.S. military shock and vibration testing.
While much of their business is made-to-order, a significant amount is still shipped from stock. Inventory control and customer order fulfillment accuracy were the primary objectives for Kim Hotstart in implementing a bar code data collection system using IFS and ScanWorks™.
A tight budget and a high ROI were key requirements for this project. A very short implementation time and a very much focused project combined to enable a rapid and successful implementation. In less than four weeks the system was designed, approved, developed, and delivered. The ScanWorks™
"out-of-the-box" solution for IFS was the key in delivering the rapid solution.
Read the full article here.
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What's in "The Works?"
DataWorks™ consists of three components which provide connectivity to devices and communication to IFS application modules: DeviceWorks can provide both serial RS-232 and broadband Ethernet connectivity; CommWorks maintains the protocols for various device types and is the traffic manager to/from IFS. The third component, LinkWorks provides a real-time link between the automation system (PLC) and IFS.
DataWorks provides a real-time connection for rapid and secure reads and writes to the underlying Oracle database for IFS. The activity APIs provide access to the data, tables, and views within IFS. This allows eNSYNC to build a data collection system tailored to specific customer's requirements. DataWorks is built on the exact architecture which powers eNSYNC's popular ScanWorks™ bar code data collection solution for IFS.
DataWorks is an application tool kit which connects to IFS through the Information Access Layer and leverages the component based architecture of IFS (picture to left). DataWorks uses published APIs which form the business logic and data gateways to IFS modules.
Read the full article here.
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