Item Master clean up question....

[ifrydr]

Hello,

You guys have been very helpful in this forum so far, so, thank you. Now for my new issue; We have a huge legacy item master (about 13k line items). I am trying to establish a good way to "clean" this up and have a new starting point. I know there are numerous dups and parts that can be obsoleted. Is there a way to run some sort of report that will show which items have been used or had transactions against them for the last 2 years, or set time period etc.?? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[dgillz]

In terms of obsoleting parts, a crystal report linking the IMITMIDX (where all the parts are defined) with the IMINVTRX (where all the transactions are) will do this.

However this is not going to be easy. Every time there is a full physical inventory, there will transactions on that part number, even if the qty on hand did not change. So you would need to filter out these transactions to make some well informed decisions on this.

In terms of duplicate itema, Alembic out of the Phoenix area sells a utility to combine items, including performing tasks such as combining accumulators, changing history files, etc. There are some limitations but I know several companies have used this successfully.

If you have any questions, please post again.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[MacolaHelp]

I know this isn't timely, but I thought I'd give you some precautions if you are still considering doing this. Many files link to each other that are not readily apparent. I just did a huge database cleanup on a client who had used macola for over 10 years & it was no small task. You need to consider sales order history, customer history, po history, vendor history, usage statistics, end item where used on product structures, different locations & primary location in master file, customer item records, captured completed and in process bills and feature items. . . . If you are using shop floor, there's even more.

I used a combination of crystal reports and access mismatch queries to identify the records that needed to be deleted. In some cases, I could use macola purges or utilities to delete. In some cases I used access or sql queries. Naturally it all had to be done after hours and while the backup was not running for hours using all my available disk space. Although I got through about 85% of it, I still have work to do on the po/vendor files. I had a lot of trouble getting mismatch queries from po history files to return data to analyze.

Alembics utility programs work very well: they have vendors & customers as well. You could also consider setting up a new location with "good" information, physical count out the "old" locations & count back into the new locations, leaving behind the old stuff. If you identify in a pilot program what criteria you will use for item retention, you can reenter, add via processes, etc., configure to plan & test the inventory count method to get items back in. You also need to deal with open POs, sales orders, pop orders, shop floor orders. Some involve data entry (to fix allocations if you change locations), some can be done with queries, and if you have lots of orders & transactions, you will need participation from a dedicated group of key individuals who will test, monitor, and provide data entry as needed. Maybe even plan on setting up the "downsized" database as a fresh company ready to go with re-entering inventory counts and orders. Then save the old company for reference purposes.