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Receiving Best Practices

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Den
Advanced Member
Posts: 38
Advanced Member
3/20/2015 1:06 PM

    Hi All

    We have our process concerning receiving goods from the outside and into Lawson.  We also have our process for managing the packing lists from all of the incoming receipts.  We are wondering how some of the other Lawson users manage the incoming goods and the paperwork associated with the receipt.

    Right now, we enter the incoming info in PO30.  Once the PO number is released, we write on the packing list:  the receiver number, date and signature.  Then, we have a pile of packing lists at the end of the day.  Then, we file the packing lists in a file cabinet. 

    There is a lot of manual work in this process,  That is why I was hoping to get a more modern thought process.  One question in particular I have:  Is it possible to scan an image of a packing list and somehow attach that image to a specific receiver in Lawson?  Then, if we need to refer pack to that packing list, it will be right there in Lawson.  No need to try to find it in some file cabinet or in an offsite archive somewhere.

    How do you do this at your company?

    Thanks in advance

    Den

    JonA
    Veteran Member
    Posts: 1163
    Veteran Member
    3/20/2015 2:50 PM
      Currently we receive off the packing slip and the receiving clerk puts the packing slips in a stack and at the end of the day he brings them into purchasing. Several years ago we and HR piggy-backed onto a document management system that Medical Records was using. One of our purchasing clerks batch scans the documents and indexes them by PO number and vendor. She enters the PO number and the system retrieves the vendor from a database (csv file) that is updated nightly from Lawson. The documents are then converted to PDF and stored. The document storage database is not connected or interfaced with Lawson so we have to log into that separately if we need to view a packing slip.

      We are in the process of moving to a new document management system that is integrated with Lawson. Packing slips will be scanned at the receiving dock at the time PO30 is released. The receiving clerk will put the document in the scanner and will kick off the process with a (yet to be determined) key stroke. The new system will "screen scrape" PO30 to find the PO number and automatically index the scanned image and store it in the database. We'll be in the testing phase soon and will need to determine how much time this will add to the clerk's daily routine. AP is included in this project as well. For document retrieval a link will be added to PO30, PO20, AP20, etc. that when clicked will pop up a window listing the documents attached to that PO. Just click on the document and the image will be shown.

      If you are interested in implementing a document management system take a look at MHC Software of Perceptive Software. These are Lawson partners and have solutions ready. We went with a company that our IT department recommended that is not a Lawson partner and are "reinventing the wheel" so to speak. But it looks like they might come though for us.
      Jon Athey - Sr. Supply Chain Analyst - Materials Management - MyMichigan Health
      Bruce Walters
      Basic Member
      Posts: 5
      Basic Member
      4/1/2015 2:44 PM
        Jon,

        What version of Lawson are you running with the doc managment software?
        JonA
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        Posts: 1163
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        4/1/2015 3:56 PM
          We are on 9.0.1.10 and will be upgrading to Infor 10 this fall.
          Jon Athey - Sr. Supply Chain Analyst - Materials Management - MyMichigan Health
          Bruce Walters
          Basic Member
          Posts: 5
          Basic Member
          4/1/2015 4:20 PM
            Great timing on this. We are in the same situation as you. Going to bring this up for consideration. Thanks to you both for bringing this topic forward.
            JonA
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            Posts: 1163
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            4/1/2015 4:46 PM
              I will add that we use the 856 Advanced Ship Notice for our primary medical supplier. This is retrieved every morning @ 5:15 am and the receiving docs and putaway lists are printed before staff arrives. The clerk matches the receiving docs to the label on the boxes (the supplier prints our PO number on the label). The hard copy packing slips are just put in the stack with the others. With the new process these will have to be scanned later by purchasing staff.
              Jon Athey - Sr. Supply Chain Analyst - Materials Management - MyMichigan Health
              Den
              Advanced Member
              Posts: 38
              Advanced Member
              4/1/2015 5:57 PM
                Jon... thanks for your input. Good to see there are options out there.