Release 4.33
1) More flexibility setting the Select Criteria for reports by controlling the Product User Status code of _ (blank) - Before this new enhancement the buyer had select control over the Product User Status codes of ‘F’ Frozen, ‘M’ Manual, ‘P’ Probation and ‘W’ Watch. The buyer could specify to either include (1=Yes) or exclude (0=No) products from the reports that had those four specific codes. Now the buyer can have the same type of select control when the Product User Status codes are blank.
2) Collection of Daily Interface Information - This enhancement provides the buyer with a 75 day audittrail of daily interface information. The buyer can actually see the on hand and on order day by day, along with the daily sales and daily lost sales information. If the buyer sees an obvious error in the daily sales information being sent to K3S, then he can actually correct it BEFORE Period End takes place. Tools are provided to help the buyer (or manager) find any large values in the daily sales or daily lost sales information.
3) New tools to assist a buyer with Daily Replenishment - For buyers that place multiple orders per week for a supplier, and the distribution of sales by day is very different, new tools exist that help to analyze patterns and to establish the correct percentage by day of the week. Prior to this release a buyer had to manually enter the daily percentages (Monday 30%, Tuesday 28%, etc.) Now a buyer can easily analyze past weeks, and have the results automatically saved as a pattern. Even the buyers who don’t have a Daily Replenishment requirement can use the new tool to view weekly historical patterns.
4) More friendly technique to unlock both Suggested Orders or Selected Products Review Batches - using the new “9=Unlock” option Prior to this new release a buyer could use an option of “U=Unlock” to unlock either Suggested Orders or Selected Products Review Batches. But that option did not display on the K3S screens, and would require the buyer to either open the K3S User’s Guide to search for the seldom needed technique (or call K3S!). Now the “9=Unlock” option does appear on the screen for quick reference. Also, the buyers can now easily see which Suggested Orders or Selected Products Review Batches are being worked on (are locked) since they now appear in the color red (or blink on a “green screen”). A manager can easily see who is working on what in K3S, by drilling down to all locked Suggested Orders (new “9” Mode), or all locked Selective Products Review Batches (new “9” Status).
5) Default values for new buyers can be dictated in the new User Preference record labeled “K3S_BUYERS” - Prior to this new release all default values in the User Preference record for a new buyer were pre-determined by a K3S program. Now customers have complete control over every default value setting in the User Preference record for a new buyer.
6) New Purchase Adjustments Report - This new report can provide meaningful information about the percentage of adjustments made by the buyer to the system generated suggested orders. Progress is shown by year/month, and can help to identify possible problem areas like ‘suppliers not set up properly’ or ‘buyer needs addition training’.
7) New Period End Exceptions Performance Report - This new report provides feedback that shows how responsive buyers are to performing their Period End Exceptions. Only PE1 through PE5 are monitored, and the percentage of completion is shown by each passing day. If a buyer completes all Period End Exceptions on the 1st day after the history roll, then 100% will be shown under Day 1. There are columns for Day 2 through Day 5, as well as a column showing the % not reviewed at all!
8) Supplier Purchases Summary now displays in descending sequence by year - From the K3S_1020 Orders – Supplier Detail screen the buyer can press F20=Supplier Purchases to see a summary of purchases by year. Prior to this new release the information was shown by year in ascending sequence. Now the information is shown by year in descending sequence which places the most current year at the top of the list, and will save the buyer from having to ‘page down’ to see current information.
9) Supplier Discount Bracket entries now accept a negative value for Discount Dollars which can be used as a Surcharge Amount - Typically we would enter a Savings Amount (as a positive value) when adding a new Supplier Discount Bracket Dollar value. Now a buyer can enter a negative number into the Discount Dollar value, and it will be treated like a Surcharge Amount throughout the Order Cycle Analysis programs. So instead of saving dollars by reaching a supplier bracket level, you can simulate charges by reaching a supplier bracket level.
10) New Out of Stock Last Night type in Selected Products Review - A buyer can generate (F6=Add) his own batch of products to be reviewed by selecting the new type “OUT” from the Selected Products Review program. The criteria for this Out of Stock Last Night batch include products where the on hand is 0, and the product has been ordered in the past. Discontinued (D), New (N) and Manual (M) products are ignored from the selection process.
11) Change Product Source program more user friendly - The new release provides several enhancements that have made the program easier to use. These include: better identification of supplier information, understanding if this environment is single location or a multi-location environment, a new option 2=Change capability, and an improved process for entering multiple files.
12) New capability to analyze an entire supplier line for seasonality - The new release enables the buyer to review an entire supplier line for seasonality based upon summary dollars or by summary quantities for the past year. The buyer can review the results provided, make any adjustments required, and then press F22=Generate profile which will automatically add the new seasonal profile to all products in the supplier line.
13) New capability to log when ‘Cost sent across as ’ during the K3S night job process - For customers who would like an audit trail that shows when products are updated in the K3S night job with a cost of , a new Product Interface Log record type of ‘c’ will notify the buyer. The text for this new log record will read as ‘Cost sent across as ’.
Information Systems enhancements (technical information)
14) K3S Night Processing now has 10 parameters “soft coded” - A new category of NJP Night Job Parameters in the K_TABLCOD file holds parameters that were previously defined (hard coded) in the CL program K3S_NIGHT. The new soft coding will make it much easier to turn on and off the K3S features associated with these parameters.
15) End of Year knowledge now available through K3S Night Processing exit points - Some customers require additional processing to take place in K3S once a year only. This new facility provides an easy way for customers to execute these once a year tasks.
16) Report files moved to library K3S_DTA - In a previous release K3S had created several report work files into library K3S_MOD. In this new release those files are now created into library K3S_DTA, and removed from library K3S_MOD. All K3S base system Physical and Logical files now exist in just one library of K3S_DTA.
17) Processing Schedule now contains link directly to Night Job Detail - Prior to this release an additional menu option existed on the Operations Menu that would allow viewing the Night Job Detail. Now the user can go directly from option 1. Processing schedule, and use option ‘1=Log’ to proceed to the Night Job Detail information.
18) Improved method to remove users signed on during K3S Night Job Processing - With the explosion of the internet more users now have access to K3S Systems from anywhere, and at any time. It’s the ‘at any time’ part that can be tricky. The facility that runs during the K3S Night Job to ‘identify who is signed on to K3S’ and ‘remove their job’ needed improvement. The ENDJOB command now uses the *IMMED (immediate) instead of *CNTRLD (controlled) value for ‘How to end’.
