Our workflow has the CSR taking the jobs back to our Art Dept. There is constant discussion on how long an order is in Art vs CSR vs Production. Currently, there is no good way to determine this for the Art dept. So i was thinking to add in a bar code check in where when the paperwork is brought back to Art it is scanned into the Epicor. Basically would just need Order number, Job number, Dept field, Time Stamp. Is this possible, has anyone done this yet?
Art operation on the job to report against?
Seems like it would be easy to do as a simple inventory transfer.
Scan out from some bin into art bin (add comment) - you can track in the PartTran with date, time, user, comment, etc. You’d scan out from the art bin back to another to get the OUT record. Make a baq\dashboard to view the (filtered) details.
We already have an art operation, but I want to know not when they start the operation, but when they actually get into the dept. But the setup your talking about looks good. Trying to capture something that isn’t native to Epicor is a real pain point, but worth the effort in efficiency gains. And I am assuming that the scanner works with Epicor.
A scanner is nothing more than an automatic keyboard. The means the where ever you have focus on the form - is where scanned information will go.
You have to handle the logic if you want it automated but you don’t have to. For example - you could add a textbox field for your value - you make sure the focus (cursor) is in the box and you scan your data. Then right next to it, you can have a button that acts upon that data. This is the easiest way.
Getting fancier, you can write code to handle the input automatically but unless you code, that’s not the best route for you.
If you plan on using the inventory transfer idea - it may be quickest and easiest just to work off of the inventory transfer screen and use the REFERENCE field to scan in your job-op-dept etc. They would all be in the same field, but it’s definitely the quickest way.
Then you can make a BAQ to filter the PartTran table for only moves into or out of the ART bin. And you can sort or filter by the reference field too.
(I was typing all of this and Chris responded before I did)
Depends on where you want the information. We use a website called basecamp (there are others like it) and we have the office tasks through engineering set up as a list, and each job is a task. We just drag it down and assign it to the next person when you are done with it. Basecamp has a by the minute history for the task so you can see when it got moved and who did what to it. It’s really helped us organize the engineering department. One downside though, is while all of the information is there, it’s not in database form that we can get to, so you are left to look up each job individually to get that information out.
The other option is to put those as operations on the job, then they can complete them as they are done with them. You can sift through the data and get what you need.
The last (that I can think of) is to use a UD table that houses the information that you want and create your own input screen. This would be more involved but not incredibly difficult (I think I could do it, and I’m not an advanced customizer). You can get a barcode scanner and it will act just like keyboard input if you want to speed input up.
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Make another operation for CSR for when they drop it in the department???
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I got distracted by real work here. lol
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One day someone will have to teach me what is this “real work” thing I keep hearing about 
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LOL! I’m still trying to figure that out myself! LOL!
Back to the topic at hand, our workflow is as such, CSR takes the order/Quote. If Quote, then it gets sent to Art for Proofing of art work. Then some back and forth is done with the customer until the customer approves. Once approved, it is sent back to the CSR for the Job creation. Then on to production. If an order, then it may go back to art, and an operation is already listed, for Stepping. So the issue is tracking the time for proofing and how long something sits in Art before it is logged into.
So, I don’t see how an operation for CSR would help in this case as this is pre Job creation. The time I want to capture is when the art dept is engaged from start to finish per job. And art is engaged before Job creation for proofing.
Would my suggestion about moving it into out of an ART bin not allow for you to see how long it was there?
It would, I would just use the scanner to scan it in. I feel that would be quickest and most of my people would like that better than manually entering the info. Also it cuts down on the CSR’s sending it to Art but its not physically there because they didn’t bring it back. I honestly like your idea. I think the UD field’s and scanner along with an Art Bin would be the way to go.
To add a little complexity - you could have the Inv Transfer not allow moves in to or out of ART bin unless the reference field (or whichever fields you use) are set.
So, Art must do their thing or it can not be moved forward. That’s how I want to do things anyway. Currently e can move forward regardless but it causes issues. Eventually i will get around to stopping that mess.
Easiest way - hide the original Transfer button. Add your own replacement button. In the click event, check for the conditions, if you are happy, call the original button otherwise send a gripe message.
EpiButton btn = (EpiButton)csm.GetNativeControlReference(“original btn guid here”);
btn.PerformClick();
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On the bar code piece, how does Epicor generate the bar code?
What document are you using? The job traveler? If so, there is a check box to print barcodes, and it should put them on there.
Making me think, since this is pre Job scanning, I would need a barcode generated on a quote sheet sent to Art. Taht sounds like another customization.
Will you have a job built at that point? If you don’t, then you won’t be able to do the inventory transfer moves that Chris is talking about.
Thinking way outside the box, could you just get one of these and put it by the art dept in box. Then before anyone drops anything in there, they have to time stamp it? Realistically once you are done proving there is a problem and it’s fixed, or there isn’t really a problem, no one is going to care anymore, so is the data really worth the hassle? Just a thought.
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