Background
Our company has recently went online with Epicor.
During the run-up to going live I have become a system admin or sorts.
I am very new to manufacturing systems and know I have a lot to learn.
I’m hoping someone here can help me out with a BOM / Qual Manf issue raised by our purchasing Department
BTW - New to the forum and this is my first post. Not sure about best practices etc. Any suggestions for improvements are appreciated.
Issue
Our purchasing agent sends quotes to various CM’s and part of that process is supplying a BOM which includes Qualified Manufacturer and Qual Manf Part # for all components.
Our previous system apparently had a report purchasing could run that provided the necessary info along with a ref designator summary for each component in a single column / line. they would run this report as part of sending any new quote to a vendor.
I have found a way to gen this info by exporting a couple of items from Epicor and combining info in a excel file. However, this is not very efficient.
Question
I’m looking for info (or better yet a head start) on how to create a BAQ that can provide a report similar to the one the previous system supported.
Happy to include example files or other info as needed.
BOM queries are pretty complex because they have to iterate through all the parts based on parent/child relationships. Can certainly be done, but its a little daunting if you’re not overly familiar with CTE queries.
I would suggest perhaps trying to use a system report and modifying it to your needs. For example, the BOM Listing report will already do the BOM portion. And the Report Data Definition (RDD) also already includes the PartMtlRefDes table (hoping that may include the reference designator information you’re looking for).
You’ll just have to work on getting the “Qualified Manufacturer” and their corresponding part numbers pulled in. Where is that information being stored in your Epicor system?
Are you practiced at all yet with copying and modifying system reports?
Hello Everyone
For reference I’ve attached some screenshots of the various files I mention in the original post. Ex-001 & Ex-002 are Epicor BAQ’s in the system. Ex-003 is the final output we get after using the BAQ data in excel with VLOOKUP etc
Right now, i would say I am not familiar with mods to the system reports. Another area I need to learn…
I have modified many existing BAQ’s adding fields from tables already there.
I’m just now trying to get the Qual Manf data into our existing BAQ which outputs the RefDes BOM data.
I will have a look at doing a report instead as you suggest. Maybe that will be a better solution for our Purchasing Department
In the help file, in the tools user guide, there are some BAQ case studies. Like @dcamlin mentioned, BOM queries are some of the most complicated ones that you can do. However, there is a guide that walks you through step by step making one. I would definitely work through each of those case studies and you’ll be on your way learning how to do BAQs.
When you get off book, knowing which tables to use takes some experience. Here is where field help is your friend, because you can see (mostly) where epicor is getting it’s data from.
I will pre-emptively call out that ECO tables are temp tables, and shouldn’t be used for BOM reports. Use the PartMtl, PartOP, PartRev etc. to get that data.
If you get stuck, feel free to come back and ask questions, there are lots of people willing to help.
You asked for tips for using the forum, we have template for just that that I’ve inserted below. But I think you’ve already got the idea.
To help the community provide the best answer, could you include as much of the information below as you can? Your question appears to be lacking some much needed context
Epicor Version
Deployment Type (Cloud, On Prem, 3rd Party Cloud etc)
The business problem you’re trying to solve
What you’ve already tried
Is this a Kinetic UX (Web) or Epicor Classic issue?
Is it related to a Method Directive, Data Directive, Function, BAQ, UBAQ, Configurator, etc.?
Any screenshots, error messages, or logs.
Any code you’ve written (or borrowed , make sure it is property formatted)
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code here
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@Epicor_RT Welcome,
Your not the only one here who ended up with the Epicor Admin role by accident.
Just to add to all the other top information. Search the help for “Designing SSRS Reports”
And if you haven’t already make sure you take a dive into the documentation on Epicweb. There are heaps of technical references as well as pdf versions of user guides that will help you understand the various nuances of how Kinetic works (under and over the covers)… no that was not a Cricket reference.
