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Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

Robert Wood

Robert Wood10-15-2013 20:39

Robert Wood

Robert Wood10-16-2013 08:55

  • 1.  Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 08:43
    Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber industry? If so, do they own any add-ons for calculating board feet, square feet, etc.? I have a client that is wanting to start with Sage 100 Inventory and Bill of Materials, and they are willing to do these purchase and production UM conversions manually, but I would like to look at enhancements if there are any. Also, and more importantly, they will have pieces of lumber at a particular size (i.e. 1x4.25x96 = thickness x width x length). This will be only one item number, but instead of 128 square feet total on hand, they would like to stock 7 pieces @ 8', 17 pieces at 6', etc. Any brilliant ideas on this particular scenario without having to use multiple item numbers for each board length? Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions?


  • 2.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 08:52
    My only client in the lumber industry does all of their IM completely outside of Sage 100, and just invoices a part number within Sage that doesn't do any IM tracking at all.


  • 3.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 08:57
    Lumber is the classic ""doesn't fit"" example used over the years for Sage 100. The problem I've always had with ""can sorta kinda make it fit"" is that if you ask how it will be working in 2-3 years when the business is hopefully growing you usually don't like the answer that you come up with.


  • 4.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 09:06
    @AmberPrayfrock welcome to matrix inventory! This is common in the lumber, pipe, and apparel industries just to name a few. If you find an add-on for 100 that handles it, please let me know. One option is to use lot's for tracking quantities by sub-category (ex 8' vs 6' 2x4's). That would also allow you to track cost for each group separately. However, it's going to get ugly in a hurry. To address board feet, you would need to add an UDF at the lot level to add this as an attribute of each lot and then get into custom reporting to work with the resulting values for stock, sales, and purchase transactions. We discussed something along this line with a company which milled logs into lumber and then used that lumber in the manufacture of pallets. Some high-value cuts of lumber they produced they sold wholesale. In our solution design (Sage 500 rather than 100 but the same principles apply), the customer agreed to set up SKU's for each cut and classify each board by SKU. In other words, a 2 x 4 x 8 was one SKU and a 2 x 4 x 10 was another SKU. If a board measured 9', it was considered a 2 x 4 x 8. For board feet in this case, it becomes an attribute of the SKU. This is a lot easier to manage than at the lot level. In the end, these are the types of opportunities we walk away from early as they we feel they not a good fit for any Sage ERP product that we are familiar with.


  • 5.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 09:10
    Thanks Shawn - someone else here also suggested Lot Numbers but I also prefer the different part numbers for each size, even though the client is resistant to that idea. Beth - they use something called LISA Lumber too...they just feel it's time to go to one system if possible.


  • 6.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 09:12
    Ditto Wayne. Another issue is cutting if they cut a board in half and sell the half, how do you get the remaining board back into inventory. It can be done, but it can be cumbersome.


  • 7.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 11:59
    @JaneCavanaugh if the client uses WO they can record a byproduct completion that would put the cut stock back into the system.


  • 8.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 13:04
    Good to know, thank you. Adds another module to the mix but it is good to know it can be done.


  • 9.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 15:13
    I have a client since 2000 using 100 to handle IM for a full on lumber yard. They keep separate item numbers for all of their lumber, including by species. There really aren't that many items required in comparison to a distributor or retail store. They do a lot of custom door and window packages which they value by lot. In their operation cuts are rare so it is not a problem. Back in the dark ages Macabe had a board feet calculator enhancement that we used for several sawmill clients in Oregon. I have no idea if it survives.


  • 10.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 19:49
    Monty Python's Lumberjack Song comes to mind . . . silly industry. I like the idea of using lot numbers. My good ""buddy"" Alec at IIG used to have a marble slab tracking enhancement - kind of similar.


  • 11.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 20:37
    It looks like the Macabe enhancement was SO-1571. It was still around in 4.30.


  • 12.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-15-2013 20:39
    Here's the PDF from IIG's website.


  • 13.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-16-2013 03:12
    I have a customer who sells (and imports) granite. They use the UDF Lot/Serial to separate out the slabs. This used to be a separate Extended Solution but is now built into standard Sage 100 (since 4.4 I think). They don't do any processing on it -- nothing gets cut and put back into inventory.


  • 14.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-16-2013 08:44
    @RobertWood I can't find SO-1571 on the DSD website. Is it available? Do you have any product info? We run into something similar with pipe in the oilfield once or twice a year. We walk on by today but would love to find a solution that would put us back into play on those opportunities.


  • 15.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-16-2013 08:53
    I did some digging. DSD purged a bunch of the ones that they hadn't had a nibble on. It doesn't look like anyone has updated it yet. I found it on IIG's website with ask as the availability. Blytheco didn't seem to have it listed either.


  • 16.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-16-2013 08:54
    Sage stopped updating it as of 3.71 according to this document. http://infosource.sagesoftwareonline.com/sw_attach/sso/MAS90/IRD/ExtendedSolutions/IRD_ExtendedSolutions_2010.pdf


  • 17.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-16-2013 08:55
      |   view attached
    This is the doc sheet from IIG

    Attachment(s)

    pdf
    SO-1571.pdf   483 KB 1 version


  • 18.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-17-2013 12:10
    I personally stay away from IIG after a few bad experiences.


  • 19.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-17-2013 12:11
    @GaryFeldman . . . hence my term ""buddy"".


  • 20.  RE: Does anyone work with a customer in the lumber ind

    Posted 10-17-2013 12:24
    With buddies like @Real... I mean @JohnHoyt, who needs enemies?