Distribution, Manufacturing, and Internet Modules

[BShockley]

I, too, am interested to know if the merge time has improved in 4.4

[drayno]

We even tried this in MAS 200 SQL with no real improvement in speed.

[SRYork]

Are you using the Inventory Item Delete / Change utility or the Renumber button in Item Maintenance?  I am guessing to renumber 100 items you are using the Item Delete / Change utility.

It would be interesting to see if you experience the same issue in both locations.  Since the Renumber button in Item Maintenance is a "one off" process, you can test this is by comparing the renumber time in item maintenance to the time it takes to renumber 1 item in the Item Delete / Change utility.

It sounds like there may be a key pointer issue.  This would cause the renumber process to "restart" at the beginning of the file instead of continuing from some point in the process. If the Item Maintenance Renumber time is significantly less, we have a "good" set of logic to use to compare to the slow performing logic.

Just one more thing, the amount of detail records will impact the timing results, so for your test I would renumber the same item in both locations to insure you are comparing apples to apples.

[SPyle]

These discussions are about the Delete/Change utility.  You cannot use the renumber button in IM if there has been any activity on an inventory item.  The renumber button is nearly instantaneous as it doesn't check any other files. 

I guess to perform your comparison, one could use the Delete/Change Utility on a NEW item for comparison, but the problem is when we want to change items that have activity and history.  From that perspective, a comparison is irrelevant as there is no alternative.  I recently had a vendor change all of their part numbers, over 3000 items.  We are unable to allocate the time to make that change; it would put us out of business.

[SRYork]

SPyel, That is not true anymore. The framework version does renumber multiple files but will  not allow your to "merge" to an existing item number like Item Delete / Change.  Renumber does check and renumber additional files and not just the CI_Item table.

BTW, the tables renumbered from Item Maintenance are:

• IT_Item
• IT_ItemAttachment
• IT_ItemCategory
• IT_ShoppingCartItemsSelected
• IM_ItemWarehouse
• IM_PeriodPostingHistory
• IM_ItemWhseHistoryByPeriod
• IM_ItemTransactionRecalc
• IM_ItemCustomerHistoryByPeriod
• IM_ItemVendorHistoryByPeriod
• IM_AlternateItem
• IM_PriceCode
• IM_SalesKitHeader
• IM_SalesKitDetail
• IM_AliasItem
• IM_ItemVendor
• SO_PurchaseCtrlByCustByItem
• SO_PurchaseCtrlByStateByItem
• SO_LineItemCommission
• MP2
• Item Memos

What I don't see are SO_SalesOrderDetail and PO_PurchaseOrderDetail tables.  I would have to compare  the IM Item Change / Delete logic to identify any other tables that may not be in the Item Maintenance list.

[SPyle]

While it may renumber multiple files, it still will not allow ME to change an item number if it is on a Sales Order, Purchase Order, or there has been any receipts, invoices, or inventory transactions.  The renumber button also doesn't work if there is a quantity on hand, even if it is so old the transactions have been purged.  This is the message I get:

     "This item is associated with other transactions and cannot be renumbered using Item Maintenance. Use Delete and Change Items on the Inventory Management Utilities menu to renumber  the item.  You can then view the detailed log on the Delete Change Items Listing."

It will allow a renumber if there is a record in the Last Purchase History (added then deleted from SO), but it doesn't renumber the last purchase history record.  The item will appear with the original item number and a  *** Not on file ***  description.

[SRYork]

I was just trying to help troubleshoot where the problem may be. Given your comment that Item Maintenance is almost instantaneous, then I would start by looking at the additional tables included in the Item Delete / Change renumber logic to see if I could identify where the problem is.

As for the Last Purchase History renumber issue you describe, I am not sure if that is a WAD or not.  It maybe that the renumber algorithm was designed to be a prospective and not a retrospective change.

Sorry, I can't be of more help.

[SPyle]

We only use the renumber button if we add an item and immediately see that there was a typo in the initial entry.

If it were done on-the-fly in a sales order, we would delete it from the SO, change the number, and put it back into the SO.  Therefore, I'm not concerned that it doesn't reflect in last purchase history.  It just leaves a stray record in LPH which isn't that big a deal to me.

Though I don't have any evidence, I suspect the extended description file.  The current implementation of that has caused me so many performance problems that it is always the first suspect.  It is so inefficient I can no longer link to it in Excel or Access.  I can only use it if I import a copy into Access or do an Excel link of less than a few hundred records.  AND, I have to remember to set the filter criteria first to get down to those few hundred, or it will hang my system.

[clfisk]

I do believe the biggest issue would be history files. Legacy used to update less than 20 files.

Framework is now updating around 50 files.

The biggest different is in framework you may havem more and  larger history files therefore it can take longer to process them.

There is also the Recalculate of costs in the Inventory files after merges. 

We would need a sample data set to find out if there is a performance issue.

Please contact customer support. 

Not sure how Extended Description file could have any impact in IM_Delete Change since it is never opened.

[drayno]

I am in the process of merging a clients items right now.  We are doing them 100 at a time and it takes about 4 hours each time. They have over 15k items.  We are planning on this taking over a month since we can only do this at night and on the weekends.

Do you need me to send my data to customer support also?