Manufacturer part numbers

Infor LN FP2

Components are often ordered from intermediate purchase business partners who do not produce the components themselves. These intermediate purchase business partners offer equivalent components, items that conform to the original item's specifications, from different manufacturers. To be sure that the offered components are produced by a manufacturer that is approved by you, in Infor LN FP2, you can store multiple manufacturers per item in the item-purchase business partner data.

However, the following restrictions apply to the multiple manufacturer item functionality:

  • Multiple manufacturer items can only be used in purchase orders and purchase requisitions. You cannot use these items in purchase contracts, purchase schedules, and RFQs.
  • The master data cannot be changed when the effective date lies before the current date.
New in Infor LN FP3

In Infor LN FP3, a new functionality is introduced for defining, approving, and using manufacturer's items, called the manufacturer part number (MPN) functionality.

This new functionality does not replace the multiple manufacturer item functionality. If you already used the multiple manufacturer item functionality in Infor LN FP2, for each item you can choose whether you want to define it as a multiple manufacturer item or as an MPN item. If you did not use the multiple manufacturer item functionality in Infor LN FP2, you cannot set up multiple manufacturer items in Infor LN FP3. You must use the MPN functionality to purchase manufacturer's items. The reason for this is that the MPN item functionality is the preferred and most extensive functionality.

If you used the multiple manufacturer item functionality in Infor LN FP2, but you want to start using the manufacturer part number (MPN) item functionality instead, you can convert the multiple manufacturer master data to the MPN master data for an item.

The following data can be converted:

  • Item manufacturers to manufacturer part numbers.
  • Item manufacturer business partners to MPNs by business partner.

For details, refer to Converting multiple manufacturer items to MPN items.

Related topics