ERP Learning
Prelude ERP
Version 7
User manual
Prelude ERP 7.0www.cipe-prelude.net Version 7.0.0
designed and created by Gérard BAGLIN and Christian van DELFT (HEC Group) with the support of the Ministry of Industry
Licence no. 00000001 granted to
Demonstration
WARNING: this software is protected by copyright law and may only be used in accordance with the conditions of use defined in the agreement between CIPE and the licensee. Any abuse of copyright will be prosecuted.
Gérard Baglin - HEC Group
February 2009
Contents
Purpose and benefits of Prelude 1
Teaching ERP 1
Several user levels 1
Low material requirements 2
Trial version 2
Scope of the licence 2
Student licence 2
Installation 3
Required configuration 3
Installation on individual work-stations 3
Installation on students’ computers 4
Installation on a local network 4
Workspace 4
Updates 5
Software components 5
Configurations 6
Single-station configuration (multiple) 6
Software on the server 6
Files and archives 7
Files and archives 7
List of functions Erreur! Signet non défini.
Technical data management Erreur! Signet non défini.
Sales management Erreur! Signet non défini.
Stock and purchasing management Erreur! Signet non défini.
Planning Erreur! Signet non défini.
Order processing Erreur! Signet non défini.
Valuations Erreur! Signet non défini.
General accounting Erreur! Signet non défini.
Documentation 8
Slideshows 8
Unzipping slideshows 9
The Picaso case study 9
Website 11
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Prelude 7 ERP – User manual
Purpose and benefits of Prelude
Teaching ERP
Prelude 7 ERP is a set of teaching tools designed for in-depth learning about ERP and supply chain management mechanisms. Prelude ERP is used as a training tool by more than 200 teaching institutions.
Unlike operational software, Prelude is designed exclusively for ERP training. It has the majority of the most up-to-date ERP functions yet provides simplified access which makes it possible to learn quickly.
It enables you to demonstrate how functions are integrated (commercial, production, purchasing, primary costs, accounting, etc.) from the moment an order is received until the customer has settled the invoice.
Furthermore, this software is accompanied by several supports: fully prepared and corrected case studies, specific documentation, slide shows, etc. The aim of Prelude ERP is to allow participants to take a full tour around ERP functions and get an understanding of all its mechanisms and restrictions.
Prelude ERP has been designed to be used on an individual basis with each participant carrying out all the integrated management process on his/her own by means of an exercise, for example. Participants quickly master the system from the very first training session and can therefore focus on the conceptual content of the training course.
Several user levels
Prelude gives you the option to work on increasingly complex levels.
Instead of putting participants in front of complex and discouraging screens straight away, we recommend you begin training on a basic level using a simple example in order to provide participants with an understanding of the general mechanisms before moving on to more complex levels. The user levels that are accessible depend on the licence purchased.
Prelude 7 ERP adapts to each user’s particular needs by only presenting the menus and areas required. You can start a training course without the participants wondering about the meaning of useless areas. They can then be given other functions once they have mastered the basics.
The basic level provides access to all the ERP functions in a simplified way in order to offer an easy approach. Overall, the functions are as follows:
· Defining items, multi-level bills of materials, operations routings (machine time only)
· Materials requirements calculation with many parameters
· Commercial management, purchasing management, inventory management
· Finite capacity orders planning
· Manufacturing control
· Customer and Supplier Control
· Link to multimedia sample documents
Functions that can be activated or hidden
· Access to multimedia documents
· Complete analytical accounting (definition of analytical sections, calculation of budget and standard cost with multiple options)
· Manufacturing and sales operations plans (MS&OP)(definition of product families, resources and their capacities, associated bills of materials, long-term workload calculation, MS&OP splitting)
· Exchanging data between files (EDF): sending customer / supplier orders between Prelude files
“Business” mode
If in-depth training in production management is not required then it is possible to work in the “Business mode” where the industrial management functions are hidden and you keep the sales, purchasing, inventory management and accounting functions.
Low material requirements
Very compact databases: in general, they only take up several dozen Kilobytes. This means it is possible to save several successive stages of an exercise. The databases can be saved in a zipped format.
Several work-stations can share the same database in order to simulate how a business operates (see the Configurations section).
Trial version
A trial version is available free of charge. This version works without a licence and provides access to all the software functions.
However, it can only open one file that has already been prepared for demonstration purposes: the EXAMPLE file.
Scope of the licence
The licence awarded is valid for a single location only
Installing Prelude in several institutions belonging to the same organisation under the same licence is prohibited.
Student licence
Institutions may request a temporary student licence which last for one training course. Students can install the software onto their own PCs with this licence.
Installation
Required configuration
The software requires a basic configuration:
· a PC-style personal computer, with a memory of at least 512 MB,
· around 40 MB available space on the hard drive,
· Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista
· Access to a printer.
Installation in individual stations
Insert the Prelude CD-Rom into the disc drive and go to the Install directory.
The software installs files in the Windows directory, ensure that you have the necessary write access (Administrator).
Double-click on the executable SETUP.EXE programme.
If you have a licence, the licence file (PRELUDE.LIC) should be in the same directory as the Setup.exe programme. You can also subsequently copy the licence file into the directory where Prelude has been installed.
Follow the on-screen instructions
If the installation programme announces that a more recent file is on the computer, select ‘Save existing file (if you are using Windows XP, some files are more recent than those on the installation which has been prepared based on Windows XP).
The installation programme creates entries in the Programmes menu.
To un-install the software, use the un-install entry on the Prelude 7 menu or the Windows“Add/Remove programme” function in the Control Panel.
Installation of the bar-code font
The installation programme copies the bar-code font Code128.TTF in the Windows\Fonts directory. If it is not recognised by the system, then the installation operation must be done manually, i.e. copy the file manually from the Install directory on the CD-rom into the Windows\Fonts directory.
Problems when installing the graphics server
These may arise on some computers whose graphics server is incorrectly registered. Sheets containing graphics cannot be displayed.
Microsoft provides a function for manually registering and unregistering the OLE controls and the DLLs. This is REGSVR32.EXE which can be found in the Windows\System32 directory. The command line syntax is as follows:
REGSVR32 [/u] file_name
file_name is the full name of the OLE command or the DLL. The /u switch allows you to un-register the component.
If you do not put on this switch, the component is registered.
You must type the following line in the Start/Execute menu:
REGSVR32 graphs32.ocx
The system will notify if the component has been registered correctly or if it has encountered a problem.
Installation on students’ computers
You can install it on computers belonging to students under the condition that you replace the unlimited licence that comes with the software with a Student licence which will be sent free of charge on request. This is a temporary licence and is valid for the duration of one course.
Send an e-mail to specifying your licence number and the date the course ends.
Installation on a local network server
Create a directory on the server (ensure that you have write access on the server).
Insert the Prelude CD-Rom into the disc drive and go to the Install directory.
Unzip all the files contained in the Prelude7Reseau.zip file in the server directory.
Some DLLs have to be copied in the Windows\System32 directory and registered in the base register on each user station in order to display the graphics. Ensure that you have administrator rights during this operation.
Launch the SetupGS70.exe programme and accept the default options.
Create a shortcut towards the server’s Prelude.exe programme on each work station:
On each work station, search for Prelude.exe on the server. Right-click. Select the Send to option, then Desktop (create a shortcut).
Workspace
Whether in single-station or network configuration, the stations must have an accessible write space. This is usually found on the path C:\Documents and Settings\user. Prelude creates the C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Prelude directory where it places temporary files.
If this directory is inaccessible, you can specify a path with write access in the command line, for example:
K:\Prelude\prelude.exe U:\TempPP01
You must create an individual access path for each station in order to avoid any conflict.
Updates
Updates (correcting anomalies or add additional functions) are available on the Updates page on www.cipe-prelude.net in the form of zipped files. To install these updates, download and unzip the files and copy them to the place they are located in the installation.
Software components
The PRELUDE ERP software is written in Visual Basic 6® Professional Edition by Microsoft.
Installation is handled by Setup2Go software by SDS Software.
File management is handled by CodeBase 6.5 software by Sequiter Software.
Back-ups and file restore are carried out by DYNAZIP Max 5.0 software by Inner Media.
Graphics are displayed through Graphics Server 6.1 software.
ICP optimisation is carried out by GLPK (GNU Linear Programming Kit) routines distributed under a GNU GPL licence. Please check this licence before using the software.
Reports are made using R&R Report Writer 10.0 status report generator by Liveware Publishing.
Prelude Production does not understand the status definition software.
The manual and the on-line aid were created using Doc-To-Help 6.5 software by Component One.
Configurations
It is possible to operate Prelude in multiple configurations.
See the Configurations.PPT slideshow in the Documentation directory.
Single-station configuration (multiple)
Install the software in each work-station.
Each station works on its own files, either on the main hard drive or on additional discs (USB keys, for example).
Software on the server
Proceed with a network installation. Install the graphics server on each station.
Create shortcuts to launch Prelude on each station.
Each station works on its own files, either on the main hard drive or on additional discs.
Files and archives
Files and archives
The Prelude data can be found in a directory containing 35 files with a PP7 prefix and .DBF and .MDX file extensions. They represent all the data concerning an enterprise on a given date. The directory and its data files are called a file.
A file's directory can be found
• on the hard drive of an individual computer
• on a server
• on a USB key, external hard drive, etc.
Prelude 7 allows you to open
– either a file contained in the directory (like in previous versions of Prelude),
– or files contained in the archive files (back-up files of previous versions without passing through the system restore function) with the .PPZ (recommended) or .ZIP file extension. On opening, the file is unzipped in the Prelude workspace.
You will use a permanent file (contained in a directory) when the file is very large or must be shared between several users at one time. A permanent file must be saved for security reasons (back-up).
In all other cases, it is preferable to work directly on the archives as this avoids creating many directories and takes up much less space.
Files (directories or archives) with a Prelude 7 format are marked with green icons in a file management window.
The file must be registered in a directory or in a new archive.
You can work on any number of files (you are not limited to one file per installation) but you can only open one file at any given moment.
You can save data concerning an enterprise at different times in several files.
There is no size limit on files (the theoretical limit is over 2 billion registrations).
The majority of exercises available are very small in size, occupying just a few dozen kilobytes.
Files are stored in zipped files. The file extension for these back-up files is .PPZ by default but you can also choose .ZIP.
Documentation
Detailed documentation is provided in the Prelude.PDF document (440 pages) which can be found on the Documentation directory of the CD-Rom.
This documentation matches the Prelude on-line help tool.
It can be accessed directly from the Prelude Help menu (Acrobat Reader must be installed).
Meaning of icons
Icons that define the content of the text appear before certain paragraphs or sections:
Multimedia documents: functions related to the use of multimedia documents,
Valuation (industrial accounting): set of cost calculation functions,
Manufacturing and Sales Plans: defining and optimising long-term plans,
Data exchange between files (EDF): communication between ‘Prelude’ files.
Third-party accounting (Customers and Suppliers): creating invoices and entering payments, checking accounts, balance sheets.
General accounting: Entering and checking past records; checking accounts and cost centres, trial balance, profit and loss accounts, balance sheet
Slideshows
Prelude is supplied with slideshow which provide explanations of the main functions. These slideshows can be used by the training coordinator to demonstrate how the software works and introduce the basic ideas that s/he wants to teach.
The slideshows can be displayed directly from Prelude’s Help menu.
They are in the PowerPoint 2003 format and can only be unzipped using Prelude software (see next section).