breakthroughsolutionsfor the automotiveworld

04/19/23

QAD Output Control and the

Need For Standardized Form Development

By David Langschied, InergyMark Harrington, Minisoft

ABOUT INERGY AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS

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Founded in 2000 as a joint venture between Solvay & Plastic Omnium.2010 Plastic Omnium purchased the Solvay stake.Inergy operates 20 facilities on 6 continents.Computing environment: QAD version eB2.1 SP4 Running RHEL 5.4

Background

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Inergy had been using pdf_inc to create its shipper forms. This process worked well with the standard shipping format. KIA Motors required an additional Delivery Confirmation Receipt or DCR page with significant amounts of extra data. This data also included a 2D PDF417 barcode.

Existing solution would work but required much time & effort.KIA form compliance was required in a couple of months. Inergy decided to search for a third party forms development tool.

Background

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Challenge – Find a forms generation tool designed for QAD to handle the

diverse forms requirements of Inergy and its customers.

Forms Tool Evaluation Criteria

Must operate with all versions of QAD

Ease of use for form design and modification

Support 1D and 2D barcodes

Ability to use standard QAD print output as input

Progress database support

Conditional logic within a form

Support for PDF emailing and Fax

Archiving of forms

Selected eFORMz

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There were many form generation solutions available in a wide price and capability range. After an extensive evaluation Inergy selected Minisoft’s eFORMz. The product was easy to use, priced competitively and operated in both Linux and Windows environments.

eFORMz allowed Inergy to meet the requirements of the KIA project within the project’s timeline.

Selected eFORMz

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Database Lookup

eMailAddress

FAXNumber

No

No

OriginalPrint Output

Send as eMailSend as eMail

Yes

Send as FAXSend as FAX

Yes

Laser PrinterLaser Printer

File ArchiveArchive Needed Yes

Kia Motors

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Project Description – Generate Kia Motors Delivery Confirmation Receipt (DCR) and Shipper Report (SID) from print output created from Inergy’s QAD system. Also add a PDF417 barcode to the DCR form.

Use eFORMz’s Text to XML preprocessor to parse the file, converting it to XML input.

Inergy QAD Output

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The original spool file output from QAD containing both DCR and Shipper information.

Inergy Kia Motors Delivery Confirmation Form

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Delivery Confirmation Report (DCR) created by eFORMz with the first project.

Inergy Kia Motors Shipping Report

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The Shipper report created with the second eFORMz project.

Hyundai America

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Project Description – Like KIA, Hyundai America had a requirement for a specialized Shipper Report (SID). Prior to eFORMz, the creation of this form required many manual steps.

Hyundai America SID form required a PDF417 barcode.The number of pallets needed to be totaled with summaries.Product descriptions for every item listed.

Hyundai America

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SID form with pallet count, summaries and product descriptions.

QUESTIONS

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eFORMz Feature List

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Written in JAVA supports ALL QAD versions – HP/UX, AIX, Linux or Windows.

Support for PCL, Postscript, XML printers.Ricoh, Toshiba, Lexmark, HP, Xerox, Canon, Kyocera, Zebra, Datamax.

Produce forms directly from standard QAD print output.

Populate forms directly from corporate databases, including Progress, Oracle and SQL. Read and write capability.

Text to XML Preprocessor – converts QAD print output to XML file format.

eFORMz Feature List

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No complex programming or need to learn a proprietary design tool to create a form. Easy forms design with publishing tools like Microsoft Word, Adobe, Open Office or MS Publisher.

Create “intelligent” forms with built-in conditional logic.

QAD forms library available to shorten implementation times.Packing lists, shipping labels, invoices, purchase orders, purchase order acknowledgements, checks, bills of lading, customs documentation.

eFORMz Print Director for advanced print management.

Selective printing, form reprints, and print scheduling.

eFORMz Feature List

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Fax or eMAIL in PDF or HTML file formats directly from QAD.

Support for 1D, 2D, QR barcodesMaxicode, PDF417, DataMatrix, USPS Intelligent Mail

MICR for checks, secure signatures for AP and payroll checks.

Digital File Cabinet - Archiving, Retrieval, Indexing

Create revisable PDF’s for “Forms Fill-In”

Multi-Byte Character Support Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Eastern European, Arabic