Collin, I most organizations I have worked with and consulted with, there is a primary person / function responsible for specific tasks.  For example, the Engineering dept is typically the only group that adds, changes, modifies a part number and for a number of good reasons: a)correct item class (this is where the cost is assigned in most cases), b) maintain correct item number format (many parts have some intellegence/logic built in), c)proper catagory or user defined search fields, d) Proper drawing & ECN control, etc.  Various people entering typically do not always follow consistancy and this creates problems that seem not to get fixed as volume increases.  
 
This is also true with Vendor Codes and Customer Codes.  Typically Accounting assigns Customer codes and Vendor codes because there are multiple needs within these codes (Proper ship to's, bill to's, atten: Accounts Payable, GL Accounts, Class codes, etc.  Most Customer & Vendor codes serve dual purposes, both from Sales / Purchasing & Accounting.
 
By establishing a specific person or function to maintain certain records, you ensure better consistancy AND reduce the conflict of crashing into each other during the various entries.  Typically, the volume of new parts, vendors, customers that are added each day is not so much that it requires many people to enter.
 
These are just my thoughts and experiences.
 
Dennis
 
 
 
 

We do have assigned roles, but there is now too much work and it is being split up. Non-stock items are added by the purchasing agent. Electrical and mechanical engineering split the duties of caring for stock items. Then there is a production support person who works with the MRP info and locations. It is no longer practical to have one person doing all IN-B work. The more we have moved toward lean mfg, the more important it will be to have this work dispersed. The data entry and maintenance is being placed into the most competent hands in each case.  
 
That is all the defense of our methods in which I will indulge. My questions remain.

Collin,
 
I am with you here - we have grown and have multiple people responsible for data in each area.  We see it in IN-B, PO-A, SO-A etc.  Not to mention the accounting side...could it be that we are or have outgrown DBA/EVO once we have gotten to a point where more than one person may need to be assigned to entering information within specific menus?
 
Laurie

Compared to the way SO-A used to be, big improvements have been made. Now we only have problems if two people are trying to work with the same SO at the same time. We've seen one PO-A issue with two people getting the same PO number at the same time, but I think a fix is in the works for that. However, with IN-B I don't think that collisions have ever been addressed. I may be wrong.
 
As for outgrowing the software, we have evaluated that. We weighed the value of improvements against the cost of moving up to something like SAP Business One, and so far we have found that the $250,000 cost, coupled with the disruption to our business, is no where near the worth it for the potential benefits... yet.
 
We have instead preferred putting time, effort, and money into improving our processes and adding a custom web interface (like Evo2Web) to help with "business intelligence" and "data mining" tasks. Forming the tool to our use is much better than attempting to mold our process to fit the restrictions of the tool.

Collin and Lynn -  
 
This has been our experience as well.  If anyone is in IN-B and someone else wants to go into IN-B (different part numbers) we get a lock message and have to wait or go hunt down the user who has it open...
 
Laurie

We did duplicate and fix some issues in T7INB, specifically record locks remaining when a user has saved a part and is sitting on a blank IN-B screen and another user tries to save a different part.  I have an updated file available.  The 5/25/09 update is required.  
 
Laurie, we have made a lot of record locking improvements since the version you are on but you need to install the updates to take advantage of the fixes.