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Dec 12, 2022 at 08:39 PM

"Incorrect" Base unit of Measure?

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Hi all -

I'm looking for practical advise, and help reviewing a statement about Base Unit of Measure.

In my company, a previous analyst got "very creative" while creating new units of measure, and assigning new and existing units of measure to material master records.

For example:

  • We buy and use little glass jars to collect sample. Users often refer to those as "bottles", so the base unit of measure that he used was "BT" (Bottle)
  • There are materials which come in "packs of 100", so he created a new unit of measure called PAC (he didn't use the standard unit of measure) and changed the description of the Base unit of measure to "pack of 100".
  • Other materials are "trays" for chemical samples .. Instead of just using a unit of measure of EACH, he created a unit of measure of TY (Tray)

I am trying to clarify how base units of measure should be used? - could you give me your opinions on the statement below? I need to give folks clear guidelines on how the base unit of measure should be used.

"The base unit of measure which should be used in a material master record, should be the smallest unit in which the material could reasonably be used.

  • If the material is measured in a specific dimension and will be used on that specific dimension, it is preferred to use a base unit of measure which has a specific dimension assigned to it. The base unit of measure should be the smallest unit in which the material is regularly handled. For example if the material is measured in mass, and the smallest unit in which the material is used is kg, then kg should be the base unit of measure.
  • If the material can be measured in a specific dimension, but it is technically not feasible to manage the material in that dimension, then a unit measure of each (EA) could be used. For example, when buying cable reels of 500 foot and issuing the material in foot, the base unit of measure should be foot (as mentioned above) , but when buying small rolls of electrical tape, which is not issued in foot or inches, the base unit of measure should be EACH.
  • If the material is not measured in a specific dimension, it is preferable to use a base unit of measure of EA and specify the dimension in the short text. For example, if we use a chemical which comes in bottles of 10 oz and only full bottles are used, it is best to use "EA" as the unit of measure. The description of the material should describe how the material is managed for example "Chemical XYZ 10 oz bottle".

What do you think about it? Does it make sense to you? I'm curious about what you think of the second statement.

For now - I'm only interested in explaining the base unit o measure. I'll explain the EANs, unit of issue , order unit and the conversions available in the info records in a different post.. I don't want this question to be bigger than it already is!

Thanks!