Ideas, ideas! I am implementing ERPNext in my business, and I think that the UOM table is fantastic. I like the fact that ERPNext supports PER ITEM conversion factors, however I consider that a great addition would be a generic, default table. This way, ERPNext could use the generic conversion factor as priority #1, and where a PER ITEM conversion exists, as is currently the case, use the PER ITEM conversion factor as priority #1. This would allow any conversion factor for a BOM, stock entry, or when entering a purchase receipt.
For example, two units of measure are defined in ERPNext.
āFootā referring to the English Foot measurement
āMetreā referring to the SI unit.
The conversion table would thus store that a āFootā, defined in terms of āMetreā is equivalent to 0.3048 Metre
Source: Foot (unit) - Wikipedia
Electrical wire is purchased from supplier, usually, by āMetreā. But the warehouse or field operator requires amount in āFootā in Material Request (due to cultural and idiosincratyc behavioral habits that die hard, or is impractical to request change). When the purchase order is printed, the measurement is shown in āMetreā, and stated that amount originally was expressed in āFootā.
The problem is that having a PER ITEM definition forces you to find the conversion factor each time, where some factors would be ideally pre-loaded into the system, with the SI and worldwide standards pre-loaded by ERPNext and the capability to define or customize the units.
The table should also house a URL to the source where the āstandardā measure was referred to, for validation purposes.
Any development going on for this? Any ideas as to where to begin setting this up in ERPNext?
jumping on this discussion. Will the design be that you have 3 UOM with a conversion rate in between?
I mean like
(incoming/purchase) UoM x conv. rate = internal UoM x conv. rate = outgoing/sales UoM
by default both conversion rates are ā1ā (resulting into all 3 UoMās will be the same)
I furthermore would like to suggest to establish clearly separate terms like
UoP (Unit of Puchase) for incoming UoM
UoM (Unit of Measure) for internal UoM
UoS (Unit of Sales) for outgoing products UoM
the concept of different Units of Measurement is a bit tricky to grasp (especial for people who havenāt dealt with such logic before) and a clear separation and usage of terminology helps immensely to āget itā
was this ever done? Iām doing a simple conversion of mm to meter for every chain/string item. Seems silly that this has to be done for every item when itās a pretty standard conversion.
Company A manufactures mosquito spray aerosol. Below is an example:
Procurement dept: Purchases 8 different raw chemicals ingredients in drums (160kg each) to be stored in warehouse.
Production dept (chemical mixing): Takes 20kg from each raw chemical drums to mix. The final chemical mixture will be stored in drums (160kg each)
Production dept (packaging): Takes 1 drum (160kg) of the chemical mixture to produce 2400 mosquito spray aerosol cans. After these cans are produced, they will be packed into cartons (24 cans)
Warehouse: Sometimes when a cartonās packaging broke, the cans inside will be taken out to be stored in loose cans. They will be repacked with other loose cans of the same batch into cartons again.
Sales dept: Sells in cartons (24 cans each)
.
.
Department
UOMs used
Sales
Carton (24 cans)
Warehouse
Carton (24 cans)
Loose Cans
Drum
Kg
Production (Packaging)
Carton (24 cans)
Loose Cans
Production (Chemical Mixing)
Can
Drum
Kg
Procurement
Drum
.
.
Seeking advice for best practices in handling such complicated process. Below is a use-case example:
Sales Dept:- receives a large order e.g. 10,000 cartons (equiv. 240,000 cans).
Warehouse Dept:- then checks for any available cartons balance and cans balance.
Warehouse Dept:- after checking, notifies Production Dept-Chemical Mixing to produce the outstanding cans needed.
Production Dept-Chemical Mixing:- checks with Warehouse Dept if thereās any balance of chemical-mixture that are not yet packaged into cans. e.g. 5 drums and 10kg (1/16 of drum)
Production Dept-Chemical Mixing:- If the chemical-mixture is not enough, then the production planning needs to calculate the balance of raw chemicals needed (in kg) for Procurement Dept to purchase raw chemicals.
Procurement Dept:- needs to be able to convert the total no of kg provided by Production Dept-Chemical Mixing into drums to make PO.
The ability of the system to convert between these UOMs is very important especially in the Production Planning tool, BOM and Work Order. This will help in the communication between departments as
Sales Dept will only āspeakā in cartons and cans,
Warehouse Dept āspeaksā in cartons, cans, drums and kgs,
Procurement Dept speaks in drums only
while Production (Chemical Mixing) will be the most complicated one because they will need to be able to āspeakā and plan in cartons, cans, drums and kgs.
In other words, when Sales Dept request for e.g. 10,000 cartons, the Production (Chemical Mixing) should already know how much raw chemicals in drums & kgs to produce XX drums of chemical-mixture for Production (Packaging) to package into 240,000 cans / 10,000 cartons.