Weldments import Uom

ERPNext Stock/Inventory
1

Good day

I’m busy setting up a company and busy adding items.

How do you guys import weldments? For those that don’t know, weldments are metal extrusions like tubing or angle irons.

What I want to do is ,import the weldments as a full length (6000mm and 13000mm) and then when manufacturing consume from a full length. The rest must go to scrap.

I’m not sure where or what to do.

2

Good day,

This is a classic manufacturing inventory problem, and ERPNext handles it very well using its Unit of Measure (UoM) conversion features. Here’s a step-by-step guide to achieve exactly what you need.

The core idea is to stock your weldments in the unit you purchase them in (e.g., “Length”) but consume them in a smaller unit (e.g., “mm”) in your Bill of Materials (BOM).

Step 1: Set Up Your Units of Measure (UoM)

First, we need to make sure the system understands the relationship between a full length and millimeters.

  1. Go to the Unit of Measure List .
  2. Ensure you have a base UoM like “mm” (Millimeter).
  3. Create a new UoM for your full lengths. Let’s call it “Length 6m” for your 6000mm pieces.
  4. Now, create a UoM Conversion Factor . This is the most important step.
  • Go to the UoM Conversion List and click “Add UoM Conversion”.
  • UOM: Length 6m
  • Conversion Factor: 6000
  • UOM: mm
  • This tells the system that 1 “Length 6m” = 6000 “mm” .Repeat this for your 13000mm lengths (e.g., create a “Length 13m” UoM with a conversion factor of 13000).

Step 2: Create Your Weldment Item

Now, let’s set up the Angle Iron item itself.

  1. Go to the Item List and create a new Item (e.g., “Angle Iron 50x50”).
  2. Make sure it is a Stock Item .
  3. In the “UNITS OF MEASURE” section, set the Stock UOM to Length 6m . This is the unit you will use for purchasing and for your main stock balance.
  4. In the “UOMs” table below, add a new row for mm . The conversion factor (6000) will be automatically fetched from the setup in Step 1.

Your item is now set up to be stocked in full lengths but can be transacted in millimeters.

Step 3: Configure the Bill of Materials (BOM)

This is where you define how much material is consumed during manufacturing.

  1. Create a BOM for the finished product you are manufacturing.
  2. In the “Raw Materials” table, add your “Angle Iron 50x50” item.
  3. In that row, change the UOM from the default (“Length 6m”) to “mm” .
  4. Enter the exact quantity in millimeters required for one unit of your finished product. For example, if you need a 1.5-meter piece, you would enter 1500 in the Qty field.

When you save the BOM, the system now knows that to produce one finished good, it needs to consume 1500 mm of Angle Iron.

Step 4: The Manufacturing Process & Handling Scrap

This is where everything comes together.

  1. Create a Work Order for your finished product. The required quantity of Angle Iron will be automatically calculated in mm.
  2. When you create a Stock Entry (Material Transfer for Manufacturing) from the Work Order, the system will request 1500 mm from your stores.
  3. Since your stock is kept in “Length 6m”, the system will automatically deduct 0.25 of a “Length 6m” from your inventory (because 1500 / 6000 = 0.25). Your stock level will correctly show, for example, 9.75 “Length 6m” remaining.

How to handle the scrap (the remaining 4500mm):

The simplest and most common accounting practice is to let the cost of the entire raw material (the full 6000mm length) be absorbed into the manufacturing cost of the finished product.

In this scenario, you don’t need to do anything else in the system. The system has already deducted the material value from inventory and added it to the Work-in-Progress warehouse. The physical 4500mm off-cut is simply treated as scrap. This is the most straightforward way and is correct from a costing perspective, as the cost of that scrap is part of the production cost.

If your scrap has a very high value and you need to track it as a separate inventory item, you could explore using “By-Products” in the BOM, but for most weldment operations, the method described above is the standard and recommended approach.

Hope this helps you get set up!
Please let me know if you have any questions or need assistance applying this.

Best regards,
Tharun Kumar K
+91 6381360779