An inventory unit of measure is the unit used to measure the parts stored in inventory. When the same part exists on more than one site it can have different units of measure at each site. This is because in a globalized context, sites working with different measurement systems may exist. For instance, a site in Europe or Canada may follow the metric system, using meters and grams, while a site in the US follows the English System of feet and pounds.
This can be applied in IFS Applications by entering a different unit of measure (UoM) for the same inventory part number on different sites, regardless of the company. This is possible as long as the UoM is of the same base unit. The system will perform a conversion and recalculation when handling inventory quantities and amounts between two sites with different UoMs. For instance, when moving quantities from site M using meters to site Y using yards, they will be converted from meters to yards.
The units of measure permitted for use are defined in the Units of Measure window. Here you define the unit code, the base unit and also the conversion factor. You can have a clearer view of the conversion factors used for a specific UoM via the Unit Relationships/Conversion tab.
Use the Inventory Part window to create the same part number on different sites and with different units of measure. Make sure you use the right number of decimals as specified in the Qty Calc Rounding field on the Inventory Part/Acquisition tab. The default value for this field is 16. For instance, when moving a part quantity of 100 expressed in meter (m) to a site expressed in yard (yd) using 16 decimals, the on-hand quantity will display 109,3613298337707786 yd. This may be correct when high accuracy is needed but unnecessary for other parts, where perhaps a Qty Calc Rounding with 3 decimals, displaying the above example into 109,361 yd, would be more suitable.
The rounding is done differently depending on the quantity type. A demand quantity is always rounded up to avoid any situation where a demand is not great enough. For instance, a demand of 4.4567 should be rounded up to 4.457 and not 4.456. A supply is rounded down to avoid any situation where the supply is too great. For instance, a supply of 4.4567 should recalculate to 4.456.
The inventory quantities are displayed in the UoM as defined for the part on the displayed site. In some cases, a recalculation of the quantity from the giving site to the displaying site is needed. For example, quantities in a demand view will display all quantities defined for the part on the demand site, and any supply quantities will be recalculated to also display in the UoM as defined on the demand site.
In some windows the quantities are displayed in the Unified UoM. This displays the quantity in the UoM as defined for the inventory part on your default site. If the part does not exist on your default site, it will use the UoM for the part on any site.
For a correct setup, make sure the purchase part at demand site has the same purchase UoM in the Supplier for Purchase Part window as the corresponding sales part at supply site has as sales UoM in the Sales Part window. In this situation, the supply site is the supplier.
Note: Please read about Inter-Site Message Handling under Topics in IFS Applications/Sales to learn about conversion via sent messages.