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  Units of Measure

Use

The system distinguishes between the following units of measure:

  • Base unit of measure

    This is the unit of measure in which the stocks of a material are managed. The system converts all quantities entered in other units to the base unit of measure.

  • Alternative units of measure

    Individual departments may have their own units of measure. For example, Purchasing may use a different unit than Sales or Warehouse Management (WM). All units of measure other than the base unit of measure are referred to as alternative units of measure . The system supports the following alternative units of measure:

    • Order unit

      Allows a material to be ordered in a unit differing from the base unit of measure. The order unit is proposed automatically in purchasing functions, where it can be changed.

    • Sales unit

      Allows a material to be sold in a unit differing from the base unit of measure. The sales unit is proposed automatically in the sales order, where it can be changed.

    • Unit of issue

      Unit of measure in which the material is issued from the warehouse. It allows consumption, stock transfers, transfer postings, and physical inventories to be recorded in a unit differing from the base unit of measure and from the stockkeeping unit.

    • WM unit

      Unit of measure in which materials are managed in Warehouse Management. For inventory management, the system converts the quantities entered in the WM unit to the base unit of measure. For example, if a material is normally managed using pieces as the base unit of measure, but several thousand pieces are contained in a box, it may be more appropriate to define a WM unit that is more manageable for WM purposes.

The relationship between the base unit of measure and alternative units of measure is illustrated below:

Prerequisites

All material data is updated in the base unit of measure. Choose this unit carefully since an exact quantity can be expressed in an alternative unit of measure only if its value can be shown with decimal places. It is therefore important to observe the following two principles when defining the base unit of measure:

  • The base unit of measure is the unit that provides the maximum precision necessary.

  • Conversion from an alternative unit of measure to the base unit of measure should result in a simple decimal, not a recurring (or repeating) decimal.

Features

Units of Measure Groups

A units of measure group contains several alternative units of measure and the factors for converting them to the base unit of measure. You can define groups of this kind in Customizing for the Material Master in Group Together Units of Measure . When entering alternative units of measure, you can save time by specifying a units of measure group rather than entering the same alternative units of measure individually.

Maintaining Units of Measure in Accordance with the Packaging Hierarchy

See Articles: Maintaining Units of Measure in Accordance with the Packaging Hierarchy in the SAP library documentation SAP Retail (LO-ISR) .

Activities

All quantities that you enter in units other than the base unit of measure are converted to the base unit by the system automatically. It does this using a central conversion table. If you use units that are not contained in this table, you must state the factor for converting the alternative unit of measure to the base unit of measure in the material master record. You normally enter this information when specifying the alternative unit(s) of measure.