To stay competitive in today’s market, it is essential for manufacturers to have utmost control over their inventory practices. Implementing strong controls are important, but without a flexible system as a backbone, it can be difficult to attain your inventory goals. Enter one of Epicor’s newer additions to the software platform – Advanced Unit of Measure.

Designed with the Metal Services Industry in mind, Advanced Unit of Measure is designed to give visibility at a granular level of materials typically bought or sold in one unit and transacted in another (for example, bought in pounds and stored in pieces).

This feature allows you to add an additional Unit of Measure (UOM) Class with conversion calculations to a part so that inventory can be purchased, stocked, and sold in different UOMs. By creating dynamic attributes and defining where they are required to be used (planning, demand, or supply), you can stock inventory in one unit of measure and process production and/or sales transactions in another. The system will track how much inventory is in each attribute at a bin level, allowing for full visibility of material in varying lengths, weights, etc. as it makes sense for your business.

Here is an example:

• A manufacturer producing product from sheet steel purchases the raw metal in pounds in varying sizes of sheets. As material is received in, the Dynamic Attribute Values Entry is used to identify the different sizes received in the shipment. The total amount expected to be received in pounds is shown in the program (based on the PO), and the weight received is updated with each attribute line (noting number of sheets received) that is added. This allows for an easy review by the user to ensure the entire receipt is captured accurately.

 
How do you handle your metal off-cuts? Do you have difficulty knowing exactly what is available for use? Does your production team struggle to accurately count material, not knowing whether to count a piece because it is no longer a standard size? Do you run out of material even though the system is telling you there should be enough in stock? Advanced Unit of Measure allows the flexibility to store inventory levels in multiple ways for a given part number – providing the visibility to see exactly how the total quantity is broken out. Production can then be informed which material to use to ensure the best material utilization, reduce inventory in the most optimal way, and make cycle counting easier to manage.

Epicor’s Advanced Unit of Measure complements the dual UOM functionality available starting in 10.2.600 but can also be used independently. It also does not impact any of the Multiple UOM functionality available in the software.

To learn more about Advanced Unit of Measure, or any other Epicor functionality, contact us here at TeccWeb – Ontario’s Premier Epicor Service Provider. We are available for consultations and training and aim to create strong partnerships with our clients, becoming a trusted advisor.