Advanced UOM and Sheets (Metal, Wood, etc,) OR I'm a big fat liar

Kinetic ERP
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Wanted to document this for other people as I did a way too deep of a dive into AUOM to figure out how it works and how to set it up for a sheet metal manufacturer. This will detail the major limitation of the functionality for any material that needs to be tracked by at least 2 dimensions. Think of a sheet of plywood, you need to know it’s length and width.

First off, Advanced UOM is fantastic. I am happy we bought the module even though there is an issue for us (sheet metal manufacturer). And I would highly recommend purchasing it if you need it.

Before I get into the limitation, I figured I should give a fly over of the functionality that AUOM has and some of the set up options.

The benefit of AUOM is that it allows you to track actual inventory levels of dimensional material. Think of metal tube, you buy it in certain lengths (4-foot, 8 foot, & 12 foot) but can be cut and returned to stock. Now think about trying to track that in inventory? If you track eaches, all you know is that there are X tubes in stock of unknown length. If you track length, then all you know is that you have X feet in stock and number of tubes and lengths are not known. Dealing with that on a daily basis is taxing and makes any attempt at trying to plan near impossible. This issue goes way beyond just inventory. The same problem is in buying, MRP, quoting, sales orders, engineering. AUOM allows your MOM for a table to reflect that you need 4, 4-foot length wooden legs.

So, how does it work?

There are multiple elements that can be used. I will detail the important ones.

  • Dynamic Attribute Class - this is what allows you to track attributes dynamically. You need to create a Class to assign to a Part on the Attributes page. This class will hold all of the data that you require to track. Basically, think of this as a child table to Part that allows you to store whatever attributes are important to your company.
  • Theoretical MRP Attribute - this is what allows a company to maintain Mins and Maxs on attribute tracked parts. This can only be a Combo Box (I’m skipping the Revision functionality). So, you may purchase rod in 4-, 8-, and 12-foot lengths but still want to track the actual length of your inventory. This field allows you to set up standard lengths for MRP and Planning to output suggestions in a consistent manner.
  • Actual Attribute - If you are using the theoretical MRP attribute, an actual attribute that corresponds to the theoretical attribute is required. You can either have the actual attribute be the theoretical attribute, or you can have a separate attribute be the actual. So, in the rod example, you may have MRP suggest buying a 12-foot length, but when it is received and measured, it is actually 11’ 11" and you want the actual length to show in inventory.

Now, you may be asking why is there an issue? What I have detailed so far is related to tracking only 1 dimension. If you need to track 2 dimensions (length & width) is where the module starts to lose its luster. You need to create the Dynamic Attribute Class same as above. You can create the Theoretical MRP Attribute same as above, except that the list will include 2 dimensions (48"x40", 48"x20", 48"x120", etc.). Now, you can only have 1 actual attribute to go along with the theoretical attribute. When a sheet comes in that is actually 49"x39", you cannot enter the actual dimensions as you cannot have an actual length attribute and an actual width attribute. You can only have 1 actual attribute. Additionally, if you want to select something other than the theoretical attribute as the actual attribute, the attribute needs to be an integer or decimal field. So, you cannot enter 2 dimensions in an integer or decimal field. Now you are forced to make the combo box of 2 dimensions the theoretical and actual attribute as you cannot have a theoretical without an actual. This set up removes the ability to dynamically enter attributes. We are going to have to figure out all of our blank sizes and enter them in the combo box just to be able to track them in inventory. We will not be able to enter the actual dimensions if we wanted to.

Now, some of the astute people out there are probably thinking why not use weight as the theoretical and actual? We don’t buy in weight, or get invoiced in weight, or get pricing in weight from the suppliers. I am only speculating, but my guess is suppliers started selling by blank size because the industry uses blank sizes more than weight.

In conclusion, AUOM is a fantastic module. If you are contemplating it for single dimension stock, I would not hesitate to pull the trigger. If you are contemplating it for two dimension stock, the amount of effort to set it up is quite substantial and you will not be able to use the dynamic aspect of the functionality.

If anyone has any questions about AUOM, Dual UOM, or UOM in general, please feel free to reach out. I know way too much about it now.

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Because a 4’x1’ weighs the same as 2’x2’? :thinking:

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Correct, but also because you cannot judge by weight.

Really, the weight means nothing because it depends on the metal too. To calculate weight of a piece of sheet metal, the formula is:

Length x Width x Thickness x Density

Now, let’s calculate out the weight of a 48"x96" sheet of .060 aluminum for 5052 and 6061:

5052: 48 x 96 x .060 x .0968 = 26.763264
6061: 48 x 96 x .060 x .0975 = 26.9568

Small difference between the two different types of aluminum, but if I asked you to go get 27 pounds of 5052 .060 aluminum, you would not know what that means.

Also factor in that the thickness is not precise. It is called .060, but could realistically be .057 - .063 and be acceptable as .060. This is another reason why trying to use weight is difficult because if you set up the UOM conversion and the metal comes in light, it may calculate the number of sheets being 1 less and then you have to enter a fake number to get the number of sheets to be accurate. Now if you are billed in pounds, you won’t match during AP.

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Stellar write up John, thanks for doing that. I’ve been interested in this module since it came out.

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Does AUOM help with Drop cutting bar stock in any way.
ex. we buy 20 ft sticks of metal (IUM of Inch or Foot) . cut 18 feet off 10 times and i have (10) 2 ft sticks left. Epicor thinks i have 20ft in stock but i need another 18 foot piece, no MRP suggestion.

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Yes, that is the actual length that you would want to track.

That is the difference between the theoretical and actual. Also the dynamic aspect of the functionality.

In your case, it sounds like the theoretical length would be 20 feet as you want to maintain a min on hand. Then you would have a second attribute that is the actual length. The material requirement on the job would be an attribute set with an actual length of 18 feet. You would issue the 20 feet to the job, cut it to 18 feet, and return the 2 feet to stock. This is where the dynamic aspect comes into play in that you would require the length to be entered on inventory transactions.

Your example is what the module handles perfectly. The only thing I am not sure about is how MRP and suggestions actually work. If you have 3 pieces of bar in stock at 18’, 19’, & 20’; and your job needs 3 18’ length bars, will it know that you can cut down the 19’ & 20’ to get to the needed size. I have not tested that part yet to say it works well or not.

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We tried this. Granted this was in 2021.2 so maybe its better now. In our scenario, we have a piece of tubing. The required length of the tubing material on a given job can be anything from 1” to 240” (in 1/16” increments), but we only purchase and stock the 240” length. We used the 9.5” attribute set of this material on our method of manufacturing. It requires 2 pieces per parent so a total of 19” – 2x9.5” – for each operation.

With a run quantity of 450, that means we need 900 pieces of the 9.5” part, or 8,550 inches total. However, we only purchase the 240” stock part. We can get 25 of the 9.5” pieces out of each 240” stock length, with a drop of 2.5”. That means we need a purchase suggestion for 36 pieces of the 240” attribute set.

Then we need a job suggestion to produce 900 of the 9.5” attribute set using the 240” attribute set. We tried to create a subassembly within the method of manufacturing to produce the 9.5” piece from the 240” piece, under the theory that would spur the correct purchasing suggestion, however we were unable to get this to work because it won’t let us reference the finished good (the 9.5” piece) as a material on the job.

Our consultant’s recommendation was to manually create a separate job to cut the 240” lengths into the 9.5” length, but that’s not a realistic solution (how would anybody know or figure out that it needed to be done?).

My next idea was to create 2 separate part numbers. One part would not be attribute tracked, would have a length of 240” inches, and would be stocked. The other part WOULD be attribute tracked, in lengths from 1” to 239.5”, and would be non-stock. But how do you tell Epicor that you can manufacture the second part from the first part? Without defining a separate method of manufacturing for each of the thousands of possible lengths? We couldn’t figure out a solution to this and did not end up purchasing the module.

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Oh, and I forgot to mention. If you do decide to implement AUOM, you will need all new part numbers. Trying to implement with existing parts will never work. As long as you know this going in, you won’t be surprised when they recommend it.

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So this module is useless for anyone in the A&D business as changing part numbers is a hassle.

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You’re not entirely wrong there, but whenever you try messing with UOM on parts that already have transactions you’re begging for trouble.

Changing part numbers is a hassle no matter WHAT industry you’re in. Never mind the technical challenge, it’s also a user nightmare.

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I don’t think so. As a company, you are not allowed to change your material part numbers? As long as it is the same material, why could you not change it? Obviously after documenting the change and the old to the new numbers for any auditor that comes.

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Ok! Changed the title of my post. Why you ask?? Because I’m a big fat liar!!

It finally clicked for me. It took over a year, but I finally got it. And I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Where I got stuck was with the MRP attribute and the Theoretical/Actual fields that I needed. I thought I could not do two actual attributes. I still can’t, but I don’t need to. The MRP attribute you create is there for 1 reason and 1 reason only, allow you to plan for the stock. I got so stuck on the MRP attribute having to equal the length & width of the sheet, I couldn’t zoom out. So, when creating the MRP attribute, it has to be a Combo Box. I thought, everything I put in the list will need to have a length & width assigned. But the L&W is dynamic, so for every L&W will need a corresponding combination in the MRP attribute list. I finally got to the point where I was above. Loving the module except for the limitation.

The limitation was in my brain!

I finally realized that I could just put an “N/A” in my list. I don’t need to have my MRP attribute and my L&W be exactly the same. All I need in the list are the sheet sizes we want to maintain stock for and an “N/A” for everything else.

Whew! Glad I finally cleared that blockage.

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It’s these moments where we grow the most :muscle:

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As a Company rule there isnt one limiting it, but from what i was told, any change in part numbers would have to be certified by the FAA or something like that. So it makes it much more difficult.

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Mostly in width I’ve noticed in myself…

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Me too lately…

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Any tips on converting from one UOM to another? for instance, if you buy goods by the roll but want to store, use, and store them in feet, what is the best method for doing this?

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Assuming you have a conversion factor between rolls and feet, you can use a normal UOM setup. Then set the PUM as roll and the IUM and SUM as ft.

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Oh! Thanks so much!

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Make sure to make the conversion Part Specific in the UOM Class. Then you can define how long the roll is on each of your parts.

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