Sage 100

Attn MFG brains -- I'm working with my customer who I spoke about previously where they have not paid attention to their inventory for years and have significant work to do in order to get their costs and quantities even close to what they should be. So I've recommended that as a start they use BOM to simulate the MFG portion. This is a quick and easy and definitely non-complete solution but for them I think it's the best start. One issue I think we're going to run into is the case where the customer purchases some of their product in pounds but uses it in another UOM such as bar. Example of this is copper - which is priced for them by pounds but they inventory in feet. Surely someone has dealt with this. I'm not at the point where I feel they are capable of a Job Ops or similar solution so I'm looking at ""keep it simple"" solutions first.

Why not use the Purchasing UOM or am I missing something?

Wayne, what I get from this is that you want them to use BOM and only BOM for ""manufacturing."" I have had a couple of clients do this with little problem. The BIGGEST hurdle I have is making sure that they understand that they MUST keep up with the ""process flow."" Trying to catch up at the end of the week or month just doesn't cut it. As far as UOM conversion, as long as they have constants to deal with this shouldn't be a problem. Make sure that they set up the conversion table correctly. One of my clients has ""non-standard"" conversions so we can't use this feature for them. Most people have little problem converting as long as the items are uniform. Example: Client buys iron in lengths of 12 foot joints that weigh 5 pounds each and are 1 inch in diameter. The can use a UOM conversion for pounds ->feet and/or pounds->joint. Does this help? I can get more in depth if necessary.

I think my issue is that they have non-standard UOM. One problem is that they sell to customers where each customer buys a ""pack"" of an item. One customer has a pack with 12, another 24, another could be 15. From my understanding I'd have to develop separate UOM conversions with unique names as using just PACK wouldn't work. Similar issue with buying in pounds and stocking in another form. Example - buy 10 pounds copper but that is really 4 bars of 3 foot length

I see the problem with ""pack,"" especially if they call them that but each customer can have a different standard. Again, I have a client that buys by the ""case,"" stocks by the ""each,"" and can sell by the ""case,"" ""pack,"" and/or ""each."" For these non-standard ""packs"" that your client has, I would have them create names like PK12, PK24, etc. It's kind of Rube Goldberg but it would work. Again, as long as there is consistency with the weights and measures, I don't see a problem with the purchasing model you presented. If the length and weight of the copper bars they buy are NOT standard, then, yes, you have a problem. That client with the steel bar in my example above bought several standard lengths and diameters of steel for their inventory. Each different diameter and length was it's own item code. They would use the lengths either whole or in part. The discipline I had to instill in them was what to do with ""partial lengths.

Companies in the metals industries were typically the toughest because of inconsistent U/M. ""If you hear the word Cut, don't walk away, run."" - Taylor MacDonald 1998.

Taylor was actually quoting Deni Porter (of Bennett/Porter fame)...""if you hear cut, cut out fast"".

Also consider whether lot designations are required or advantageous to distiguish between each bar, thus allowing you to know what quantity of each remains. Again when cutting materials or trying to optimize the cuts, this is something that requires specialized software that we do not have. JobOps does not have it either.

A couple of thoughts. On the purchasing side if you can't make the UOM work between the purchase UOM and the standard UOM, you may be able to get to the standard UOM by doing a simple production entry. You would need two item numbers, one for the purchased item and one for the inventoried item. For sales to customers you may be able to use kits if the UOM doesn't work.

Yea, when you get into that (same issue with buying lengths of wood) where part of a job is to cut something, but you get a leftover variable length that is still re-usable, but re-usable only if another job calls for something that length or shorter, life gets shitty. I don't even know how a vertical makes it any better without massive barcoding and touchscreens on the floor and some kind of serialization.

We have used a combination of the @ChuckPeddy method above and the use of Lots. So if you have 3' pieces they can be added to that lot. If the base unit of measure is `1' and the 1' has a standard weight by rod type it can work well.

Thanks everyone - my challenge is that this company has no central inventory manager which in my experience is a must have for anyone looking to track inventory quantity and costs in a larger organization.