How UOM and Carton Quantity Affect P/O Quantity, Cost
Understanding how UOM discrepancies become a problem involves an understanding of how DDMS uses UOM and carton quantity when calculating the P/O quantity to be transmitted. As you may know, DDMS gives you the flexibility to choose your selling UOMs. In some cases, your Selling UOM may be different than the minimum Buy UOM required by the wholesalers. In those instances, DDMS must correctly convert your selling UOM to the wholesaler's minimum UOM when transmitting P/Os.
To calculate the item quantity to be transmitted to the vendor, DDMS multiplies or divides the ordered quantity by the vendor's minimum carton quantity. In text-based software, this carton quantity is found in the "OF" field of the Wholesaler record. In graphical software, this carton quantity is found in the "Carton Size" field of the Vendor tab.
To illustrate how DDMS transmits the correct quantity when converting the P/O quantity to the vendor's minimum UOM, let's look at three distinct cases:
- If the vendor’s Buy UOM is larger than your Master Record Selling UOM, the Of/Carton Size field should reflect how many of your Selling units are in the vendor's Buy UOM. DDMS will divide the P/O quantity by the Of/Carton Size field. For example, if the Wholesaler’s BUY unit was a carton of 12 and your Master Record’s Selling UOM was each (EA), the Wholesaler Record should be listed as "CN of 12." If you order 24 of that item, DDMS will divide the P/O quantity (12) by the Of/Carton Size field (12) and transmit a P/O quantity of 2 CN.
- If the vendor’s Buy UOM is smaller than your Master Record Selling UOM, the Of/Carton Size field should reflect how many of your vendor's Buy units are in your Selling UOM, and will be preceded by an asterisk (*). The asterisk indicates when the vendor's Buy unit is a smaller UOM, and tells DDMS to multiply the P/O quantity by the Of/Carton Size field. For example, if the Buy UOM was an each (EA) and your Master Record’s Selling UOM was a dozen (DZ), the wholesaler record should be listed as "EA of *12." If you order 2 dozen of that item, DDMS will multiply the P/O quantity (2) by the Of/Carton Size field of (*12) and transmit a P/O quantity of 24.
- If the vendor's Buy UOM is the same as your Master Record Selling UOM, then the “of/Carton Size” field should always be 1, because no conversion is required. You are selling it in the same minimum UOM that you purchase the item from the wholesaler. DDMS will multiply the P/O quantity by the Of/Carton Size field, but multiplying by 1 will result in the exact same quantity. For example, if your Sell UOM is carton (CN), and the vendor's Buy UOM is also carton (CN), the Of/Carton Size field will be 1. If you order 24 of that item, DDMS will multiply the P/O quantity (24) by the Of/Carton Size field (1) and transmit a P/O quantity of 24.
Discrepancies in the cost and/or unit of measure can result in the wrong cost and/or quantity being transmitted to the wholesaler.
For detailed instructions, see Handling Vendor UOM Changes With Make-Buys (pdf).