Units

Facts can include quantities expressed in these units:

  • Transaction units, which are defined for each transaction (sales order, purchase order etc). However, no transaction unit is defined for production orders: job shop quantities are always expressed in inventory unit.
  • Inventory units, which are defined on the item. To review inventory units in LN, navigate to Master Data > Items to start the Items (tcibd0501m000) session.
  • Base units, which enable you to aggregate quantities for items that have different inventory units but the same unit type. For example, base unit for length in Meter allows aggregation of quantities of an item that has inventory unit Decimeter, with quantities of an item that has inventory unit Centimeter (even if the sales order has a sales unit in yards).

LN stores quantities in the transaction unit or the inventory unit, depending on the context of the quantity field. Quantities stored in table fields are automatically published.

Standard calculated fields are available to publish quantities in both the inventory unit and the transaction unit. Also, standard calculated are available to publish quantities in the base units.

Review the base unit and set up the base unit for pieces and conversion factors so that LN can publish quantities in the base unit. Complete these steps:

  1. Review base units for weight, length, area, volume and time in LN. Navigate to Master Data > Master Data Parameters > MCS Parameters to start the MCS Parameters (tcmcs0500m000) session. Ensure that base units are the same in each company. Consult with business users if base units differ between companies: you cannot aggregate quantities across companies in that case.
  2. Enable publishing of quantities in the base unit for pieces in LN. Navigate to Master Data > Master Data Parameters > Data Warehouse Parameters to start the Data Warehouse Parameters (tcgen0100m100) session.
  3. Open the details of the active parameters (record without effective date).
  4. Define a base unit for piece.
  5. In LN, navigate to Master Data > Code Definitions > Logistic Codes > Conversion Factors to start the Conversion Factors (tcibd0103m000) session.
  6. Set up conversion factors between the defined base unit for piece and units with physical quantity Piece. Conversion factors can be set up in general, or by item group or by item.
  7. Repeat for each company that publishes to Data Lake. Use the same base unit for pieces in each company to be able to aggregate quantities of type piece across all companies in Birst reports.

The steps to define a base unit for pieces are optional. If no base unit for pieces is defined, quantities in the base unit for pieces with value 0 are published.

If you define a base unit for pieces, we recommend that you define this at the start: it takes an initial load to send quantities in the base unit for pieces for existing data.

The quantities stored in the data warehouse end with these unit types:

  • TU = Transaction Unit
  • IU = Inventory Unit
  • BUW = Base Unit Weight
  • BUL = Base Unit Length
  • BUA = Base Unit Area
  • BUV = Base Unit Volume
  • BUT = Base Unit Time
  • BUP = Base Unit Piece

For example, Ordered Quantity BUP.

The custom subject area that end users see in Birst, does not show eight quantity measures for each quantity in LN. Instead, one saved expression covers all eight unit types. This expression uses the Unit Type filter that users can apply to use one of the eight quantities.

If users do not select a value for the unit type filter, a default unit type is used. The default is defined in Birst variable LN_usr_ReportDefaultUnitType with value IU (Inventory Unit). You can change this variable. See Configuring Birst for details about changing variables in Birst.