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Unit of Measure related settings in SAP
Purpose of document

This document is intended to serve as a guideline for creation of a new unit of measure and its related issues.
Introduction: Unit of Measure

Definition - Unit of Measure is the criterion based on which you measure the quantity of the material. Unit of measure is a value for a physical
size.
Examples
Length dimension includes meter, centimeter and inch
Time dimension includes second, minute and hour
There are 4 different Unit of Measures used
Base Unit of Measure: This is the unit of measure in which the stocks of a material are managed. The system converts all quantities
entered in other units to the base unit of measure. All material postings will occur with respect to base unit of measure.
Sales Unit of Measure: Allows a material to be sold in a unit differing from the base unit of measure. The sales unit is proposed
automatically in the sales order, where it can be changed.
(Purchase)Ordering Unit of Measure: Allows a material to be purchase in a unit differing from the base unit of measure. The purchase
order unit is proposed automatically in a purchase order, where it can be changed.
Unit of Issue: Unit of measure in which the material is issued from the warehouse. It allows consumption, stock transfers, transfer
postings, and physical inventories to be recorded in a unit differing from the base unit of measure.
These UoM's are linked with each other for every material by conversation table which is explained below in section - IV-alternative unit of
measure
I.Creation of Unit of Measure
Unit of measure can be created using transaction CUNI (SPRO-> SAP Net Weaver-> ). General Settings ->Check units of measurement
Units of measurement are held centrally in the SAP R/3 System for all applications. It's a onetime creation during the project phase and it used
across all modules.
Creation/change of new unit of measure is a Global Impact change in the system.
Go to CUNI transaction

1. Decide under which dimension unit has to be created:
There are seven base dimensions, to which all other dimensions can be traced: Length, weight, time, electrical current, temperature, molecular
mass and brightness.
Whenever unit of measurement is to be created first decide to which dimension it belongs to or otherwise UOM is created under no dimensions.
Dimension helps us to group the UOMs.System will allow to create business specific dimensions but always it is advisable to create UOM under
the above 7 dimensions.

2. Decide which ISO code should be assigned to the unit:

An ISO code can be
assigned to several
internal measurement
units.
The ISO code is
important for Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI).
It is used for converting
the SAP-internal units of
measurement into
standard units of
measurement.
Converting the internal
units of measurement
into the ISO code is
required for exchanging
data using EDI. So it is
always advised to assign
ISO code to UOM. A list
of the current
international ISO codes
for units of
measurement is
available on the Internet
at:
http://www.unece.org/et
rades/codesindex.htm
Business specific ISO
codes can be created in
the system if not
available in the system
and assigned to UOM.
3.Select the particular
dimension under which
you want create the unit
as shown below
Ex:TIME
4. Select TIME and then click on Units of measurementAll
other units under the dimension TIME is defined with respect to
S (second).S is the SI unit in this dimension
5. Click on create button

6. Maintain the details like Measurement text, commercial

name and technical name.
7. Maintain the conversion factor with respect to SI unit. For
example here In H unit of measure, conversion is defined with
respect to S second.
I.e. 1 H = 3600 sec
8. Maintain the decimal places (up to which decimal value
should display) and decimal place rounding (up to which the
value should be rounded off)
9. Maintain the tick for commercial unit check box if that unit is
used commercially. It will make this unit get displayed in F4
help for unit of measure.
10. Maintain the tick for Value based check box if that unit will
be derived based on value. If it is based on quantity, check box
should not have a tick.
10. Select the ISO code for the unit and maintain
Tick for primary code if that is primary unit for the
ISO code.
If the same ISO code is used for more than one
unit of measure, you can only flag one unit of
measure as a primary unit for one ISO code. Rest
of unit of measure will be the secondary unit for
this ISO code.
11. Save.
12. Maintain UOM in different languages by
logging to the system with different logon
language
Customizing of UOM in SAP is basicallystored in
two tables:
T006 - Language Independent attributes
T006A - language dpendent attributes +
description
II.Chang
e in the
Unit of
Measure:
Changes in the unit
of measure may be
for
1. Change in
commercial name
2. Change in
Technical name
3. Change in
Measurement text
4. Assignment of
ISO code/changing
ISO code
5. Change in
Decimal Place
Rounding.
6. UOM not
maintained in other
languages(create
UOM in login
language)
As Unit of
measurement is held
centrally in the SAP
R/3 System for all
applications, any
change will have
impact in all modules.
III.Deletion
of Unit of
Measure:
Deletion of unit of
measure is not
advisable as it used
centrally in all
applications.
Instead of deleting
Unit of measure, In
CUNI transaction
Commercial
measuring unit tick is
removed so that it
will not be displayed
in F4 search help for
UOM and also whenever it is used in any transaction it will give an Error as "unit is not defined as commercial unit"(SAP always go by commercial
name)
Example: "HR" unit with commercial measuring unit ticked in CUNI transaction

Go to MM02, in sales view check search help (F4) in sales unit field for HR with search criteria H*,you will find the Unit" HR"
Go to CUNI transaction and remove the tick of commercial measuring unitGo to MM02, in sales view check search help (F4) in sales unit field for
HR with search criteria H*,here you will not find the unit "HR".Try to maintain HR unit directly in Sales unit field,system will throw the error.

IV.Alternative Unit of Measure:

Individual departments may have their own units of measure. For example, Purchasing may use a different unit than Sales and production may
issue a material which is different than the base unit of measure .All units of measure other than the base unit of measure are referred to as
alternative units of measure.
Base unit of measure
It is defined in Basic data view in
material master. All other units
defined, conversion should be
maintained with respect to unit of
measure in Material master
additional data.
Base unit of measure once
defined and processed cannot be
changed to other unit of measure.
Purchase Order unit
It is defined in purchasing view of
material master.
Sales unit
It is defined in sales view of
material master.
Unit of issue
It is defined in work scheduling
view of the material master.
Alternate unit of measure
conversion is maintained with
respect to base unit of measure
in additional data of material
master
All these conversion can be
obtained from the table MARM