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About Using Units of Measurement in Forecasting

Companies with global business models often sell the same product in different geographies using different units of measurement. For example, cable might be sold by the yard in the U.S and the same cable might be sold by the meter in Germany.

As another example, chemical and oil and gas companies would require forecasting volumes for production planning purposes. Sales representatives can forecast product revenues with appropriate units of measurement for their customers. For volumes, the most common volume units are gallons, quarts, and liters, but Siebel Forecasting allows you to define other units of measurement.

Because, for example, the volume or length for a single product can be forecast in different units of measurement, it is necessary to convert quantities to the same unit of measurement before they can be rolled up. The Administration - Data > Unit of Measurement Conversion view allows you to define how the units of measurement in a particular category are converted to the other units of measurement in that category, based on the conversion factor set for the category. For more information, see Setting Up Units of Measurement Conversion for Forecasting.

Each participant in a forecast series must set up their preferred units of measurement in each category, as described in Setting a Default Unit of Measurement. When forecasts are rolled up, the values are converted to the unit of measurement specified by the manager to which the forecasts are rolled up. For example, if a manager has two subordinates whose preferred units of measurement are gallons and quarts respectively, the forecasts are converted to use the manager's preferred unit of measurement, say gallons, when rolling up occurs.

If you need to define new units of measurement or new categories of UoM, you must define them in the Administration - Data > List of Values view. You create units of measurement and categories with Type UOM_CD. For new units of measurement, select the appropriate category from the Parent LIC field. For new categories, the Parent LIC field must be blank.

About Units of Measurement and Product Definitions

For products that use a unit of measurement, you must select the appropriate value in the Unit of Measure field in the Administration - Product > Product Definitions view.

However, Siebel Forecasting can use units of measurement such as kilometer, meter, and mile that are not available in the Product Definitions view. For such units of measurement, the values must be defined for both the LOV Type UNIT_OF_MEASURE, and the LOV Type UOM_CD.

Table 5 describes how to define values for kilometer, meter, and mile, navigate to the Administration - Data > List of Values view, and create the following records for Type UNIT_OF_MEASURE: