Unit of Measurements and Packaging

Products can be configured at different levels of detail depending on how the product needs to be represented. This page explains the difference between using a simple unit of measure VS defined unit of measures.

Simple Unit of Measurement

At the simplest level, a product can be configured using only SimpleUnitOfMeasurement.

For example:

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm"
}

This means the product is measured and tracked in kilograms.

For example, if an event contains a quantity of 10, this represents:

10 kg of the product

This approach is useful when the product does not need an additional packaging or commercial-unit definition.

Adding Packaging Detail

If the product needs to be represented at a more specific packaging or commercial-unit level, UnitQuantity and UnitDescriptor can be added.

For example:

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm",
  "UnitQuantity": 2,
  "UnitDescriptor": "Cases"
}

This defines the product as a:

2 kg case

In this example:

SimpleUnitOfMeasurement: "Kgm" defines the underlying measurement as kilograms.
UnitQuantity: 2 defines how many kilograms are contained in the commercial unit.
UnitDescriptor: "Cases" defines that commercial unit as a case.

Therefore:

1 Case = 2 kg

For example, if an event contains a quantity of 10, this represents:

10 Cases of 2kg each

Allowed Values

`SimpleUnitOfMeasurement`

The following values are supported for SimpleUnitOfMeasurement.

Value	Description
`Kgm`	Kilograms
`Lbs`	Pounds
`Cases`	Cases
`Units`	Units

Where possible, it is recommended to use one of the standard values above.

Accepted UOM Aliases

Wholechain can also interpret a number of common UOM aliases and map them to the appropriate SimpleUnitOfMeasurement.

Aliases are matched case-insensitively (for example KG and kg both map to Kgm).

For example:

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "kg"
}

is interpreted as:

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm"
}

The following aliases are supported:

Submitted Value	Mapped To
`kgm`	`Kgm`
`kg`	`Kgm`
`lbs`	`Lbs`
`lb`	`Lbs`
`pounds`	`Lbs`
`pound`	`Lbs`
`lbr`	`Lbs`
`cases`	`Cases`
`case`	`Cases`
`cas`	`Cases`
`cs`	`Cases`
`ca`	`Cases`
`units`	`Units`
`line items`	`Units`
`stop`	`Units`
`stops`	`Units`
`halfcases`	`Units`
`half cases`	`Units`
`pallets`	`Units`
`pallet`	`Units`

`UnitDescriptor`

UnitDescriptor is used when additional packaging or commercial-unit information needs to be provided alongside the simple unit of measurement.

The following values are supported:

Value	Description
`Cases`	Product is represented as cases
`Units`	Product is represented as individual units
`Totes`	Product is represented as totes
`Pallets`	Product is represented as pallets

Totes and Pallets can be used as UnitDescriptor only. They are not valid SimpleUnitOfMeasurement values.

UnitDescriptor must be used together with UnitQuantity.

For example:

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm",
  "UnitQuantity": 10,
  "UnitDescriptor": "Cases"
}

This represents:

1 Case = 10 kg

Simple UOM vs Unit Descriptor

SimpleUnitOfMeasurement and UnitDescriptor serve different purposes.

Example 1 — Product Tracked Directly in Kilograms

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm"
}

The product is simply measured in kilograms.

For example:

Quantity 25 = 25 kg

Example 2 — 2 kg Case Product

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm",
  "UnitQuantity": 2,
  "UnitDescriptor": "Cases"
}

The underlying measurement remains kilograms, but Wholechain now also knows that the product is packaged as a 2 kg case.

Therefore:

1 Case = 2 kg

Example 3 — 20 kg Pallet Product

{
  "SimpleUnitOfMeasurement": "Kgm",
  "UnitQuantity": 20,
  "UnitDescriptor": "Pallets"
}

This represents:

1 Pallet = 20 kg

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