These products use two units of measure – a catch weight unit and an inventory unit. The catch weight unit is the unit in which the product’s transactions are performed, for example sold, shipped, received, etc… The inventory unit is the unit of measure when the product is weighed and invoiced. The nominal quantity is the conversion between the catch weight unit and the inventory unit.
Let’s take cheese as an example.
Catch Weight Functionality cheese
When a wheel of cheese is placed in stock it weighs 10 lbs. However, as time passes and the wheel of cheese is pulled from inventory, the same wheel can then weighs 8.7 lbs (due to processing or environmental factors). Below is an illustration that shows the difference in the weight of a cheese box due to catch weight tracking.
When these boxes are weighed to determine how much to invoice the customer, we can clearly see a difference in the weights due to the catch weight system. This is common in other foods as well, for instance in, poultry, fresh shrimps, beef tenderloins and so on.
Catch weight management is a common requirement for food manufacturers, distributors and retailers – any organization that needs to convert from a relative quantity (box, carton, case) to a line item price that is determined by exact weight.
Catch weight functionality touches almost all functional areas of standard ERP processes including:
- Order To Cash
- Manufacturing
- Procure To Pay
- Both Inbound and Outbound logistics
- Inventory Accounting
The Benefits of Catch Weight
Organizations that require Catch Weight functionality can benefit from a digital platform like Microsoft Dynamics 365 in the following ways:
- Catch weight visibility by product – both in financial and inventory transactions.
- Reduce manual effort in recording and reporting the two weight conversions.
- Improve accuracy in billing, invoicing, tax charge, stock level verification and inventory valuation.
- Increase transparency, which leads to increased customer satisfaction.
- Maintain more scalable and accurate pricing by catch weight.
- Reduce quality costs with integrated quality control – from receipt to production & shipping – and field-to-fork product traceability.
- More accurate invoice details for products sold with data on both units of measure (inventory units and catch weight units).
- Automate unit of measure conversions for different proportions (liters, pounds, gallons, etc.).
- Improve support for multiple packaging variations for each of your products.
The food industry has constant challenges like perishability, shrinkages, % yield efficiency and so on. A system with strong catch weight functionality is vital – especially when operating in large volumes with low margins. Integrating catch weight into your ERP can help organizations benefit in all the above ways and essentially saves valuable time and resources.
Learn more about how Merit Solutions and our partners serve other regulated industries like food and beverage manufacturing.