One significant type of information about locations and items that the system needs is the way they are sized and the units of measure. The system has a flexible approach that does not require you to specify a warehouse as being palletized or non-palletized. You can mix palleted goods with different types and sizes of pallets and loose items within the same location.

To be able to do this and still retain accurate records of the quantities of inventory and the available location capacities, the system uses a system of alternate units of measure (UM). This enables you to define a base UM for an item, and also define alternate UMs that can be used for receipt, storage, and picking the item. You must define the conversion factors between the different UMs, such as how many items are in a box, or how many on a pallet. You also must define whether a unit can be split when picking inventory from a location.

When you have given QAD Warehousing all the sizing data about your inventory items and your storage locations, it is then able to offer you complete flexibility regarding the storage and picking of those items.