SAP Note 16892 - ME21: Conversion factors are not generated

Symptom:

When creating a purchase order with different order unit, the conversion factors for quantity units stored in the material master records are sometimes not generated. The user then receives a popup in which he/she is requested to enter conversion factors.

Cause and prerequisites

This is a restriction in function module UNIT_CONVERSION which only allows figures up to a certain value for the numerator and denominator of the conversion factor. If it is exceeded, then raise exception OVERFLOW occurs. If this applies in this case can be determined by setting a breakpoint in function module ME_CONVERSION_BPRME and by analysing the return code of UNIT_CONVERSION (which is called UNIT_CONVERSION_WITH_FACTOR as of lately).

Solution
The solution is differs from case to case. The conversion factors 9857 G (grams) = 100 BG (sheets) were maintained in the concrete customer example and DEM 100 / 100 KG (kilograms) were specified as price in the purchase order. The conversion KG --> G was avoided by entering the (equivalent) data DEM 1 / 1000 G and the OVERFLOW did no longer occur.