Overview of Item Cataloging
You can use item cataloging to add descriptive information to items and to partition your Item Master into groups of items that share common characteristics. You configure in advance what is required to uniquely define an item in each group. When you define your items, you assign them to an item catalog group.
To define your catalog, you set up as many distinct item catalog groups as you need to partition your Item Master. Each group has unique characteristics (called descriptive elements) that completely describe items belonging to the group.
When you assign an item to an item catalog group, you define values for the descriptive elements that apply to your item. For example, an item catalog group called Computer could have a descriptive element called Processing Speed. Possible values for Processing Speed might be 100MHZ, 133MHZ, and so on.
Benefits
Once the process of defining and cataloging items is complete, you can:
- Provide standard language in referring to items, enabling companies in the same industry to communicate effectively without needing to name their items identically.
- Store a detailed description of what an item is without having to embed that meaning in the item number.
- Use descriptive elements as search criteria for items.
- Update the item description with a concatenated value of the item catalog group information.
- Find common existing parts when developing an engineering prototype.
Steps Involved
See Also
Implementing the Item Master Organization
Item Cataloging Examples
Overview of Item Setup and Control.
Overview of Items