Box 1: Product

Current environment. Items

Product numbering

All items are numbered by using a smart numbering format: [Product SKU+Size+Color+Style]. For reporting, items are queried for sales and inventory reports by using the first six digits of the item number or until the first dash is encountered.

• A t-shirt could be 01001-S-Red for item 1001 in a size small with the color red.

• A single energy drink could be 02001-12oz or 02001-20oz for the different sizes that product 02001 is sold in.

Product attributes

• All clothing shares the same set of product attributes.

• Supplements may share the same Product SKU but can have different attributes for the different size, color, or style variations of the product.

• Product attributes that are unnecessary for an item should be excluded from the item.

Box 2: Product variant

Product masters and product variants

In an agile world, where products must be quickly adapted to customer requirements, product definitions specify a set of products instead of distinct products. In Supply Chain Management, those generic products are known as product masters. Product masters hold the definition and rules that specify how distinct products are described and behave in business processes. Based on these definitions, distinct products can be generated. These distinct products are known as product variants.

A product master is associated with a product dimension group and a configuration technology to specify the business rules. The product dimensions (Color, Size, Style, and Configuration) are a specific set of attributes that can be used throughout the application to define and track specific behaviors of the related products. These dimensions also help users search for and identify the products.