Product definition In An ERP system : The challenges

Finally the first experience supporting OFBiz users. We are very busy these days and then this blog is normally not the highest priority, but now almost one month late, it has to raise on the list.

A subject where at the moment two of my customers struggle with, is the product definition. The introduction of an ERP system forces the company to structure the products it is selling and often shows that the current product organization could be improved. The product definition is the one of the most important issues when implementing an ERP system into a company. Not only should this definition be accepted in the whole company but also the relation to the purchased products and, when the company is a manufacturing company, how the products should be assembled or manufactured. And the most important point: how the product should be selected and sold, so it should work on the front-end side of the e-commerce too and give reasonable performance.

The next problem is how to use the facilities of the chosen ERP system and how to convert the existing product definition. A simple list of single products which are purchased from single suppliers is no problem but when there are many products in many variations and/or configurations with many types of features from many suppliers? This sometimes can be a real challenge to make a design for. Then there is also the possibilities of catalogs, categories and price calculation.

So how to tackle this problem? The starting point is to define from a customer point of view the products and how the customer can best select the product. Then the relation should be made to the products of the supplier, how the products should be stored in inventory and how the price calculation should be done both from the sales and costing perspective.

Next week i will provide some solutions to the above problems....