Multiple Item Classifications/Certifications/Groups

Saydeelol

Member
Howdy again JDEListers,

Is there a location in JDE to add/list all of the certifications/classifications that apply to a particular item? We are aware of all of the UDCs that are available to us in the item master and branch, but these only work for finite combinations of classifications. E.g., imagine a universe where items can be class A, class B, class C, etc. One may set up a UDC in the IM/IB with those classes and it works fine if the classes are mutually exclusive (i.e., you only select one class), but what if an item is both class A *and* class B. Or class A, B, and C? The possible combinations quickly become infinite. Is there a bucket somewhere to enter each of an items classifications and/or certifications?

Thanks!
 
I believe these are the options available.
1. Use a coding system in one UDC. For example, most of the UDCs in IM/IB have 3 characters. So, you can fit 36*36*36 = 46,656 unique values in that one UDC. We use SRP1 for product lines where the first character is the "division" and the remaining 2 are used to group similar products within the divisions. So, A is a division, B is another division and 99 designates a custom item. So, A99 and B99 immediately tell the user the division and that it is a custom sku. If you have a good plan, you can simply and easily add new values to the UDC as needed.

2. Use a few UDCs to hold the classification. In my example, we could have the A in SRP1 and the 99 in SRP2 which increases the combined possibilities significantly. We did this in Address Book for one process early on and regret it now since we need Cat codes for other entirely different processes. Changing all the reports and queries would be a large effort we will likely have to do.

3. Use the JDE user defined database architecture which I know nothing about, so hopefully you can do some research on that.

4. Create your own custom table to hold how ever many classifications you need. This is fine for reporting, but you may find you need to customize standard JDE screens and jobs for ease of use.

5. Use Item Notes/Attachments which are less useful for reporting purposes, but provide as much free space as needed. If you have a consistent plan that everyone follows, attachments can provide a lot of good info. We use a system in Address Book where the first attachment is always CSR related and the second attachment is always warehouse/shipping related. This allows each group to know exactly where to go for their detail.

6. Combine options 1 and 2 by packing as much related info into each UDC that you can but have two or more UDCs that when combined provide the whole picture for the item.
 
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Saydeelol,

can you please provide the real world example of the classification scheme?
 
(Note - I found the solution for this, but I want to share it with JDEList and include the real world example that Larry requested so that others can see what the problem actually is and how the solution accomplishes it in case others are facing the same situation)

Here's an example using real certifications:

We manufacture many products and sell them in several countries. We have a long list of certifications from these countries, but to keep it simple I'm going to us three.

CE - Community Europe Certification (the cert basically states that the materials that went into the product meet European standards)
DOT - Department of Transportation (product is fit for use w/ certain volatile compounds under certain conditions and can be transported on roads safely)
TC - Transport Canada (basically the same as our DOT cert, but applies to Canada)

These certifications are NOT mutually exclusive, i.e. we have several products that meet both CE, DOT, and TC standards. But then we also have several products that only meet TC standards. Or meet only DOT. Or meet DOT and TC standards, but not CE. And so on.

We COULD use a UDC field and have codes for every combination of certifications, but we have many more certifications than just the three in this example. This would end up looking like:

UDC Description
A DOT
B CE
C TC
D DOT & CE
C DOT & TC
D TC & CE
E DOT, CE, TC

For each item number we would then select the UDC that applies to that item. As the number of certifications grows, the possible combinations of those certs quickly grows to infinity. What we were looking for is a place to simply list each certification that a product has and then be able to report on or query the data on those fields. So something like this:

Product A: DOT, CE
Product B: DOT
Product C: DOT, CE, TC
Product D: TC

The solution that I found accomplishes exactly this. Oracle calls it "Supplemental Data" (Oracle doc number below). Once configured (which is fast), one may create an infinite number of supplemental data fields that may be tied to the item master, branch, address book, business units, and several other tables. There are several different data type options (include UDC!) for these fields, so the possibilities are almost limitless. What I did was create a UDC that contained all of our individual certs, like:

UDC Description
A DOT
B CE
C TC

I tied a supplemental field to the item branch and now rather than having to create combination UDCs, each item has a list of each item from the UDC that applies. Thanks for the responses and willingness to help. Hope I've also somewhat given back!

Reference: E1: 41: Supplemental Data For Inventory Management (P00091/P00092/R410410/R410400/P410200) (Doc ID 848276.1)
 
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