Item data enrichment
You open thousands of new item codes a year. Behind every missing field is someone searching.
Multiply that by a year of new codes and it is a role nobody was hired for.
The situation
A new commercial item gets opened because an order needs it today. The part number goes into the description because that field is free text. The weight is left at zero because the maker’s brochure does not give one. The customs code is copied from whatever the last similar item used. Every gap is a search, and the search runs long whenever the right source is not in the first few results. Multiply that by a year of new codes and it is a role nobody was hired for.
Every item is sorted first
Nobody is going to be hired for it. The work has to come out of the documents themselves. An item master holds different kinds of things, and they need different treatment. A commercial item has a maker whose documents hold the truth. A standard part has no maker; the standard is the specification. A customer-specific item is defined by your own drawing. inRecipe decides on day one whether an item is commercial, standard or both.
- CONTACTOR 3P 18A 24VDC KC-18-3P-24D→ Commercial
- HEX BOLT ISO 4017 M12X40 8.8→ Standard
- FITTING GE12L DIN 2353 MAKER A→ Commercial, carrying a standard
Commercial
Contactor, maker’s part number in the description
CONTACTOR 3P 18A 24VDC KC-18-3P-24DStandard
Hex bolt ISO 4017 M12 × 40, 8.8
HEX BOLT ISO 4017 M12X40 8.8Commercial, carrying a standard
Hydraulic fitting sold by a maker, specified by a standard
FITTING GE12L DIN 2353 MAKER AThree more kinds are on the way: sorted first, then enriched.
Substance
Hydraulic oil, ISO VG 46
Medical device
First-aid dressing, sterile
Own design
Bracket to your drawing, rev C
Two paths to a value
Commercial items are read from the maker’s own document, bound to the item on its exact identifier, each value citing the page. Standard parts are not searched at all: dimensions, material class and mass follow from the standard and the size. On a recent sample, computed weights landed within about three percent of catalogue figures.
What inRecipe can do
Maker’s part numbers
Found in descriptions, free text and supplier codes, in any language. Distributor and maker numbers kept apart.
Names and sales text
A consistent, searchable name for every item, and a short sales description written only from proven specifications.
Weights and dimensions
Read from the datasheet or computed from the standard, with the unit conversion recorded.
Successors and duplicates
Discontinued parts flagged against the maker’s own statement. The same part under three codes in three plants recognised as one.
The fields differ by what the item is. These are the ones customers ask for most.
- Identity
- ManufacturerManufacturer part numberDistributor numberStandard designationItem kindSuccessor part number
- Name and text
- Standardised nameShort sales descriptionPrimary functionIntended use
- Classification
- The attribute list the item’s class definesnext
- Physical
- Net weightLengthWidthHeightDiameterThread sizeMaterialProperty classPack sizeUnit of measure
- Trade
- Customs heading, six digitsCustoms code, eight digitsCountry of origin
- Lifecycle
- Discontinued statusManufacturer-stated successorCandidate replacement, labelled
Every one of them carries its source, and every one of them can come back as “searched, not found”.
The class brings the questions with it
Each item is resolved to a class, and the class carries its own attribute list, following the industry classification standards your suppliers, your ERP and your webshop already speak: a V-belt is asked for profile and length, a bearing for bore and outside diameter. Because the class is shared language, the same part under different codes in different plants reads as one part, and a supplier can quote against it.
| Plant A | Plant B | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | SPA | SPA |
| Datum length | 1250 mm | 1250 mm |
The same holds across every class.
| Rolling bearing | V-belt | Electric motor | Industrial valve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bore | Profile | Power rating | Nominal diameter |
| Outside diameter | Pitch length | Voltage | Pressure rating |
| Width | Width | Frame size | Body material |
| Clearance class | Number of ribs | Mounting | Connection type |
Ask a tool for one fixed set of fields and you get empty columns for every part that does not have them. Ask the class first and the empties mean something.
What it does not do
It does not invent a value to fill a cell. It does not decide a customs code on your behalf: codes above the level we can defend are proposals until a person confirms them. It does not replace your ERP, PDM or PIM; those stay where they are. And it will not fix a process that puts the part number in the description field. It will show you how often that happens.
Start with the items where the fields are blank.
- 1Send 100 to 200 items as they are today, the ones with the most empty fields first.
- 2Within days you see which values were read from the maker’s page, which were computed from the standard, and which were refused, and why.
- 3One hour to walk it through together.
Your ERP, PDM or PIM stays where it is. A file export is enough to start.
Is it a fit for us? →