Products and Items – term definitions in English

Item

An item is a uniquely defined thing or service which can be produced and/or bought; being able to put on stock and being sold again. An item must not necessarily be a physical thing.
The master data of an item contains all information needed to identify it uniquely and manage it.
An item always has a UOM used by all measurements in all relevant business areas (purchasing, sales and stock).

Product

A product represents a group of items having common attributes and data. Items belonging to the same product share a set of so called “defining attributes”. The values provided for these attributes make the item unique within the product (SKU resolution).
The product itself is not represented by a physical thing. It can not be purchased or produced, can not put on stock or sold. It is only an information container for the common information valid for all assigned items.

Products and Items – term definitions in German

Artikel

Ein Artikel ist ein eindeutig bestimmtes Produkt oder eine definierte Dienstleistung, der/die eingekauft oder produziert, ggf. auf Lager gelegt und verkauft werden kann. Unter einem Artikel muss dabei nicht zwingend eine physikalische Sache verstanden werden.
Der Stammdatensatz eines Artikels enthält all die Informationen, die benötigt werden um den Artikel verwalten zu können. Ein Artikel muss immer eine Mengeneinheit besitzen, auf die sich Mengenangaben in allen relevanten Bereichen (Einkauf, Verkauf und Lagerhaltung) beziehen.

Produkt

Unter einem Produkt wird eine Gruppe von Artikeln verstanden werden, die sich gemeinsame Attribute teilen. Alle Artikel die zu einem bestimmten Produkt gehören haben dasselbe Set von “definierenden Attributen” und unterscheiden sich eindeutig durch die Attributswerte die sie dafür zur Verfügung stellen.
Ein Produkt selbst ist dabei nicht durch eine physikalische Sache repräsentiert, es kann weder eingekauft, produziert, auf Lager gelegt oder verkauft werden. Es dient ausschließlich als Informationscontainer für die ihm zugeordneten, ähnlichen Artikel.

The relationship between products and items

An item belongs to exactly one product. As defined above an item represents a concrete variant of a product typically differing in the defining attributes or in packaging information from other variants. Which data is provided on product level and which one on item level spreads from “nearly all is common, only UOM and prices are different” to “nearly all varies only less common descriptions are shared”. The most typical scenario is where items represent the variants of a product differing in their values of the so called defining attributes.
On product level all common names, descriptions, manufacturer information, images and data sheets plus descriptive attributes are provided. The product declares the defining attributes. The items of the product will provide values for these attributes which vary over the items assigned and make them unique.

The items have to provide values for the defining attributes. Optionally additional variant specific descriptions can be specified on item level. Order information, logistic data and price information are typically defined on item level.

Below a typical sample is shown. The T-Shirt has common description, images and descriptive attributes. The product declares defining attributes, here “Size” and “Color”. Every concrete variant has its unique item number, a unique combination of the defining attributes' values and may have individual descriptions, images and prices.

Here in the sample the product has an image showing a selection of the T-Shirts in different colors. On item level an additional image showing the T-Shirt in its variant's color is displayed.

The second typical scenario of the product item relationship is where items differ in their order and/or logistic information. All descriptive information like texts, images or other file attachments as well as the descriptive attributes are maintained on product level and are valid for all items of the product.

The orderable items differ in their packaging unit (UOM) and/or their packaging quantity. The prices will usually be different and the items have to differ in their identifying and logistic information. The orderable items are well described on product level but optionally item individual texts or images e. g. dependent on the individual packaging might be provided on item level additionally.

The sample below shows the product – a mineral water – filled into bottles. It is available as single bottle, as a crate of 12 bottles or packaged on a pallet with 160 crates. The item number and other identifying values are unique to be able to order uniquely a bottle, a crate do a palette of the mineral water. For sure the price is different.

Demarcation to bundles, sets, and kits

The difference between the terms bundle, set, and kit (or anything else) and their meaning in detail is not needed to be discussed at this point – maybe it is not possible to answer this question finally at all. Let's use the term kit to represent any of these expressions.

An almost general definition of a kit is a collection of items tied together by a "header item" to be possible being ordered as a unit.

The idea behind this is to offer several items for a specific purpose as one unit together (e.g. a shaving kit, several clothes going together), or sell items together which are related and needed to set up the whole thing (e.g. the single parts needed to repair something).

What are the differences to products and their items?

• A kit can be ordered a product can not be ordered.

• If a kit is ordered always several items are shipped; a product is always represented by a certain variant; one item of the product is usually ordered.

• The components of a kit do have a logical relation to each other but they need not to be variants.

Some other facts on products, kits, and items:

• Items may belong to several kits

• Items can belong to exactly one product (already discussed before)

• Products can not be part of kits

Finally something on item references:

• Simple item references as "accessory", "spare part" or "consist of" have neither to do with kits nor with product item relationship.

• Most approaches to explain "why it is not true that an item belongs only to exactly one product" can be disproved by checking the relationship for being such an item reference.