[thelist] SKU Numbers?

[Mark Groen]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Burhan Khalid" <>
To: <thelist at lists.evolt.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 1:20 PM
Subject: [thelist] SKU Numbers?


>    I'm looking at resources on generating SKU numbers.  Is there a
> predefined format? Some industry standard? When do you generate a new
> SKU for a product?  I've been doing some research, and my understanding
> can be summarized in this example:
>
>    Item being sold : Widget (SKU#1)
>                      Red Widget (SKU#2)
>                      Green Widget (SKU#3)
>                      Green Widget with lights (SKU#4)
>
>    Basically, for each variation of the product, there is a new SKU. Is
> this correct? Thanks for any information.

Think of it in terms of how you would be able to tell what a widget was just
by it's number. Let's say we have 18K items in our warehouse....it might be
nice to know which aisle, shelf, and bin it's in so start with that as your
numbers 01041204-145653 with each as a two digit number this item is in
aisle 01, section 04, shelf 12, bin 04.

The second bit could signify the item itself for finer searching... the
first two digits could seperate out wether it's a TV, Computer, or stereo,
or manufacturer, the second two digits could be say... the size, the next
one the colour, the next etc. so we would know right away that this is a
Sony TV, 56 inch, silver, etc. etc.

Try to keep your numbers six digits or less, more numbers in a string
invites mistakes unless it's something set in stone like the shelf numbering
system above, and if you do need more digits put a hyphen in there for
easier reading 847364-958737

So your widgets all on shelf 12 could be:
01041204-145653 = manufactory 14, 56cm, blue
01041205-143254 = manufactory 14, 32cm, yellow
01041206-143253 = manufactory 14, 32cm, blue
01041207-155653 = manufactory 15, 56cm, blue
01041212-125653 = manufactory 12, 56cm, blue

So now you can sort your items in the database by physical location for
inventory, or group them by manufacturer, size, colour, etc.

hth!


cheers,

        Mark