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Product Definition
Companies that manufacture or distribute complex products face the major issues
of part number configuration and associated data storage. When a product line
has multiple sizes and other variable attributes and options, unique part
number permutations can number in the millions, billions, and beyond. Storing
data associated with "flat" lists of numbers can be an insurmountable problem.
Our product definition technology is designed to provide a way to configure
literally billions of products with disk space impact in terms of Kilo (K)
bytes, not Giga (G) bytes. Product models are created and then used in a
software framework that allows them to provide context specific data for each
unique product variation. Applications can easily work within the framework to
access the models for part number configuration assistance or direct
validation. Once the correct product is determined, application specific
information defined in the model is available for sales, marketing, order
processing, manufacturing, and other systems.
The Symmetrix method of defining products is flexible enough to accommodate
products ranging from simple to extremely complex. In fact, the more complex
and configurable a product is, the more our technology shines. Each attribute
that makes a product unique, and each rule that governs which attributes must,
can, or cannot exist together perform in concert in a complete, intelligent
product selection system.
The result? Your sales force, customers, and business systems share access to a
broad wealth of specific detail for any product you make, sell, and/or
distribute. The need to enter and maintain huge tables of redundant information
is eliminated!
Product Configuration
A configurable product has various attributes available for selection and those
attributes are reflected in the product's part number. Usually there are
restrictions on which combinations of attributes result in a valid
configuration and there are rules that govern what is allowed and what is not.
Even with limitations, the number of combinations of valid products may number
in the thousands, millions, billions, trillions, or more.
Our product definition technology allows the creation of product models that
assist the user in selecting a correct and valid configuration. The product
model can also validate a part number and automatically select attributes based
on the valid number. Once a product is selected, either with assistance or by
validation, information specific to that product is available to any
application running in ProdLogix.
Although the technology was designed to solve the problems of configuring and
maintaining large numbers of configurable products, it can also work well for
lists of un-configurable products or for configurations that do not result in a
part number.
The user interface for product configuration has the same format no matter
which ProdLogix based application uses it. This ensures a common look and
feel.
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