A product category is any grouping of products that is helpful for your operations. A product category might be defined for products of a certain nature (example: Pigments & Dyes), products used for a certain process (example: Drywall Fabrication), products requiring certain treatment or attention (example: Carcinogens to Be Phased Out), and so on. You can use product categories as criteria in any of the following operations, allowing you to easily find and view the products in any product category:
● Performing a Lot Search (Requires the Chemical Inventory module.)
● Running a Report / Creating a Scheduled Report (Product category criteria available only in certain SDS and part reports.)
A product category can contain one or more products of any type (SDSs, parts, and/or lots), and any product can be assigned to any number of product categories. A product can also be excluded from a product category if it has some disqualifying property and/or to ensure it is not mistakenly assigned to the category. (Example: Any product whose name contains the word "aerosol" might be considered a match for the product category, "Aerosols." However, one product's name contains the phrase, "non-aerosol". Because this product's name contains the word "aerosol" but the product is not an aerosol, it would be excluded from the "Aerosols" category to ensure the product is not mistakenly assigned.)
While individual products can be assigned to and/or excluded from product categories (see SDS Primary Information, Part Details, and Lot Details), the Assign Product Categories tool saves you time by automatically identifying all products that are possible matches to each product category defined in your system. Using this tool, you can examine each suggested match and assign (or exclude) as many as desired. The Assign Product Categories tool identifies possible product-to-category matches by the product categories defined by administrators; each category has matching criteria—specific ingredient CAS numbers, ingredient names, and/or product names—which, when obeyed by a product, identify that product as a possible match. For more details on product categories and their matching criteria, see Administration: Product Categories.
For details on using the Assign Product Categories tool and its automatically identified product-to-category matches, see the following:
● Assigning Products to Product Categories: Examine each suggested match and assign all correct ones.
● Excluding Products from Product Categories: Examine each suggested match and exclude all incorrect ones.
