Item Group Master

A product family — the menu, the variant axis, and why configuration cannot live on the item code.

An item group is a product family as Flowtech sells it: electromagnetic flowmeter, metal tube rotameter, magnetic level indicator, smart pressure transmitter. It is not a warehouse bin and it is not one sellable size.

What the client sells

A family has a fixed menu of specification options (flowtube material, process connection, output, lining, …). A released size (DN50, a pressure range, a face-to-face length) is a sellable finished good. A quotation picks one released size and configures it against the family’s menu.

That is why configuration cannot live on the item code. An electromagnetic flowmeter has on the order of eighteen select fields; the combination space is hundreds of millions. So the catalogue forks on exactly one attribute — the family’s variant axis — and everything else is chosen per quotation line.

Two prefixes, two jobs

Field	Example	Job
Prefix	`EMFM`	Builds the item code (`FEMFM0000006`). 2–6 capital letters. Frozen once any code exists
Model prefix	`FMIPL-EMFM`	Starts the model number when options are chosen

Adding an item group, the Prefix field offers a Suggested prefix until anything is typed into it: the initials of the family’s name, leaving out words such as “type” and “of” (a name left with one word gives its first two letters instead), ending in the two letters that at least half of the category’s prefixes end in, such as RM for rotameters. Clicking it fills the field. It is a starting point only: the suggestion may already be taken, and saving a prefix another item group has is refused. A name it can’t make two to six letters of offers none.

Mixing these two is the usual meeting failure. The item code names which released size you are selling. The model number names how this line is built.

Variant axis

The axis is usually line size, but not always:

Family kind	Typical variant	What a released code is
Most flowmeters	Line size (DN / NB)	One bore
Smart pressure transmitter	Pressure range	One range
Metal tube rotameter	Line size, priced by flow range	One bore, with a price per flow range
Displacer switch	Number of set points	One switch arrangement

Only DN, NB and THREAD measure a bore. Nominal-bore comparison applies to size, and nothing else. A pressure-range code is not a pipe size.

The axis names a row in this group’s decodification master (variantMasterKey). That is how a DN50 code knows which menu position is already decided.

Price by flow range. Some families sell one size at several prices, one per flow range the tube is built for. Switching the group to Price by flow range lets its codes carry price bands instead of a single price. Acrylic body, metal tube and glass tube rotameters are set up this way; any other group can be switched on from its edit form. It cannot be switched off while any code in the group still has price bands.

Companions

Some families are sold with another: an orifice assembly with a DPT, a bypass rotameter with a gauge. The group can point at a companion group, and can require the sizes to match. A companion-only group is never quoted on its own.

One catalogue, eight offices

Item groups are not office-scoped. Mumbai and Bengaluru sell the same families. Permissions still gate who can view or edit the master.

Viewing a family

The eye button in each row’s Actions column, ahead of the pencil, opens the family read-only. Anyone who can see the list can open it, whether or not they may edit families, and nothing on it can be changed.

Its header names the family’s category, its series prefix and the code the next release would take. A line beneath it counts the finished codes, says what the codes vary by and whether that is typed or read from the datasheet, and gives the model prefix. Three tabs follow, each with a count:

Item codes — every code released in the family, with its variant, model number, goods type, price (or the span of its price bands) and status. A family with more than 100 codes lists the first 100 and says so.
Datasheet — the family’s current datasheet from its Decodification master, with prices: the model number it composes, then each block as a table. A field shows its default; a header shows its position, what it depends on, its options and whether it drives the price. The unit price is given across the sizes (₹62,500–₹75,400), and each option on a row that drives the price carries what choosing it adds: one figure when it adds the same at every size (+₹1,500), a range when it differs by size (+₹1,500–₹3,500), a rate for an option charged per unit (+₹120 per mm), Included when it is part of the base price, or Price not set. An asterisk marks a figure that leaves out sizes with no price yet. Prices need pricing access; without it the datasheet shows none. Edit datasheet opens the editor for anyone allowed to edit. A family with no datasheet says so.
Rules — the limitation and suitability rules recorded against the family, each with its kind, the parameter it judges and its bound.

Price sheet

Download price sheet, in the footer of a family’s view, saves a PDF list of the family’s prices to send to a trader. It needs pricing access and a published datasheet; without one the button is disabled and says why. The same button sits beside the title of the family’s current master on the Decodification screen. The dialog asks whom the sheet is for and says how many prices will print as On request.

Page one carries the letterhead, the family’s name, whom the sheet is prepared for, the date, and a key: Included is part of the base price, a signed amount such as +1,800 is added to the base price of that size, and On request means the price is quoted on asking. Prices are list prices in INR, exclusive of GST.

The prices are tables with one column per size, up to six sizes to a table, and one column per flow range in a family priced by flow range. Under each size are its item code and base price. Each header that drives the price follows as a group: its included option first, then every other option with what it adds at each size, or what it costs per length ordered (per 100 mm C/C Height). The options a group has no price for at any size are listed once, under the group, as “Also on request”. A group is never split across a page, and each page repeats the sizes, item codes and base prices above it. Headers that do not drive the price, and the model number, are left off.

The last page notes the HSN and GST rate, the date the prices are as of, and whom to ask for an “On request” price. Every page’s footer reads “Confidential — prepared for” the recipient, with the page count.

Categories and incoming enquiries

Every item group belongs to one category. FlowOS names an enquiry’s categories from the email, so each category with an active item group, other than a companion-only one, is looked for automatically, and a new item group is recognised by its name. The words that point to a group — “mag meter” for an electromagnetic flowmeter, “by-pass rotameter” — are kept by the delivery team rather than on this screen.

What the business does here

Name the family, its prefixes, and which attribute the codes fork on.
Publish its first datasheet, which becomes the group’s current decodification master; nobody points the group at one by hand.
Retire a family (active) rather than deleting it — released codes and old quotations still name it.
Deleting a family also deletes its datasheets, with their versions and prices. It is refused while the family has item codes, or while any item code uses one of its datasheets.