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 | VTFM |
Builds the item code (VTFM-0014). Frozen once any code exists |
| Model prefix | FMIPL-VTFM |
Starts the model number when options are chosen |
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 | Face-to-face length | One length |
| 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.
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.
What the business does here
- Name the family, its prefixes, and which attribute the codes fork on.
- Point the group at its current decodification master.
- Record ERP stores-group mapping for handoff.
- Retire a family (
active) rather than deleting it — released codes and old quotations still name it.
Related: Item Master · Decodification · Glossary.