Choosing SKUs

[Brennerz]

Bit of a basic question, very much overthinking.

I'm in the process of compiling a database of all of my products, one of the ranges of products has many different variations and I'm trying to figure if I should have detailed but potentially complicated SKU or Simple but less detailed.

For example the name of the product is.... 900mm x 50mm 1mm x 50m throughout the range each of those measurements could be different e.g. 1200mm x 13mm 1.2mm x 25m
Detailed SKU - 90050150 and 1200131225
Simple SKU - WN1 and WN2

I'm just trying to think when either of these might be more useful than the other. The majority of my sales will be online and all the products will be labelled with barcodes, my inventory/order management software will store item warehouse location - so remember SKU's isn't exactly important as printed pick lists will tell you exactly where things are, and barcodes will reduce packing errors.

Any thoughts on why a detailed SKU would be more important?

 

[Mr D]

We have ours set as item location. Can see at a glance where it is.
Multiple items can have the same SKU. Hard to mix up a toy giraffe with a photo frame.
We do not try and duplicate the product details into SKU.

 

[Alison Moore]

Will clients be selecting the items base on their SKUS or is the SKU just for you? If it's just for you, I'd say chose easy to remember ones. Also it's important that staff can easily pick the correct item from the shelf. In my experience you might have codes distinguishing one from the other, but staff will often not read the codes properly and just pick what they think is the right item.

 

[Mr D]

Will clients be selecting the items base on their SKUS or is the SKU just for you? If it's just for you, I'd say chose easy to remember ones. Also it's important that staff can easily pick the correct item from the shelf. In my experience you might have codes distinguishing one from the other, but staff will often not read the codes properly and just pick what they think is the right item.

Amazon get round the 'it looks right' problem by sticking things totally different next to each other.
A stuffed toy is not an ipad. A screwdriver is not a microwave oven.

 

[menetworkjadaltd]

Hard to mix up a toy giraffe with a photo frame.

You've obviously never had a substitution in a Tesco delivery

 

[Mr D]

You've obviously never had a substitution in a Tesco delivery

Dozens of times.
Sending back 30 bottles of pepsi because they didn't have any pepsi max... the poor driver was annoyed having brought 10 bags to the door...

 

[menetworkjadaltd]

30 bottles?

 

[Mr D]

30 bottles?

2 weeks supply.
Not daft enough to order every week.

 

[Alison Moore]

Amazon get round the 'it looks right' problem by sticking things totally different next to each other.
A stuffed toy is not an ipad. A screwdriver is not a microwave oven.

Interesting idea... unfortunately that wouldn't have worked with what we were selling when it was an issue for us though.

 

[Alison Moore]

2 weeks supply.
Not daft enough to order every week.

That's still a LOT of coke! We get through about 6 bottles a week and we have two teenagers.

 

[Brennerz]

The SKU will only be used internally and for pick/pack each item will have a Location number assigned and each product will have a label with barcode and sku. When processing orders, the shipment label won't print unless they correct product barcode is scanned.

 

[Mr D]

Interesting idea... unfortunately that wouldn't have worked with what we were selling when it was an issue for us though.

We use it quite a lot. Had to get a frame out of a box this afternoon from storage unit - the box had two different sized frames in plus some toys and a packet of tape.
Reach in, grab the item, go to next box.

Got 4 items in under 5 minutes from entering the gates.

Obviously when we buy a carton of something then the entire box is that item. As the carton empties we start combining boxes such that things are easy to find. Still got to find right box - such as 56 Box 5 - but we know where the box should be and its seconds to move boxes.