Built and simple products

A machine exists twice in the product catalogue, and knowing why explains a surprising amount of the rest of BMS.

The two kinds

A Built product is the template for the machine. It is what an asset points at, so anything asking "what supplies does this machine take?" or "does it have colour meters?" reads the Built product's relationships and meter configuration. It is also what you put on a sales order, because it is the thing that can configure a bill of material.

A Simple product is the base unit — the physical box. It has a Component relationship of type Base to the Built product. It is what goes on a purchase order, using the supplier's own product code, and it is serialized.

A worked pair:

Why the split exists

Because the thing you sell and the thing you buy are not the same object.

You buy a base unit from a supplier, under their code, and it arrives with a serial number. You sell a machine — a configuration of that base unit plus whatever finisher, trays and cabinet the customer agreed to. Modelling both as one product would force you either to buy configurations (which suppliers do not sell) or to sell base units (which customers do not want).

Keeping them apart lets the Built product carry the sales and service view — what it consists of, what supplies it takes, what meters it has — while the Simple product carries the stock and purchasing view.

The serial travels

This is the chain worth remembering:

1. The Simple product is receipted from the supplier, and the serial is entered as part of the receipt.
2. It becomes an individual stock holding, tracked by that serial.
3. When the Built product goes on a sales order, the Simple product is its Base component in the bill of material.
4. The serial is chosen when the dispatch is allocated.
5. That serial becomes the asset's serial at the customer.

So the number on the machine in a customer's office is the number typed in when the box arrived at the warehouse — which is why receipting accurately matters far beyond the warehouse.

Refurbishments get a new product

Returning an asset to the warehouse and making it available for sale prompts a stock adjustment that puts a Simple product back into stock so it can be dispatched again.

It is not the original product. BMS creates one that mirrors it — same Base relationship to the same Built product — but with -R appended to the product code and (REFURB) added to the description.

That is deliberate: a refurbished unit and a new one are not interchangeable in stock, in pricing, or in what a customer was told they were getting. Giving the refurb its own code means the distinction survives into every order, dispatch and valuation that touches it.

Related

• Why a build is a bill of material
• On hand, allocated and available