Inventory Normalization
The StreamV system has a multiple level product structure.
All items or products that you wish to process in the system must first be created in the Catalog Master File. Once an item number exists in the Catalog Master File, Inventory Master or warehouse records (and other related records) can be created for the Catalog item.
Descriptive data about catalog and inventory items is maintained in both in the Catalog and the Inventory Master records for each item. This design supports situations where the descriptive information for each item is the same in each inventory location in which it exists, and it also supports situations in which some descriptive information for a specific item is different in each inventory location in which the item exists.
In order to keep product information synchronized and reduce the labor required for product management, the StreamV System performs what is referred to as “normalization”. Normalization is the process of updating related records in the database (such as the Inventory records for a specific Catalog Master record) with the changes made to one record.
The Normalization process automatically synchronizes Catalog and Inventory information for a specific Catalog record whenever the Catalog record is created or edited.
In order to support the ability to control the fields that are normalized from the Catalog record to the Inventory record for each item, a System Control Record is provided in the TextData File. The system control record specifies which fields should be normalized or synchronized with the catalog information for the item and which fields should be skipped or not normalized.
The basic logic is that data entered into fields in the Catalog record which have field names identical to fields in the Inventory record are copied to the Inventory record. If any of these fields are specified in the System Control record, the fields are skipped by the normalization process.
Normalization happens when the following operations are performed on the system.
More:
Creating Catalog and Inventory Items