What are Item Categories?
Item categories tell MIMOSI how to treat the item unit within the system. There are three types of item categories: normal, individually tracked, and bulk. You cannot change the item category of an item when creating it from a catalogue, you must change it in the catalogue.
Normal
Normal is the system’s default category. Normal goods are packaged as a specific lot or unit and sold as multiples of this lot/unit. Normal goods enable a tracking number to be set for its lot shipment, and do not individually track items within the lot. One example of a normal good is action figures. Sold in multiples (1, 2, 3…) of boxes of a certain size (e.g., a dozen), a box of action figures may be tracked. While each individual item in the box may have a serial number, they are tracked as the aggregate dozen (in the example) while under the normal category. If individual serial number tracking is desired after the box or lot is disaggregated, the individual items would need to be re-registered. Their provenance can be linked to their original lot by ensuring their lot number is recorded on re-registration as well as their serial number. Many standards automatically record the lot number as part of the serial number.
Individually Tracked
Individually tracked items are normally high value, high risk, and/or controlled substances, which are considered as individual items at all times, and are often serialized or otherwise marked. Individually tracked items will ask for unique identifiers for each item, and each item will be considered unique when shipped. One example of an individually tracked item is a gold bar. When sold, a gold bar normally comes in standardized weights, but can vary in quality, refiner, fineness, and origin, traits which makes each piece unique. If shipped in a batch, each bar will be packaged separately, and it will be possible to ask for a particular bar out of a group.
Bulk
Bulk items are goods like oil and grain whose quantities, weight, and/or packaging size are not in integer units and whose tracking size varies. Bulk goods enable fractional tracking sizes, e.g., 12.5 tonnes of grain. Bulk categorization enables a tracking number to be set for a shipment, and the entire shipment will be considered a single item. The shipment may be tracked, but as it is considered a single item, it will be impossible to identify a single piece of grain out of the shipment.
How do I use them?
When creating a catalogue, select the “Category” drop-down to select a non-normal item category. You will not be able to change a bulk items quantity when registering an item, this is because measurement value acts as a substitute for quantity in this type of item.