Product Information Management Solution or how to write my own

Question

I am developing a website for a manufacturing company. The company has a few thousand part numbers. The parts fall into around 150 categories. Each product category has specifications (length, height, width, etc).

I need to find a way to store all of this in my database for the website. The product specifications have me completely stumped. Each category has a different number of specifications ranging from 5 to over 50 (they are complex engineering products). I need to find a way to put them into my database so that I can get them out in table format, edit the values in a web page, search them on my website, and export them into Print and Catalog formats.

I have looked into Master Data Management and Product Information Management Systems but they all seem very cost prohibitive for a company our size. Does anyone know of a software package or an easy way to write their own that will solve this issue?

My initial attempts have involved loading the data into 3 tables. A PropertyGroup table, a Property table (each property belongs to 1 group), and a ProductProperty table (each ProductProperty has a Product_ID and a Property_ID). My 2 concerns with this format is getting the data out in a dynamic and pivoted format and some of my property groups have levels of headers. By levels of headers I mean for example 3 properties could have their own header and also share a second header above their single column one. I also looked at putting all of the data into excel but that seems to lose some of the data granularity that I was looking for.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Check out:

http://www.amazon.com/Data-Model-Resource-Book-Vol/dp/0471380237/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

and the volumes 2 and 3. I am sure you will find a full schema for your problem there ;)

Answer 2

Maybe pimcore is the solution you're looking for: http://www.pimcore.org/

It's open source, and is build for managing huge amounts of product master data.

Answer 3

PIM is a niche market that few people understand -- you clearly "get" the need for it. Unfortunately, since most people fixate on the end result (web catalog, print catalog, POS system, part application / use cataloging, electronic feed to customers for their systems, etc.) they usually spend the money on these front-end systems and never think about how or where to store the data in a central place. So each system presents a problem: were to get the data. And once you get it, how to keep it up to date and accurate.

Since it's a niche market (for whatever reasons), most solutions don't sell many copies, and thus the good ones remain expensive. I don't know much about the very new pimcore solution referenced in another answer, but my cursory look showed it to be more of a content management solution re-purposed to hold product info, but not really a good central PIM database. I could't do a detailed review because it failed to install and run for me.

If you are working for a manufacturing company, they probably have an ERP/MRP system -- often that vendor will have an MDM or PIM solution available. Yes, it will be expensive, but it is possible that you might be able to get it more cheaply via some sort of "bundle" license agreement. Be careful to check user references, though. Much enterprise software requires services to implement that can be multiple times the initial software license. Not all PIMs are like that, but many are.