grichards

I think packages should be able to be associated with Manufacturers the same way products are. In other words, packages should be identified by the same Equipment, Model, Category criteria that products are (although i'm not certain why Category is part of the primary key for products, but thats a different story). In fact, packages could just be another product where you are able to setup specific over-rides for the items included in the package/product. Or, packages are just products with accessories that have price over-rides.

If packages were setup this way, it would be easier to set up packages that are actually sold by the manufacturer under a single SKU or model number. For instance, the Extron Pole Vault Systems. This is a series of products where several of their other items are sold together under one model number. Im sure their are other instances. A users internal packages could just be setup with their company as the manufacturer.

These are the problems im running into with the current setup:
If i try to set this up as a package, i can't associate the item with a SKU. so when i run a report and pass it off to our purchasing dept, they have no idea to order the single SKU they just have a list of all the SKUs included in the package. Additionally, i lose my sorting capability for the package to be associated with a manufacturer. I suppose i could prefix the package name with the manufacturer, but this could get out of hand over time and probably leads to some dead ends in reporting.

If i try to set up the package as a product with accessories, i end up totaling all the package/accessory items into the install price and have to zero them out manually in my PDM. which is fine for me, but for a consultant who's not a PDM pro, its dangerous and confusing at best. On top of that, my purchasing reports still show the manfacturers package SKU and all the Accessory Skus.

My suggestion would be: no packages.
Within the product accessories tab, you add an option to package the accessory with the product. this omits the accessory from showing up as a seperate SKU and omits the accessory price from the product total. After all, what is a package except a product with a bunch of recommended un-prompted accessories with the accessory prices rolled into the product price?

I fully expect to be berated by those who utilize the package feature as-is, but i really don't see the advantage to it and it seems like my suggestion would maintain the same functionality, maybe simplify implementation, and add some versatility.

Thoughts? can anyone provide some enlightenment on why packages are essential?