Hi community,

I'm working on a project at the moment for a car parts wholesale business. Each Item (part) has its own original manufacturer part number (sometimes more than one part number for the same item).

When purchasing parts from 3rd party suppliers, each supplier will have their own part number.

I'm trying to figure out the best way to manage this and I would love to hear some ideas, or if you think I'm on the right track?

I'm thinking of listing every 3rd party part as it's own Item and then use the Alias field to list the OEM part number(s). 

I have also thought about having the OEM part numbers as Item Groups. This will give us a way to see combined total Stock on Hand for a specific OEM part across all suppliers.

A risk here is that Item Group names are limited to 200 characters, so if there is ever an instance where part has many numbers they may exceed the 200 limit.

Another challenge here is that you can't search by Item Group name when adding line items, if that was possible then the group name would act as the Alias name and ensure consistency for reporting. Does anyone know if search fields can be adapted on at Org level?

Look forward to your feedback.

Regards,

Ashley