What is the codification of materials?

Answer 1

Codification of materials can also be termed as the identification of materials. This deals with uniquely identifying each item in the inventory. It is useful in requisitioning items or the operational departments, in placing of orders by the purchase department, in receiving and expediting the items on receipt from the supplier, in having a unique record of each of the items in stores and in work-in-process

or in warehouse so as to facilitate the control over the inventory levels, and also in having a good control over the loss, deterioration, obsolescence, non-movement,

or pilferage of the items in the inventory. Unique identification of the materials -- whether they are raw materials, work-in-process

or finished goods -- is the first step towards a good materials management system. Without it, the control over inventory by rigorous exercises such as inventory techniques is not very effective. Without it, confusion might prevail in the operational departments. Moreover for a good quality control system a unique identification is a pre-requisite.

There are many other advantages such as variety reduction and standardization etc.

It is amazing to find that in many of our large public and private sector corporations, a considerable amount of inventory lies in the stores or elsewhere because of a confused nomenclature and a lack of proper identification system. Many items in inventory such as pipes, rods, angles, electrical switches, cables, valves, similar equipments, spare parts and even nuts, bolts and such items in inventory are available under different names and codes thereby reducing the actual availability of the item for operational needs. An item may be called a 'nut and bolt' by one section of the organization, whereas another may call it a 'fastener' and because of this there are two separate requisitions made, two separate purchase orders sent out, and two separate inventory levels of the items built into the system. One section might call an item a 'pipe' whereas another might call it a 'conduit' in fact both sections using the same item. This increases the inventory level unnecessarily Prevention of duplication is one of the important benefits of a good materials coding system.

Needless to say, for proper stock taking a good identification is of immense help. Many cases have been observed in large corporations where the concerned people do not even know what materials have been lying in the inventory for a large duration of time. These materials could easily be eliminated from the list, salvage value recovered and the storage space freed. It is also not uncommon to observe that although a material is available with the stores in reality due to duplication of the identity it is often quoted as 'not available' and thus, many production programs suffer with consequent loss to the organization as a whole Proper identification of inventory items helps in simplification of all the processes such as storing, receiving, procuring, manufacturing, warehousing and this results in a multiplicity of benefits to the company. It is a simple concept. If followed it might produce results of proportions equivalent to that of a rigorous application of the inventory control principles with, perhaps much less effort.

Codification by Group Classification:

What do we mean by coding? By this, we give a unique number to a particular item in the inventory. For instance, 010237 might mean a specific item in inventory such as a particular kind of gasket, of a certain material, of a certain shape, and of certain dimensions. Of course, each of these numbers or groups of numbers (within the total identification number) should convey some unique information.

For instance, the following numbers might be used to describe the first classification of materials in an inventory:

01 -- Raw materials
02 -- Purchased components
03 -- Spare parts
04 -- Tools
05 -- Fixtures and Patterns
06 -- Other supplies
07 -- Work-in-process

material
08 -- Finished goods
09 -- Capital Equipment

The next classification group may be based on, say, 'shape' of the items. For instance:
1... Wire 4... Bar
2 ...Tubing 5 ... Sheet
3... Rod 6... Strip

Further classification could be based on the material of construction. For instance:

01... Mild Steel
02 ... Stainless Steel -- 304
03 ... Stainless Steel -- 316
04 ... Stainless Steel --- ...
05 ... Stainless Steel --- ...
06 ... Copper
07 ... Brass
08 ... Bronze
09 ... Aluminum
10 ... Special alloy
11 ... PVC
12 ... Polypropylene

To this, one may add further classifications in terms of the composition, use, characteristics, etc. For instance, for metals we could have a group of classification as follows:

01 ... Cold rolled,
02 ... Tempered
03 ... Normalized
04 ... Annealed,
05 ... Hardened etc

If the material is a wire, then the next group of classification could be in terms of the 'use' characteristics such as:

01 ... 5 amps
02 ... 15 amps
03 ... 25 amps
Thus, an item could be coded as:

08 1 06 03 01
This nine digit code uniquely identifies the item as a 'Finished' Product, Wire made of copper, Normalized for 5 amps performance.

Codification as done above is called Codification by group classification where the identification is done by reserving a number of characters (spaces) for each 'group' of classification. In each group the relevant 'details are sequentially numbered.