Item Templates

Item Templates
Some people refer to these as the product family setup features. If not careful-you might end up with many items you never use. 

The process impacts are huge.  The ability to work with your suppliers; higher threats of abuse based on the obvious maturity in your business processes. 


Purpose of item templates in Real World stakeholders views
To enable item logic re-use and generic standards to meet the criteria of classification systems consistently.

Using Quantified Measurement Systems

• In volume driven organizations you will see the item described in the item identifier name or Product ID
• Think for a moment about the way you have a dollar bill
• If every-time you put the dollar in your pocket you were unable to see it except in a handful of pennies.  Every time you wanted a dollar from your pocket book or wallet a hundred pennies would be the reality for you.  
• As a result the many steps and touches become higher threats for defects.  
• Measuring and using a percentage has simply taken the dollar and broken it into 100 times the threat.  
• You had a single defect in a way you could address
• You know have a hundred that say your okay and no one will address because it's far too complex. 
• Think of the way more impacts any person in this analogy
• You have to place each penny into a piggy bank; many times I drop a few.
• You have to count each penny individually; I often get distracted and have to restart again.  
• If every penny was to be placed into 100 banks; you would have the same problem with higher effort.  
• Often people use this approach without revealing that they could have had a single defect without 100 movements into many piggy banks.  
• Many people think this approach makes sense. 

 Qualified measurement systems

• Design with the abstraction of design patterns; before performing root cause to understand the norms try not to assume that the experts have the ability to see beyond their own work flows
• Especially if they are on the receiving end of the penny scenario.  
• Understand the object design patterns; 
• Think of a pivot table; large amounts of data can become larger simply by placing data in a certain position.
• Use the pivot table to reduce the many into common patterns.
• The template isn't changing the value in the field of the template change.
• What patterns exist in technology offers?
• Apply high, medium, and low indicators to assign your external risk reporting assignment in the template of your items.  
• Try one per class based on your SEC reporting.  
• One for cost and one for revenue. 
• High
• New-High
• aka New Business Models
• aka Competitive Advantage
• aka Higher Resource Skills
• aka Higher risk
• aka not fitting in your current system
• aka intellectual property 
• aka high controls
• aka higher touches fewer outside the norm
• Medium 
• Advanced - Medium
• aka mature in market with increasing value
• aka harder to ship complete
• aka higher cost
• aka begins to shift to channels in program or a single offer special training.
• Low 
• Core/Foundation - Low

 In closing let's see how this template applied to our items in an offer translates into our highway analogy.  

• High - Slow lane on the highway
• Medium - Middle lane on the highway
• Low-fast lane or commuter lane with partners

Any organization anywhere in the world.