Clean your house before you move—why ERP success starts with SKU discipline.
When a glass, ceramics, or refractories distributor decides to implement a new ERP system, it often signals a major investment in operational excellence. But all too often, companies rush into deployment with a messy, bloated SKU database—and take the chaos with them.
ERP systems are only as good as the data fed into them. If your current system holds 12,000 SKUs—half of which haven’t moved in 18 months—then migrating that mess to a new platform only institutionalizes the bloat. This is why smart distributors begin the SKU consolidation process before they hit “Go” on ERP.
Here’s how to do it.
Start with Data Hygiene
Pull a full extract of all active SKUs. That includes everything: glass panels, ceramic rollers, refractory castables, corner blocks, inserts—down to the oddball items you haven’t sold since 2021. Clean out duplicates, inconsistently labeled items, and mismatched units of measure (e.g., square feet vs. pieces).
Create data standards for:
Naming conventions (clear, float, tint, low-E, etc.)
Dimensional formatting (e.g., 48×96 vs. 4×8)
Category and subcategory tags
Consistent formatting ensures that once you start the migration process, SKUs are searchable, filterable, and logically grouped.
Identify Redundant and Obsolete SKUs
Don’t wait for the ERP to highlight redundancies—your team should tackle this manually, with support from sales and operations. For example:
Are you stocking four near-identical castable refractories that differ only by minor chemistry or packaging?
Do you have three types of ceramic tube fittings serving the same thermal range and client base?
Flag and categorize SKUs as Keep, Retire, or Merge. This lets you build a “go-forward” SKU catalog that trims 15–30% of deadweight before Day One in the new system.
Involve Customer-Facing Teams
Sales reps often have tribal knowledge about which SKUs were customer-specific or promotional. Ask them: “Which of these items do you think are critical vs. replaceable?” Doing this before ERP rollout reduces resistance later when those SKUs disappear.
Map Product Hierarchies Thoughtfully
ERP systems thrive on hierarchy—families, classes, attributes. Plan your hierarchy with SKU rationalization in mind:
Group low-iron glass variants under a parent SKU
Roll up ceramic shapes under standard form factors (tubes, crucibles, plates)
Nest refractory bricks by composition, then shape
The better your hierarchy, the faster your system delivers insights like which product classes are performing vs. stagnating.
Build Governance into the Rollout
Once the ERP goes live, set firm policies on SKU creation. Require justification for every new SKU: is it for a new market, a custom job, or a genuine capability gap? If not, push back. This avoids slipping back into bloat just months after the cleanup.
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An ERP transition is the perfect opportunity to reset your SKU strategy—but only if you do the cleanup beforehand. For distributors in the glass, ceramics, and refractories space, preemptive SKU consolidation reduces system complexity, eases training, and prevents waste. ERP success doesn’t begin at go-live. It begins with what you choose to bring with you—and what you leave behind.
