Glossary
Understanding the basic terminology is a good start when embarking on a data clean up project. Everyone with access to edit a material master should understand the concepts.

Noun

The noun is used to specify the item. The easiest way to identify the noun is to imagine picking the item up and saying this is a ..... for example valve, pump, o-ring, belt. Describing things accurately is often counter-intuitive. Whilst spoken English tends to put the noun towards the end of a sentence, best practice is to start the description with the noun. The pressure gauge in this picture would therefore be described as a GAUGE.

modifier

Modifiers are used in conjunction with a noun to identify the item more precisely. The picture shows a banana plug. In this case, the modifier is BANANA. In a material master the description would begin PLUG BANANA.

Attribute

Attributes are used to further describe items. A noun modifier pair specifies what the item is. Each noun modifier pair has a set of attributes that are used to refine the description. For example, what the item is made of would be an attribute label MATERIAL with a number of appropriate values associated with the label such as copper, brass or tin. Some attributes require a unit of measure for example LENGTH values would then be numeric followed by a unit of measure like mm, cm or m. In the long description this could be displayed as LENGTH: 25mm.

Units of Measure

There are several types of units of measure that crop up within a material master. You may buy a box comtaining 12 items, the purchase unit being a BOX and then issue items individually with a base unit of EACH. The description may contain an assortment units of measure to specify the temperature, weight, dimensions or pressure rating. Limiting the number of base units is a sensible precaution - once set they are rediculously hard to change.
Other units of measure that are sometimes confused with base units of measure are attribute units of measure that are used to specify values in descriptions.

Abbreviations

Often the amount of information you need to convey exceeds the space available. This involves prioritising how items are described and when appropriate using abbreviations. Attempts should be made to avoid abbreviating the noun, however there are exceptions to every rule. A printed circuit board is commonly known as a PCB. It is essential that abbreviations are applied consistently otherwise data is held in double standards and duplicates are bound to creep in.

Synonyms

There is always more than one way to describe the same item. Consistency is the key to success. Subject matter experts are incredibly useful. They will, for example, tell you that a spade is for digging and a shovel is for shovelling! That a toilet is sometimes called a WC, Water Closet or a Lavatory. They will guide the decision making process picking the best words to consistently describe items.
Synonyms also occur when looking at the different options for selecting the best abbreviation, for example, a valve can be abbreviated as V/V, VLV, VV and VLVE.