SKU sprawl
Ten thousand records that are really forty products. The tree keeps the forty and generates the rest.
The SKU engine
Born in apparel. Built for anything.
Apparel is the hardest SKU problem there is. Weavwork standardises it as a tree: one base item branches through fabric, components, decoration and colour, and every combination resolves to one standard code. One product stays one product, however deep it branches.
Where it sits
One chain, this link.
Every flow in Weavwork is a view of the same connected record — so nothing here is a module bolted on beside the others.
- StyleSKU tree · BOM
- Samplerounds · specs
- Ordergrid · price list
- Production managementplan · WIP · QC
- Shipmentvessel · ETA
- Warehousepick · pack · count
- Accountinginvoices · bills
The style is the root: every sample, order, run and shipment below it inherits what the tree already decided. It is also the one step in the chain where nothing posts — a new colour or a new fit costs itself from the bill of materials, but no money moves until someone makes or sells one.
How it runs
Step by step, on one record.
- 01Start at the base item
A t-shirt is a t-shirt once. The pattern, the tech pack and the base specification live on the base item, and everything below it inherits them.
- 02Branch, don’t duplicate
Fit, then fabric, then components, then decoration, then colour: regular block, bamboo cotton, chest pocket, embroidery, navy. Each level is a choice, not a new product typed from scratch. The choices only appear in create product — a slim fit or a new fabric for one customer is a branch, not a second product.
- 03Every leaf is one code
Each path through the tree resolves to a single standard code — WW-0520-REG-BAM-PKT-EMB-NVY-M — that the order grid, the factory, the 3PL and your Shopify store all agree on.
- 04Costing and sizes ride along
The bill of materials builds up the tree, so every leaf carries its landed cost and margin, and sizes apply as a grid at order time rather than as thousands of near-duplicate records.
A week with it
What it looks like on a Wednesday.
Three days from one week, on the sample data that runs through this site.
Monday
A new fabric
Organic cotton 200 gsm is approved for the Bamboo Tee. It joins the fabric branch as an option; every leaf below it costs itself from the bill of materials.
Wednesday
Sixty leaves, one product
Sales key an order for the new fabric as a grid — colours across, sizes down — and every cell resolves to a standard code the factory and the 3PL read the same way.
Friday
The store agrees
The base item is the Shopify product; its leaves are the variants. A colour added on Wednesday is live on the store by Friday, with the same code on the pick slip.
What it removes
The jobs that stop existing.
Costing that lags the product
A new colour or a new trim costs itself from the bill of materials the moment it is added.
Codes nobody can read
A code is a path through the tree, so anyone can read the fabric, the pocket, the embroidery and the colour off it.
Who works in it
The same record, three seats.
Design and technical
One product master per style, with approved options per branch instead of free text.
Sales
Codes anyone can read — the fabric, the pocket, the embroidery and the colour are the code.
Finance
Landed cost and margin per leaf and per factory, from the bill of materials, as soon as a branch is added.
Questions
The ones we get asked.
We are not in apparel — does the tree still fit?
Yes. The levels are yours to name. Material, component, finish, colour — or whatever your product actually splits by.
What happens to our existing codes?
They are mapped into the tree during migration and kept as aliases, so old paperwork still resolves to the right product.
How does it map to Shopify?
Leaves become Shopify variants and the base item becomes the product, so the store and the system never disagree about what a thing is.
Can a product have a different cost per factory?
Yes. Costing is per leaf and per source, so the same navy tee made in two places carries two landed costs.
Keep going
Two more flows, and the whole product.
See it on your own range.
A 30-minute demo, run on your products and your workflow. No slides.
Or write to hello@weavwork.com