What Is an Article Category? What Is an Article? And What’s the Difference?

Note: In order to use any of the features in the Quality Management chapter, you will need to have access to the Quality Management module. You can reach us out at maurice.belpaire@azumuta.com to learn more.

What Is an Article Category?

In Azumuta, an article category is a platform to organize work instructions under the Quality Management module. An article category is equivalent to a folder in other modules.

However, unlike a folder, an article category can do so much more than just hosting work instructions. It has many other additional uses, such as:

• You can use an article category as a basis to create and manage articles
• You can use an article category as a basis to create product orders
• You can attach Docx reports to an article category

What Is an Article?

In Azumuta, an article is a derivative of an article category. Just like an article category, an article can also be used as the basis for creating a product order.

Creating a product order based on an article is highly recommended, as all work instructions, variants, and parameters associated with that product order are automatically pre-configured to match that article.

Article Category vs Article: What’s the Difference?

At the two guide sections above, we’ve explained the definitions of both terms. In here, we will highlight the difference between the two.

In the Quality Management module, there’s a hierarchy of items. Here’s the list, from the highest to the lowest:

1. Article category
2. Article
3. Product order

An article is made based on an article category. Meanwhile, a product order is made based on an article. A product order can also be made based on an article category, but we don’t recommend it, as you’ll have to manually configure the product order’s’ variants and parameters.

In real-life factories, this is how these 3 items are often assigned for:

An article category: Represents a product category

An article: Represents a product model/type

Product order: Represents an individual product that will be sold to the customer

Of course, the classification above doesn’t always apply in all factories. It all depends on the product diversity of that factory. A factory that only produces one type of product or a small variation of products might even only have one or a few article categories and have no articles at all.

Nonetheless, the hierarchy that we wrote above is a good benchmark that can be applied in any factory, regardless of the industry

For example, let’s say that you’re working as a manager in a factory that produces AzuWash washing machines. Here’s what the hierarchy will typically be like:

1. The article category: AzuWash Washing Machine
2. The article: AzuWash A8PB (an AzuWash washing machine with an 8kg capacity and has the type “B” plug)
3. The product order: AzuWash A8PB 0010 (3 units of AzuWash A8PB washing machine that were ordered by ElectroMart – a fictional electronics store in Brussels)