Bouquet Product Management

First, this article explains why- and how Unosof structures bouquet categories and recipes for flowers and materials, and then we explain how to manage those.

To get a deeper- and better understanding of the complexity that bouquet management holds, we strongly recommend you to read the manual of Manage Products first, before stepping into Bouquet Management.

Bouqetteria Recipe Management

Each Bouqetteria, has a production line in where certain stages can be defined. Each stage has its own team of people, that follow independent process instructions.

For instance:

Bouquet Flower Recipe

The team who build bouquets, need to know what flowers to use.

Bouquet Bunch Packing Material Recipe

The team who decorates the bouquet, need to know the bunch packing materials

Bouquet Box Decoration Packing Material Recipe

The team who pack the bouquet in the box, need to know the box packing materials.

Bouquet Box Protection Material Recipe

The team who pack the box and straps it, need to know if any additional shipping condition materials need to be added to protect the product with, we call that a Box Protection recipe.

Bouquet Spec-sheet

All the recipes together, form Bouquet Spec-Sheet.

These recipes serve as a communication channel between the commercial team and the post-harvest. To structure the bouqetteria with transparency and efficiency, UNOSOF requires to define and build the following recipes:

1) Bouquet Bunch SKUs: This type of SKU will describe the flower inputs of a bouquet's bunch. It has a compound recipe with the flower.

2) Bunch Material SKUs: These SKUs represent all material products that are needed to complete a bouquet bunch, but the stem flowers.

3) Box Material SKUs: These refer to all the complementary products, but the bouquet.

4) Protection Materials SKUs: Material to help to protect the bouquets that are within a box. Generally, it is a paper that separates each bouquet and prevents them from any damage.

Define, Structure, and Build Recipes.

The first step to define and structure the spec-sheets used in the bouquetteria is to create a category tree where all the bouquet ingredients are placed.

In order to facilitate the process of building recipes, it is vital to organize the different products (ingredients) that form a recipe in a clear, logic, and well-structured category table.

A category table is a summary of all the products that are registered in Unosof. Each category includes a specific type of product such as a SKU, variety, specie, etc.

1) Category Management

Structure the Category Table

Organizing your SKUs, Varieties, and Materials well, we strongly recommend first building up your category table.

To build the category table, we need to define what type of products will be specified in the spec-sheet. Once we have defined the level of complexity and detail, we need to group them into different categories. Below we can find an example of a category tree:

Manage Categories

To manage (create and modify) your category table, please go to System Registry. Learn more.

However, in order to create and setup your category table well, we strongly recommend involving UNOSOF.

WARNING: Deleting Categories can have great un-restorable consequences.

SKUs vs Varieties

From this table, we can see that category three is primarily divided into two types of categories: SKUs and Varieties.

As we know from product creation, we always need to define a variety first and then create an SKU that will be assigned a variety. Hence, it is advisable to create different categories for these different product layers. The picture below depicts the difference between a variety and an SKU.

Create Categories

The module to create categories is called System Registry

System Admin / System Registry

Go to SystemAdmin module.
Choose the option System Registry
From the dropdown menu click on COM.CULTIVISTA_PRODUCTS
Click on the blue button New Category, and the following form will open up:

-Translation English, Translation Spanish, and Translation French should be filled in with the same category name.

-Event Handler: Needs to be set as None.

-Parent Category: This field is very important to set correctly, as it determines the number of layers that our category tree will have.

Below you can see an example of the category creation process for a bouquet (from the category tree shown above).

When creating the category BOUQUETS we must assign FLOWER SKU as the parent category.

When creating the category ROUND BOUQUETS we must assign BOUQUETS as the parent category.

When creating the category BQT ROUND PLUS we must assign ROUND BOUQUETS as the parent category, and so on.

After creating all the categories needed, the last step is to hit the button Rebuild System Registry located on the upper left side of the window.

Once all the categories are in place, the next step for building a bouquet recipe is to create the products and place them into the right categories. This process is explained next.

2) Create the Species

There are two types of species to be created, the real species which are the flower species, and the non-real ones for bouquet product management.

The following non-real species need to be created.

A species BOUQUETS: it will contain all the varieties of bouquets.
A species MATERIALS: containing all varieties of the materials for the final product, but the flower varieties.

The species are always created internally via database only. If you need to create a new specie please contact the Unosof team.

3) Create the Bouquet SKUs

Go: Home / Production / Product Management / Manage Products

To create a Bouquet SKU, click on the blue button that says New Bouquet.

A Product Spec Sheet will appear where all the information regarding the bouquet we wish to create needs to be entered.

The Product Spec tab needs to be filled out with the following fields:

Status: Active or Inactive

Commercial: This is the commercial name that will appear on the bunch sticker and the sales page.

Color (BQT): This is the primary color of the bouquet.

Color: This is the general color of the bouquet.

Species: We need to place them into the bouquet specie if we want to generate specifically designed commercial invoices with a detailed description of the species inside a bouquet.

Species SRI: Depending on the legislation, this field may have other specifications than the field Species. Consult with the Unosof team for guidance on this field.

Category: Here is where we choose the categories previously created in System Registry.

Length: This field refers to the length of the Bouquet.

Package: Here we define the general package of the bouquet.

Quantity: The number of stems this bouquet contains.

Avg. Process Time (Minutes): The approximate time it takes for this bouquet to be completed.

For Resale?: Needs to be set as yes, if we want to commercialize it.

It is critical to place the products we create into the right category for flawless bouquet management.

For instance, if we are creating the SKU BQT RND. MINI PLUS WONDER, we need to set the category and place them in the category BQT ROUND PLUS,

Once you have entered all the information on every field, click on the SAVE button.

The Compound: Can be entered in the main manage products table in the column called Compound

The compound can also be entered from the product form as well.

4) Create Recipes.

In the second tab of the product form, we find the recipe area, where we provide a detailed description of what we want to have in our bouquet.

Note that the compound recipe cannot be added if the previous form is not saved first.

There are two ways to create a recipe in this tab.

1) Create a Recipe from Scratch

-Choose the option NEW RECIPE in the Search Recipes bar

-Enter the name of the Recipe

-Add the products that will compose the bouquet by selecting from the dropdown menu Product, next to that, in the Process column you can enter any specific instruction regarding this product by adding tags. For instance, if you need one of the leaves to be waxed, you can add the word WAX as a tag.

-Enter the length, the quantity, and, if needed, the cost of such a product.

The field COST allows us to have a calculated total cost per bouquet.

-Click on the green button (+) to add the product.

2) Use an existing recipe and modify it

By using this option, we can add or edit products/instructions from an existing recipe. This saves time especially if we are creating a bouquet that already exists but that has minor modifications.

After adding the products and specifications, click on the blue button SAVE.

GOAL: Use 1 SKU, for a bouquet. Every substitute that has been used inside a bouquet is a recipe. Multiple recipes can get created and assigned to the same SKU. In that way, commercially speaking, we sell one and the same bouquet. However, in the bunching process, we can use multiple flower recipes to fulfill the order (demand).

To SAVE a new recipe we click on SAVE after entering the products in the product specification section.

To SET an existing recipe we click on Set Comp after choosing from the Search Recipe menu.

To SET a new recipe we click on Set Comp after entering all the product details in the product specification section.