About Product Groups

A product group comprises a number of products with the same basic characteristics. Together, stages and product groups form a macro-structure (and process steps and products form a corresponding micro-structure) for the product model.

There are four product group types:

• End products are the main product of an end product stage. They cannot be used as inflow products or as by-products. End items can be defined for an end product.
• Coupled products are the main product of a coupled stage. They are semi-finished products and are stored in critical resources (tanks). They can be used as inflow products, but not as by-products.
• Decoupled products are the main product of a process step in a decoupled stage stored in non-critical resources (i.e., inventory points). Decoupled products can be used as inflow products or by-products.
• Materials are produced in decoupled stages and form inflow to end, coupled and decoupled stages. This product type is usually used for basic ingredients kept in stock.

You can rename product groups or a subset of product groups.