Specification Search

Specification Search is a powerful lookup tool that helps you find items — or other master data records — based on their technical or commercial specifications rather than their item number or description. Instead of browsing long item lists or relying on free-text searches, you define exactly what you are looking for using structured specification criteria, and the system returns every record that matches.

Feature Overview

When your item catalogue grows, finding the right product quickly becomes a real challenge — especially when multiple items share similar descriptions or when customers ask for products by their technical properties. Specification Search solves this by letting you enter one or more Information Code and Information Value Filter combinations as Search Criteria, then running a Search Match to instantly retrieve all records that meet those requirements. The results are displayed in the Match section, giving you a clear, filtered shortlist to work from. You can also save a set of search criteria as a reusable Template Code so that common searches can be repeated without re-entering every criterion.

Typical Use Cases

As a sales representative handling an inbound enquiry, I want to search for all items with a specific tensile strength and surface finish so that I can quickly identify which products in our catalogue fit the customer's technical requirements without calling the warehouse.
As a purchaser reviewing substitute products, I want to find all items that share the same voltage rating and connector type as a discontinued component so that I can identify valid alternatives and raise a purchase order without delays.
As an inside sales agent processing a repeat order, I want to use a saved Template Code for a customer's standard specification profile so that I can instantly retrieve their preferred products without manually entering the same criteria every time.
As a product manager verifying our assortment, I want to run a specification search across item variants to find every variant that matches a particular colour and dimension combination so that I can confirm coverage and spot gaps in the range.
As a warehouse operative assisting with a customer collection, I want to search by packaging size and weight specification so that I can quickly confirm which item numbers correspond to the goods the customer is collecting, reducing errors at the goods-out desk.

Key Concepts

Specifications (Information Codes and Values) — structured attributes assigned to items and other master data records, such as dimensions, materials, certifications, or technical ratings. These are the foundation of every search.
Search Criteria — the set of specification filters you define for a search. Each criterion combines an Information Code with an Information Value Filter to narrow results.
Match — the list of records returned after running Search Match, showing only the items or master data records that satisfy all of your search criteria.
Template Code — a saved search profile containing predefined criteria. Templates allow you to reuse common searches and share them across users.
Customer Demand — an optional label on a search criterion that links it to a specific customer requirement, making it easier to trace why a particular criterion was included in a search.

Relations to Other Features or Apps

Specifications on Items and Documents — the values that Specification Search queries are maintained directly on item cards and on transaction lines (sales orders, purchase orders, assembly orders, and more) using the Master Data Information app's specification functionality. The richer and more complete your specification data, the more precise your search results will be.
Prefill Templates — the Template Code saved from a specification search is closely related to the Prefill Template feature, which can pre-populate specification fields on new documents. A search template can therefore serve double duty: finding the right item and then pre-filling the document.
Item Specification Search — a complementary free-text search tool (Item Specification Search) that lets users type keywords and find items based on a pre-calculated search string. While Specification Search is structured and criteria-driven, Item Specification Search suits quick, keyword-based lookups.
Master Data Marks — after a search, you can use Add Mark, Remove Mark, and Clear All Marks to tag the matching records directly from the search results, feeding those marks into other downstream processes or analyses.

When This Feature Adds Value

Your item catalogue contains hundreds or thousands of items with overlapping descriptions, and users need a reliable way to distinguish between them by technical properties.
Customers regularly specify requirements in terms of product attributes (dimensions, ratings, materials) rather than item numbers, and your team needs to translate those requirements into a shortlist of matching products quickly.
You have recurring searches for specific product profiles — for example, standard customer configurations or project-specific component requirements — that benefit from being saved as reusable templates.
You want to ensure consistency and accuracy when substituting items, identifying alternatives, or verifying that your assortment covers a required specification range.