How to Identify Duplicate Materials in Your ERP — A Three-Tier Approach

Why Duplicates Are So Costly

A duplicate material in your ERP is not just a cosmetic problem. When the same bearing appears under three different material numbers, your inventory system shows three separate stock balances. Procurement raises separate purchase orders. The result is over-purchasing, excess stock and incorrect reorder calculations.

Tier 1: Exact Match

The simplest duplicates share identical or near-identical descriptions after normalisation (removing punctuation, standardising spacing and case). These are the easiest to identify and the highest-confidence candidates for consolidation.

Tier 2: Likely Duplicate

Many duplicates differ in wording but describe the same item. 'BEARING, DEEP GROOVE BALL, 6205, 25×52×15mm' and 'Ball Brg 6205 SKF' may both refer to the same component. Attribute-level matching identifies these with high confidence.

Tier 3: Requires Technical Review

Some potential duplicates require a technical decision. Two seals of the same type and size but different materials may or may not be interchangeable depending on the application. These are flagged for engineering or maintenance review — not assumed to be duplicates.

What to Do After Identification

Identification is only the first step. Before any records are merged or retired in the ERP, open purchase orders, stock balances and historical transactions must be reviewed. VCode provides the duplicate report and recommends which record to retain; your team makes the final decision.