MANSOQ Inventory
Product Knowledge
Product Knowledge is the master definition of a thing your facility stocks — a medication, a nutritional product, or a consumable — described once so every batch, shelf, and order can point back to it. It is the catalogue's source of truth for…
3.1 · versioned documentation · 4 min read
Product Knowledge is the master definition of a thing your facility stocks — a medication, a nutritional product, or a consumable — described once so every batch, shelf, and order can point back to it. It is the catalogue's source of truth for what a product is, kept separate from the physical units on hand.
What it represents
Product Knowledge answers a single question: what is this product? It is the definition, not the stock. A typical entry records:
- Identity — a primary name, alternate or trade names, and a product code
- Type — whether it is a medication, a nutritional product, or a consumable
- Unit — how the product is measured and counted (tablets, mL, mg, and so on)
- Make-up — for medications, the form, routes, and ingredients with their strengths; for nutritional products, the nutrient content
- Handling — how to store it and how long it stays usable
Product Knowledge is not the same as a Product or an Inventory Item. Knowledge is the abstract definition (what "Paracetamol 500 mg tablet" is); a Product is a concrete stockable form of it; an Inventory Item is the physical quantity sitting in a particular location. One Knowledge entry underpins many Products and countless Inventory Items — define it once, reuse it everywhere.
In MANSOQ's FHIR-aligned model, Product Knowledge draws on the MedicationKnowledge and NutritionProduct resources — the reference definitions of a substance, kept distinct from the resources that track physical stock and dispensing.
Types
A product's type decides what it means and which details matter:
- Medication — a drug, with a dosage form, routes, ingredients, and characteristics like shape, colour, or imprint
- Nutritional product — feeds and supplements, described by their nutrient content
- Consumable — supplies that are used up but are neither drug nor food (gloves, syringes, dressings)
Scope
A Knowledge entry lives at one of two levels:
- Instance-level — shared across the whole deployment, so common drugs and supplies are defined once for everyone
- Facility-scoped — owned by a single facility, for items local to one site
This lets a deployment maintain a shared formulary while individual facilities add their own entries without polluting the global catalogue.
Lifecycle
draft → active → retired
- draft — being prepared; not yet ready for general use
- active — approved and available to be stocked and ordered against
- retired — withdrawn from use; kept for history but not offered for new stock
Retiring a definition does not erase it — past records that referenced it stay intact and auditable.
How it connects
- Product — every Product references exactly one Product Knowledge entry for its definition
- Inventory Item — physical Inventory Items trace back through their Product to this definition
- Supply requests and deliveries — what gets ordered and moved between locations is ultimately a quantity of a known product
- Medication orders — when a clinician prescribes, the drug being prescribed is anchored in this catalogue
Permissions
Access to Product Knowledge is governed at the facility level.
| Permission | Description | System Roles |
|---|---|---|
can_write_product_knowledge |
Create and update facility-scoped product knowledge definitions | Facility Admin, Admin |
can_read_product_knowledge |
View product knowledge definitions in a facility | Facility Admin, Administrator, Admin, Staff, Doctor, Nurse, Volunteer, Pharmacist |
Roles are granted through a user's organization, facility, or patient memberships, and permissions cascade down the organization tree — a role held higher up applies to the facilities and resources beneath it.
Related
- Reference: Product Knowledge (technical)
- Concept: Product
- Concept: Inventory Item
Source evidence
References are pinned to the private MANSOQ source repository. Repository access is required to open these links.