Learn more about organizing your workspace as we explain the difference between products and objects in Mobius.
In this article, we explain the difference between products and objects. In addition, we introduce the 'Object library'. And we will show you how you can import and export products and objects. The object library complements the current pages we have for Products and Life cycles. Splitting Products and Objects in Mobius helps you to focus on what is important and to organize your work.
Good to know, the Product and Object library both offer the following functionalities:
- ⭐ Add items to favorites to keep them close
- 🏷️ Add tags to organize your view
- 🔍 Use search terms and filter on tags to find what you are looking for
- ✏️ View and edit in the detail panel by clicking ℹ️
- ➕ Create new items or use the Import
- ↔️ Move items from Products to Objects or vice versa
- 🗑️ Remove item from workspace
Watch Emma Thunnissen explain the differences in our tutorial: Products vs Objects.
For a more detailed explanation read the remaining content of this article below.
Products vs Objects
You might wonder, what is the key difference between products and objects? Products are your SKUs, the products you sell, the services you provide, and the value you bring to your customers🎁. They are most likely your primary focus.
With Life cycles, you analyze your product's impact in a broader timeline, with different options for fulfilling their function. Allowing you to make a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Now by introducing Objects as a separate entity, we have cleaned up the previously crowded Product page. Objects are the items you use while creating your Product Footprints or LCAs. They are materials, intermediate products, energy sources, waste items, transport, etc.
We also call them subitems or items. In essence, they are your building blocks, as you can reuse and attach them to different products multiple times. The object library can be seen as your collection of relevant items. You can imagine it to be your toolbox 🧰 with which you create your own Product Footprints and LCAs.
Product overview
Object library
Moving Products and Objects
Are you already using Mobius since the introduction of the object library? In that case we have made an initial split in Products and Objects for you. We have labeled all items you added as favorites as Products, together with items that are in their structure an End tier, i.e. items that are not used in other Products inventories. All other items were marked as Objects. We hope this forms a good starting point and you can continue refining the list of Products and Objects by using the Move option, or by making an import with a list of Products and Objects with the correct label indicated.
Move items:
Using the Import
The import of Products and Objects did not change. You can use the import function on both pages, using the same files. Based on a new column "Label (Product or Object)" the application can recognize where an item belongs.
With the import, you can upload complete product and object inventories, or a long list of products and objects.
We have added several more example files to show you the type of files and structures that you can import.
Example Product inventory.
Note that the Level indicates the placement of an item in the inventory structure, and Column F indicates where this item should appear on the overview pages.
Example list of Objects.
Note that by repeating Level with a 1 you can upload and create multiple items at the same time.
