Attribute Schema Library
Attribute schemaindustrial MRO

Shop Supplies Attributes (Industrial MRO)

Shop supplies is the consumables bucket a maintenance operation burns through and rarely engineers: wipers and shop towels, sorbents and spill control, aerosol chemicals (brake parts cleaner, degreaser, penetrating oil), hand cleaners, tapes, cable ties, marking paint, funnels and drain pans. Buyers are maintenance supervisors, tool crib attendants, fleet shop managers, and the indirect-spend buyer who owns the vending contract.

The data is hard because the category is a merchandising bucket, not a product family. A DRC wiper, a meltblown polypropylene pad, and a 20 oz aerosol share a shelf and nothing else: no common physics, no manufacturer taxonomy, no overlapping specs.

The specs that decide the purchase are not in a spec table. Flash point, VOC content, UN number, and hazard class live in the SDS. NSF category and registration number live on a one-page NSF letter. Absorbency per package lives on a sell sheet. And the aerosol carries two numbers, container size and net fill weight, that suppliers send interchangeably in a field called oz.

Core

Every SKU needs these. Without them the record is not a product, it is a row.

Product Type
enum
Sorbent Pad

Anchors every downstream filter. A sorbent pad and a shop towel sit in the same bucket and share no comparable spec.

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
identifier
05089

The reorder key. The tool crib quotes the number stamped on the can or the case, never your internal SKU.

GTIN-14 / UPC
identifier
00078254050898

Required to list on Amazon Business and to reconcile vending dispense records against receipts.

Selling Unit of Measure
enum
CS

Decides what the buyer gets for the price shown. cXML and CIF catalogs accept only coded UNUOM values, not free-text 'case'.

Pack Breakdown (Inner / Outer)
text
200 sheets/BX, 12 BX/CS

Buyers compare cost per wipe and cost per pad, not cost per case. Inner count varies line to line inside one brand.

Container Size
number · fl oz
20 fl oz

The can size on the shelf, and what decides flammable-cabinet and vending-coil fit. Not the same as what's in it.

Item Dimensions (Sheet / Pad Size)
text · in
15 in x 19 in

Sheet and pad size drive coverage per unit and whether a refill fits the dispenser already mounted on the wall.

Country of Origin
identifier
US

Sets HTS treatment and Buy American eligibility on government, utility, and transit contracts.

UNSPSC Code
identifier
47131502 (cleaning cloths or wipes)

Punchout and CIF catalogs carry an SPSC code per line. Without it the item never classifies in Ariba or Coupa.

Differentiating

What buyers actually compare on. This is where catalogs win or lose the filter.

Material
enum
Polypropylene meltblown

Decides lint, absorbency, and solvent resistance. DRC, hydroentangled, and meltblown polypropylene are not substitutes.

Color
enum
Gray

In sorbents the color is the spec: gray is universal, white is oil-only, yellow is hazmat. Shops order by color.

Fluids Absorbed
enum
Universal

Oil-only sorbents shed water and float; universal takes both. The wrong class means the spill doesn't get picked up.

Volume Absorbed per Package
number · gal
26 gal

The only honest way to compare sorbent packages. Pad count and pad size say nothing about capacity.

Sorbent Weight
enum
Medium

Light, medium, heavy sets tear strength and capacity per pad. Heavy pads survive being dragged under a machine.

Flash Point
number · °F
-4 °F

Decides flammable-liquid storage, cabinet rating, and whether a shop can use it anywhere near hot work.

Chlorinated Formula
boolean
No

Chlorinated brake cleaner near welding arcs is a known hazard. Many shops ban it outright and need to filter it out.

Compliance & identifiers

Standards, regulatory data, and the identifiers channels reject you for missing.

VOC Content
number · g/L
25 g/L

SCAQMD Rule 1171 caps solvent cleaning operations at 25 g/L. Buyers in regulated districts need the number, not a claim.

NSF Nonfood Compound Category & Reg. No.
identifier
H1, Reg. No. 132202

Food and beverage plants buy only registered compounds: H1 incidental contact, H2 no contact, K1 solvent cleaner.

The fields that aren't in the schema at all

What most shop supplies catalogs are missing.

The table above is the schema most catalogs already have. These are the attributes that usually aren't in it — each one surfaced by a signal from the live market rather than by an audit of what's already there. This is what Anglera's Schema Foundry does on a real catalog, in this category.

Competitor signal
+ Net Fill Weight

Distributor aerosol titles read 'Degreaser, Size 20 oz., 14 oz.' — the can size and the fill are both jammed into the title string because there is only one numeric field behind it.

Buyers pricing cost per ounce compare a 20 oz can against a 14 oz fill. The RFQ math is wrong and the line is lost, or won at the wrong margin.

Supplier signal
+ UN Number / DOT Hazard Class / Packing Group

Aerosols move as UN1950. ORM-D was phased out on Jan 1, 2021 and replaced by Limited Quantity, yet many catalog records still carry a legacy ORM-D flag or nothing at all.

Marketplace listings reject without SDS section 14 data. Ground shipments get reclassified at the dock and the hazmat fee lands on the wrong side of the quote.

Supplier signal
+ NFPA 30B Aerosol Level

Level 1/2/3 follows from heat of combustion on the manufacturer's SDS or TDS (≤20 kJ/g, ≤30 kJ/g, above). EHS buyers ask for it by name; no distributor filter rail exposes it.

Warehouse racking and fire-marshal questions can't be answered from the catalog. Aerosol pallets get bounced and plant RFQs go to whoever can answer.

Search signal
+ VOC Regulatory Jurisdiction

Manufacturers put '50 State VOC Compliant' and 'SCAQMD Rule 1171 Compliant' in the product title because there is nowhere else to put it. No one exposes it as a filter.

A non-compliant formula ships into a regulated district. The shop can't legally use it, the case comes back, and the account re-sources the line.

Review signal
+ Dispenser / Refill Compatibility

Wiper refill reviews are dominated by 'the roll doesn't fit our dispenser'. The dispenser model a refill mates to sits on the sell sheet, never on the item record.

Returns on a low-margin consumable, and the dispenser already mounted on the wall goes idle until someone tracks down the right roll.

How Schema Foundry finds these

Messy in, governed out.

The same value, spelled every way industrial MRO suppliers spell it. A filter only works once they agree.

Fluids Absorbed
UniversalGrayGreyMaintenanceAll LiquidsMRO Plus
Universal

Color is the trade shorthand — gray universal, white oil-only, yellow hazmat — so suppliers send a color where the fluid class belongs.

Container Size / Net Fill Weight
20 oz20 oz.14 wt ozSize 20 oz., 14 oz.20oz aerosol20 fl oz
Container Size 20 fl oz; Net Fill 14 oz

Fluid ounces and weight ounces both collapse to 'oz'. A 20 oz brake cleaner can holds 14 wt oz of product. Both numbers are real.

VOC Content
<45% VOC9.5%25 g/LLow VOCUltra Low VOC50 State
25 g/L (SCAQMD Rule 1171)

Percent by weight and g/L don't interconvert without density, and 'Low VOC' carries no number a district inspector will accept.

Selling Unit of Measure
CaseCSCAcs.CSE12/CS
CS

UNUOM reserves CS for case, and cXML and CIF reject free text. Suppliers also send CA, which is not the case code.

What buyers ask

Every one of these should be answerable from the attributes above. If it isn't, that's a gap.

  • Is this the 50-state formula or the SCAQMD one? I can't shelf the other in Fontana.
  • The can says 20 oz — how much product is actually in it?
  • How many boxes are in a case, and what's my cost per wipe?
  • Will the gray pads pick up coolant, or do I need the yellow ones?
  • Is it H1 registered? It's going in the bottling hall.
  • Is this chlorinated? We weld in that bay.
  • Does this refill fit the dispenser we already have mounted?
  • Can it ship ground as limited quantity, or am I paying a hazmat fee?

What channels require

The same SKU, different mandatory fields per destination.

Distributor's own site and on-site search
Product TypeFluids AbsorbedVolume Absorbed per PackageContainer SizeMaterialPack Breakdown
Amazon Business
GTIN-14 / UPCMPNSDS in 16-section GHS formatUN Number, Hazard Class, Packing GroupFlash Point (°C)Country of Origin
Ariba / Coupa punchout and CIF catalog
Supplier Part IDManufacturer Part IDUNSPSC (SPSC Code)Unit of Measure (UNUOM)Unit PriceLead Time
Industrial vending (KeepStock, CribMaster)
Selling Unit of MeasurePack BreakdownItem DimensionsProduct TypeMPN

Shop Supplies data, in practice

What actually belongs in Shop Supplies?

It's a merchandising bucket, not a product family. In practice it holds wipers and shop towels, sorbents and spill control, aerosol chemicals (brake parts cleaner, degreaser, contact cleaner, penetrating oil), hand cleaners and degreasers, tapes, cable ties, marking paint and layout fluid, plus the shop hardware around them: funnels, drain pans, fender covers, oil dry. Plenty of distributors never use the label at all. Grainger files sorbents under Safety > Sorbents & Spill Control and shop towels under Cleaning & Janitorial. The bucket describes a buying pattern, which is why no manufacturer taxonomy maps to it cleanly.

Should Shop Supplies be one schema or several?

Several, sharing a core. The identifiers, pack structure, and channel fields (MPN, GTIN, selling UOM, pack breakdown, UNSPSC, country of origin) apply to every SKU. Past that the families diverge completely: sorbents need Fluids Absorbed, Volume Absorbed per Package, Sorbent Weight; wipers need Material, Sheet Size, Sheet Count, dispenser fit; aerosols need Container Size, Net Fill Weight, Flash Point, VOC Content, UN Number, NFPA 30B level. A single flat schema forces one family's fields onto the others and fills with nulls, which is why the filter rail ends up collapsing to Brand and Price.

Why do container size and net fill weight both appear in aerosol titles?

Because they're different numbers and only one field exists to hold them. A 20 oz aerosol can is filled with roughly 14 weight-ounces of product; the rest is propellant and headspace. Manufacturers spec the fill (CRC sells Brakleen as '14 wt oz'), while the can size is what the buyer sees on the shelf. Distributor titles end up reading 'Degreaser, Size 20 oz., 14 oz.' Carry both fields separately. Cost-per-ounce comparison, flammable-cabinet capacity math, and vending coil sizing each need a different one of the two.

Where does the compliance data for this category actually live?

Not in a spec table. Flash point, VOC content, UN number, hazard class, and packing group are in the SDS, sections 9 and 14. Heat of combustion, which sets the NFPA 30B aerosol level (Level 1 ≤20 kJ/g, Level 2 ≤30 kJ/g, Level 3 above), comes from the manufacturer's technical data or a fire-test report. NSF category and registration number sit on a one-page NSF letter, not the label. VOC jurisdiction (50-state, SCAQMD Rule 1171, OTC) usually appears only in the product name. Every one of these is a PDF, which is why the fields stay empty in the PIM.

More industrial MRO schemas

AbrasivesCordless Power ToolsHand ToolsIndustrial LubricantsMaterial Handling Carts

Run this against your own shop supplies.

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