Best way to manage and track supplier label information in Jira?

Question

Our team is looking for a better way to organize supplier details and label specifications inside Jira. We work with a synthetic labels manufacturer like Formers Paper, and we're trying to keep product information, revisions, and approvals in one place.

Has anyone used Jira or related Atlassian tools to manage documentation for a synthetic labels manufacturer and supplier workflows? Any recommendations or best practices would be appreciated.

Mohammed AlMunsif _ARRIBATT_ · Answer

Hi @Bruce Wilson ,

Welcome to the community! Here are four different ways you can build your supplier and product models to manage them efficiently in Jira:

1) Use JSM Assets (Available in JSM Premium or Enterprise)

As previously mentioned, you can map out your models by creating a set of object schemas and assets for your suppliers and products. You can then link the two together by adding the relevant details as attributes, allowing for a highly customized database.

2) Use JSM Organizations (Available in Customer Service Management, part of the Service Collection)

You can leverage the native Organizations, Products, and Entitlements features as your models. Once set up, you simply call the specific organization or entitlement directly within your Jira Service Management work items.

3) Use Jira Work Item Hierarchy (Available in Jira by default)

You can create a custom work type called "Supplier" at the Epic level and another custom work type called "Product" at the standard story level. Next, create a custom work item linking (e.g., "Related-to-Product/Supplier"). This allows you to link your daily Jira work items to the specific product, which is in turn linked to its parent supplier.

4) Use a Marketplace App (Example: Vendor & Contract Management)

If you want to leverage a purpose-built solution, you can use a dedicated marketplace app. For example, my team built an app called Vendor & Contract Management. You can use the out-of-the-box "Vendor" model to record your synthetic label suppliers, and use the "Contract" model for your products. You then use a custom field of type "Contract" to easily link those products directly to your Jira work items.

In all four cases, I highly recommend keeping the actual workflows and approvals inside your native Jira instance. You can seamlessly link those native work items to whichever model you choose to build above. All four methods provide a reliable way to connect your daily work items to your broader supplier data.

James Gamble · Answer

Hola Bruce,

@Marc -Devoteam-’s Assets suggestion is worth considering if your Atlassian subscription includes it, because suppliers, labeled products, materials, specifications, and even approval states can be modeled as related objects rather than repeating the same supplier data across Jira work items. Atlassian specifically supports using Assets for non-IT resources as well as traditional configuration items.

I’d separate the relatively stable reference data from the work that changes over time. For example, supplier name, contacts, manufacturing capabilities, material type, approved specifications, and current revision could be stored as structured Asset data. At the same time, Jira work items could handle requests for a new label, specification changes, proof review, approval, and production release. That gives you workflow history and accountability without turning every Jira work item into another copy of the supplier record.

For longer specifications, artwork notes, standards, or other documentation that benefits from versioned pages, I’d also consider keeping that material in Confluence and linking the relevant page to the Jira work item. Jira and Confluence are designed to maintain those links, which can be cleaner than putting large documents into custom fields.

The one thing I’d clarify before recommending a specific setup is which Atlassian products and plans you’re using. The question is posted under Jira and doesn’t identify the hosting type or plan, so Assets may or may not be available in your environment.

Thanks,

James

Marc -Devoteam- · Answer

Hi @Bruce Wilson

I suggest that you start using Assets, in an assets schema set you suppliers as objects and you can add related information in attributs.

By use of custom fields of type assets you can access this information and place this on your Jira work items