Classification Systems

Horse in Striped Pajamas

No, that’s not what it is at all 
That's an animal people call a zebra
  I see, but it still looks like a horse in striped pajamas to me

There is no single best classification system, it just must be useful to you.

And I thought truck classification systems were screwed up!  It is nothing compared to product classification systems.  Humpty Dumpty was only partially wrong when he was talking to Alice in "Through the Looking Glass".  The word used to describe a thing may mean what I choose it to mean, but the word, or classification system, that I use depends on my purpose.  A shipment of household cleaner can go by many classifications.  A retailer might describe it by the UPC Code on the items in the shipment.  A customs official might use the Harmonized Series code to see what tariffs should be collected on that item.  The railroads might use the Standard Transportation Commodity Code to determine what price to charge for transporting that shipment by rail.  The US Department of Transportation might use the Standard Classification of Transported Goods to report on multimodal shipments.  The US Army Corps of Engineers might use the Public Monitoring System code if that shipment was transported by water.  An emergency first  responder might refer to that shipment by its United Nation’s Hazardous Material code.  An economist might refer to the industries that Make or Use that product.  Etc.

Each one of these classification systems is appropriate for the purpose that is intended, but each one is different.  An economist might have a classified a product but used a system that a hazardous material responder would like to use.  It is too much to expect that a single code could be developed, but in order to transfer information from one discipline to another, it is desirable that correspondence tables, crosswalks, be developed among those classification systems.  That way information developed for use by customs officials can be used by economists, and so on.  Those establishing systems should at least develop a crosswalk to one other commonly used system.  If enough correspondence systems are developed, then perhaps one of those tables could serve as a Rosetta Stone to translate that information from one from those who have information to those who would like to use that information.  That way you can still refer to a “horse in striped pajamas” if that is what makes sense to you.