In the Product dimension, we will create the attributes that describe the products sold by ACME Toys and Gizmos. The principles of the Time dimension apply to this dimension as well. The same four characteristics need to be defined—Levels, Dimension Attributes, Level Attributes, and Hierarchies. The only difference will be that they are product-oriented instead of time/date-oriented.
Let's begin by looking at the attributes of our products, and then we'll group by levels and a hierarchy. The first thing we should consider is how each toy or gizmo sold by ACME is represented. As with any retail operation, a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is maintained that uniquely identifies each individual type of item sold. This is an individual number assigned by the main office that uniquely identifies each type of product sold by ACME, and there could be tens of thousands of different items. There could be more than one product with the same name, but they won't have the same SKU. So...