Product classification in hierarchical categories based on multiple parameters and non-standard descriptions
I want to start a machine learning project in my company and a really big pain for spend analysts is to classify the products that buyers order for maintenance, tooling, raw material and such, as the description on the purchase order is free text and people can write just about anything (often the bare minimum for the order to be approved)
Some importan considerations are:
* As the company is global, the language of the description is local (german, spanish, english, russian, chinesse, etc)
* There is no standard for the structure of the sentences
* People can input abbreviations
* For certain products, the buyers don't define if the part is a repair part or a brand new product
I have read about sklearn libraries for text analysis but I really new at machine learning algorithms (I have mostly completed basic tutorials). Most of the examples are for analyzing tweets or complains, but I don't know where to start if I want to consider variables other than text, such as quantity, unitary price, provider and other parameters; and additionally, my categories are a hierarchy of four levels based on certain rules (such as, if the unitary price is over X, then it belongs to category A)
An example of the database could be:
DESCRIPTION uom Mgroup Provider Category Unit Spend Total Quantity
CATALOG: A6-CJR-45 XRE: N/A C-RING FT A Prov1 31000000 5.1 $5.10 1
Contactor iec, 9a, 24v dc, 50/60hz ( FT3 B Prov2 <PHONE_NUMBER> $164.00 2
Ducto ranurado de 2 x 3, color gris, BAL C Prov1 <PHONE_NUMBER>.34 $486.80 20
Modulo de 8 salidas aisladas 5-235 vc ST B Prov2 32131000 254.74 $764.22 3
Selector no-il. 373
plastico 2 pos. mant. ST B Prov3 32131000 6.46 $32.30 5
(ELEC-L2GEW4) TERMINAL TIPO LENGÜETA P SER D Prov2 39120000 3.77 $56.55 15
2 Position Selector Switch - Plastic, M E Prov2 23161500 9.89 $69.23 7
So my question is, where could I start to investigate? Which algorithm would be best suited to tackle this problem?
Thank you! 180