Glass names in a workshop are usually written in everyday language: thickness, colour, sometimes a brand, sometimes just the habit of whoever typed it. When the same product is written one way in a quotation and another way in the stock list, it looks like two separate items. Stock splits at that moment; one runs out while the other still shows a count, and nobody can see the relationship between them. The catalogue question is therefore not a matter of naming taste, it is about whether the count is correct.
Binding the name to a rule prevents that drift. Information such as thickness, type and colour lives in separate fields, and the visible name is built from those fields. Two records with the same properties get the same name, because the name is not typed by hand. When someone's habits change, or a new person starts, the catalogue is unaffected. Once a name is something generated, consistency stops being a question of discipline.
The second benefit of this approach appears when working in several languages. Because the catalogue name is a structure built from parts rather than a sentence, it can be rebuilt from the same parts in another language. Translating tens of thousands of records by hand is not possible; writing the rule once is. When the interface language changes, the glass name is rebuilt according to that language and the list becomes readable at once.
On the stock side the real difference shows in counting. Unified names mean the same product gathers on a single line, which means the question of how many sheets there are has a single answer. When an order is entered, a selection is made from the list, and what is selected is a record rather than free text. Errors caused by spelling differences are closed at entry, and reports rest on the same ground.
As the catalogue grows, search becomes important. Users rarely type the full name; they type a thickness and a colour and pick the rest from the list. When search works the way people behave, the size of the catalogue stops being a burden. Otherwise a long list pushes people towards their own abbreviations, and the drift comes straight back.
For businesses with their own pricing, the catalogue works as a template. Products are shared, prices belong to the business. That separation makes updating a price list easier, because the product definition and the price do not live in the same place. When only the price changes, there is no need to review the whole catalogue.