This contribution allows the sorting of products in admin similar to how categories are sorted. With this package installed, you can sort the following ways:

• product sort entry on the product entry page in admin
product and category sort order displayed on each of the category pages in admin (next to the red and green status indicators)
ability to set the column sort order on the admin/configuration/product_listing page
ability to set the column to being visible or not on the admin/configuration/product_listing page
ability to use product sort order as the default catalog display whether or not the column is actually made visible
maintain the native column sort capability in the catalog (click on column heading to get ascending/descending sort)