Eon's ago, when I worked at a J&J subsidiary, we employed the worst part
numbering system known to humankind.  After a nasty internal political
battle, the engineering based intelligent, variable, part numbering
system was replaced with a very simple 6 digit version.  The argument
was won because the manufacturing group engaged Stanford Research
Institute to study part numbers from a recognition and retention
standpoint.  

They concluded that the less intelligence in a part number, the better,
and that 3 digit groupings of numbers were the easiest and most
recognizable.  The surprise (to me anyway) was two groupings of three
digits were more recognizable, retainable, and less subject to
transposition than any other combination.  Their recommendation was
this: XXX-YYY.  The decision was to use the first three digits as the
category of part and the second three as the modifier.  Manufacturing
promptly relabeled each part with these style numbers and re-writing the
engineering BOM's which made the battle even uglier.  When they produced
data showing the error rates of mis-identification fell dramatically,
the engineering group finally came over and also adopted the numbers.
KISS.


Bob Croslin
The Nielsen Company

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Thayer, Wayne - IIW
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 1:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] Poll: EMS Part numbering systems

Use your own part number.  Make sure you have good cross-search
capability.

1.  If you use someone else's part number, you can't guarantee
uniqueness unless you append a source designator to the part number
(creating your own number!) 2.  A part number is actually an internal
specification number.  Do you want control of your parts?  For small,
simple houses, this might be "no", but any moderate sized shop is not
going to want to abdicate their right to control their specifications.
After all, there may be an aspect of the part you receive which is
important to you but not covered in the specifications from the part
provider.

Wayne Thayer

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Wong
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 12:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Poll: EMS Part numbering systems

We are an EMS provider in the midst of implementing a new ERP system.
We currently have an internal part numbering system with our legacy
system which is semi-intelligent (ie.  certain number ranges define
certain component types).  We are considering the option of using
customer part numbers in place of our internal part numbers.

I checked the archives and there is a thread from 1999 on part numbering
systems but they seemed more toward and OEM/OEM's point of view.

What do other EMS providers out there use in terms of part numbers?
Internal or Customer?

Thanks
Peter


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