I am with the company Valor Computerized Systems, suppliers of DFM/CAM
systems to the industry, and have been following the correspondence on
component part numbers and part numbering issues with interest.

At the risk of appearing highly commercial in my approach, I want to inform
the group that Valor is in the process of developing something which has not
existed until now: a library of all commercially available components and
connectors, including a correlation between all the different versions and
dialects of MPN (manufacturers' part number) and a standard naming
convention which is embedded in the library itself. This sounds like a
pretty daunting task, since there are literally millions of MPNs out there.
However, we are doing this as a general-purpose solution for the global
industry, which changes the picture completely, when compared to the
economics of creating a customized library for one company only. The library
also includes a physical model of the package and pins, to support DFM
analysis. The library is based on a relational database, so there is plenty
of scope for holding attributes of parts and packages, without overloading
the part numbering convention itself.

The underlying purpose of the library is to increase the speed and accuracy
of BOM reading(any BOM!) and checking against incoming design data and
drawings. Initial feedback from first users indicates that we are on track
to achieve this objective, and that productivity and quality gains are
clearly visible.

Our Beta-site customers helped us to identify that there is a general
problem out there: no standard library which serves the PCB assembly
engineer! The result is that (like in the PCB CAD world), everybody is
investing in making their own libraries for internal use. When looked at
industry-wide, this is a pretty inefficient way to go forward into the 21st
century!

If anyone would like more information about the Valor Parts Library ("VPL"),
just let me know.

This is the end of my invasion of  "non-commercial webspace". Thank you for
your forbearance.


Jeffery K. Thomson
Assembly Business Unit Manager
Valor Computerized Systems
25341 Commercentre Dr.
Suite 200
Lake Forest, CA 92630
949-586-5969
949-586-1343 (fax)
[log in to unmask]

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