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 ________________________________ The enclosed documents are proprietary items to Silicon Forest Electronics' (SFE) customers. They shall not be reproduced nor disclosed for any purpose except as specified in writing from an authorized agent of SFE. These documents may contain data restricted for export by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) section of the Arms Export Control Act (or the Export Administration Act). Violators are subject to severe criminal penalties. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. 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For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------