Why to use intelligent Part Numbers in 21st century?

Several people asked me the same question earlier today. It wasn’t tricky question. It was a question PDM and PLM pundits are discussing for years. And the question is “should we use intelligent or dumb part numbers. Do you think, I’m kidding? No, I’m not…

The number of articles and blog post about part numbering schema is overwhelming. It looks like all bloggers writing about CAD and PLM ((including myself) ) already posted at least one blog about that. Just to mention few posts – Part Numbering Schemes—Intelligent vs. Non-Intelligent; Intelligent Numbering: What’s the Great Part Number Debate?; Part Numbers are hard – how to think about data first; Connecting ERP to PLM.

I’ve heard a lot about the fact companies implementing PLM should use the opportunity and move from the practice of intelligent part numbers. It will save time and will make your life easier. So, you probably think intelligent numbers are in the past and you can see them in the back mirror of your new car. It might sound like that with an increased efforts to implement PLM systems by large and small companies these days. So, why people are still using intelligent part numbers? Until today, my conclusion was that people feel more comfortable with intelligent part numbers because of 3 main reasons:

1- It is self-defined and helps engineers to keep their existing habits and processes in places.

2- You don’t need to implement it using PLM, ERP or any other system.

3- It can be used across multiple systems.

Most of PLM vendors are allowing multiple options for part numbering schema. It includes both (intelligent and not) approaches in their PLM systems. It usually came with a large portion of explanations about advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. I thought that the answer is somewhat in the middle and development of intelligent part numbers can be an overkill for organization already decided to implement PLM system. So, customer should use technology, apply classification schema and treat part number as internal element of data model.

Here is the thing… Something is changing in the way companies are thinking and working these days. Manufacturing is getting more connected and it might force us to review part numbering schemas and the way we think about it. Obviously PLM or whatever other system(s) we use in engineering and manufacturing should have a way to identify data. As a result of this an increased number of people and related services can be interested to use part numbers outside of the system for variety of reasons – design contractors, suppliers, contract manufacturers, customer service teams, e-commerce website, etc. To hook them all to a single PLM system can be not feasible.

Also, product lifecycle span is becoming longer compared to a software lifecycle. The data you create today using one system will have to move to another system sooner than later. By developing intelligent part numbering schema, you can eliminate many problems in the future when you will be migrating data between systems and services.

I want to risk myself and share my opinion here. I can see an increased importance to use intelligent part numbering schema these days as we move into connected manufacturing eco-systems. Modern cloud-based engineering and manufacturing software will create a surge for companies to develop data schema independently from PLM system. It will also help to integrate systems and services together using Web APIs and web friendly integration systems.

What is my conclusion? The changes are coming to manufacturing. It is getting more global and connected with many dependencies and cross-company processes. In such eco-system intelligent part numbers can simplify processes and eliminate the need for additional data mapping. How engineering, manufacturing, procurement, supply chain and other software will handle new way to getting access to the data across systems? This is a big question and the note for software and system architects. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing a digital network-based platform that manages product data and connects manufacturers and their supply chain networks. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.