![]() The disadvantages of this method are typically realized only minutes after attempting such an endeavor. Important parameters become part of the part number itself to facilitate easy identification. Certain fields are established as meaningful and an attempt is made to keep them consistent across the database. Formatted Part Numbersįormatted part numbers are basically what manufacturer’s use to build out their external (customer-facing) part numbers. ![]() These cryptic numbers are often the cause of many human translation errors, as well. While this may be handy to establish a large product line of hundreds of thousands of parts, most organizations don’t need to refer to this full space and can do so in a much more compressed manner. This is most often seen with discrete passive electronics where parameters such as value, tolerance, material, or temperature range are components to the part number. This includes using many characters and fields so that variations are specified. Also, if a manufacturer decides not to make a change to a part number during a change to that part (for example, during the change-over to RoHS-compliant parts), your database is also necessarily bound.įinally, though perhaps most significantly, manufacturers establish rules for part numbers so that they can “future-protect” the uniqueness of these parts. (the catalog vendor Mouser uses a numeric prefix before the part number to differentiate manufacturers.) For ordering purposes, it is usually preferred to offer a globally-unique part, including resolution of the manufacturer. First is that collisions may occur where similar parts are offered by multiple manufacturers. Unfortunately, there are several disadvantages to this style. The original manufacturer’s part number is likely familiar to the engineer and so would the derived part number. The biggest advantage to this style is familiarity. Additionally, as is the case with the (-ND) in DigiKey part numbers, a suffix may be added to indicate that this is an internal part number. For example special characters such as + or * may be replaced with underscores or eliminated entirely. Sometimes, certain characters may be substituted in order to maintain a consistent character set. This style attempts to resemble the original manufacturer’s part number as closely as possible. Derivation of Manufacturer’s Part NumberĮxamples: SN74LS04DRE4-ND, 74LS04DRE4, 595-SN74LS04DRE4 This won’t happen if you start at “100000”. Some spreadsheet applications might remove leading zeros making “000982” appear as “982”. You might want to consider starting your part numbers at a higher number so that the number starts with a “1”. ![]() Searches and “auto-complete fields” within Aligni are designed to use the more meaningful manufacturer’s part number and display the shorter straight number right next to them, so you reap the benefits of both. Since the software is available online, it is ubiquitous and readily available, so reference is easy and quick. ![]() Third, since it has no special characters, software support should be a foregone conclusion.Īligni is a product which accentuates the benefits of this style. First, it is less subject to human error since it is shorter and can easily be held in short-term memory. It is only an index into a database and therefore requires access to the database to derive meaning. The chief disadvantage is that the number means nothing. Even with nearly a million parts to contend with, one can see the benefits in compression here - only six digits are required to uniquely identify any part in the database. The only challenge is to decide up-front on how many digits to use. Straight numbering is really just assigning sequential numbers (to guarantee uniqueness) to parts as they get added to the database. When your organization’s part numbering policy includes automatic sequencing, editing of part numbers will be disabled to prevent conflicts that could arise from human error.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |