Hi,
This looks like the right place for this question;
The company I work for is finally starting to realize that we need to do something different with our part numbers. Using vendor or manufacturer part numbers on our parts lists causes the inevitable problems due to multiple sources, equivalent parts, tricky formats, etc. In the past we've defined our own numbers for some of the more common components (resistors and capacitors mostly), but because there was no rhyme or reason to the numbers, and also it was nearly impossible to find the corresponding in-house number for a part, given the required parameters, or even if one existed. Some parts ended up having multiple in-house numbers, and others which logically should have been included with previously-defined numbers weren't because the particular value wasn't required when the numbers were defined.
It was mass confusion, and still is, to a degree, because a lot of the numbers are still being used. So the idea of using "generic" part numbers has been suggested. Supposedly this is what most electronic manufacturing companies do.
I think it's a great idea and could simplify things greatly, at least for future jobs. But it seems to me that to come up with a system which will accommodate all possibilities is going to take a lot of time, work, trial & error, and subsequent tweaking to find out exactly which parameters need to be encoded into the part numbers. It seems like a colossal waste of effort, if most companies out there are already using just such a system.
So my question is, "Does every company that uses generic part numbers have to 're-invent the wheel' from scratch, or is there some kind of standard system out there which can be adopted?" And where could I find information about it?
Thanks,
. . ... Scott . . =B6|;-D