For many small businesses, it makes sense to manage the bill of materials (BOM) in Excel or using an Access database. While managing a complex document like a BOM in this manner is not ideal, the alternative product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions are often costly, complex, and take valuable time away from limited organizational resources. While purists may shudder, the business of designing products moves forward.
When managing a BOM outside of an integrated PLM tool, one problem that always arises is the generation, or creation, of part numbers. No matter what type of part numbering scheme is being used, descriptive part numbers or non-descriptive part numbers, steps must be taken to ensure that the numbering scheme is being followed, sequences are being sequenced properly, and duplicate part numbers are not being generated. To ensure that these requirements are being met, part number generation is often handled by a single person. This can become a significant bottle-neck in any organization and in the design process.
The part-numbering.com service helps make product design and BOM management easier by providing a low-cost solution to the part numbering problem. Using the part-numbering.com service, part number generation can be made available to anyone in an organization while ensuring that when part numbers are generated they follow the proper format rules, sequences are maintained, and duplicate part numbers are never created.
Watch this 3-minute video. In 3-minutes, end-to-end, an account is created and part numbers are generated. Yes, it really is this easy!
Features and Benefits
The part-numbering.com service makes it easy to manage and control part numbering in your organization. Whether you are using multiple intelligent part numbering schemes or a non-intelligent part numbering scheme, the part-numbering.com service makes it easy for others in your organization to generate the part numbers they need, when they need them. Here are just some of the features and benefits of the part-numbering.com service:
It's FREE! As in no cost to you.
Easy configuration With the ease of drag-and-drop, the part-numbering.com service makes it easy to configure your account so that part numbers are always generated using the formats that you specify. You can create as many number formats as you like. And each number format can have an unlimited number of fields used to define the format.
Easy part number generation Part number generation is as easy as selecting a number format and then filling in the additional information specific to the format as it's been defined by you. If the format contains a sequence, users can generate part numbers in bulk. The entire process of generating part numbers can easily take less than a minute.
Store additional part properties Once part numbers are created, the part-numbering.com service isn't done making your job easier. With a fully customizable system for storing property information associated with parts, you can store any sort of data you like and attach it to your parts: inventory information; supplier information; part attributes like name, description, costs, or revision number. There are no limits to the type or amount of information you can store and maintain in the part-numbering.com service.
Central information store The part-numbering.com service acts as a central store for all of your part numbering information. This ensures that part numbering sequences are properly maintained and that duplicate part numbers are never generated.
Unlimited usage There are no usage limits. You can add as many users as needed, create an unlimited amount of number formats, and generate part numbers without end.
Import existing data If you can cut-and-paste, you can quickly and easily import all of your existing part numbers into the part-numbering.com service to ensure that duplicate part numbers are not generated.
Export You can quickly and easily export all of your data, including property information, out of the part-numbering.com service. All it takes is one click of a button.
API The part-numbering.com service offers an API that will allow you to create part numbers through a RESTful web service at no additional cost.
No lock-in We make it ridiculously easy to get all of your data out of the part-numbering.com service. We aren't interested in using tricks or a lack of flexibility to lock you into using our service. Instead we're commited to making our service an easy-to-use solution to your product management problems that you will want to use.
SaaS The part-numbering.com service is delivered using the "Software-as-a-Service" (SaaS) model. As a result, you and everyone else in your organization can begin using the part-numbering.com service immediately without installing any software. There is no capital investment to make, and you get free software upgrades and nightly off-site data backups all without maintaining any additional IT infrastructure.
It's FREE! Did we mention that it's completely free?
