We are a two-person company and yet we have a part numbering system…and ERP…and PDM. We feel that keeping your designs organized is a critical part of the engineering process. It will help you track what you make, build from past designs, save time, and most importantly, helps you find things when you have moved on to the next project and your memory starts fading…
We wanted to share our semi-smart part numbering system in case your company is just starting out or looking to make some changes. Our part numbering system is 10 digits with the format XX-XXXXXX-XX. The first 2 digits are the category, and as hard as this might be, we really recommend keeping it to about a dozen categories ONLY. I know it is tempting to create more, but if the user needs to think too hard about what bucket it goes in, then it is a waste of time and parts are bound to go in the wrong place. The advantage of having categories at all is that your bill of materials is easy to sort and read, and frankly, it is pretty. The next 6 digits are just the next sequential number, no thinking there. The last two digits are the dash number and is typically -01. You would use -02 for a part that is a mirror image or -02, -03, etc. for a part that is different lengths or colors.
Our background originated with vacuum deposition equipment so some of our categories are dedicated to vacuum fittings, plumbing fittings, and o-rings. You can tailor it to your industry, but we recommend that assembly is always first, custom fabricated parts are second, and hardware is at the end. Speaking of hardware, this is the best part of our system! We figured out a scheme so that no matter what hardware we use or when the part number is pulled, it will always be in order on your BOM!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but it is very exciting.
The way it works is we have pre-determined selections for each of the 10 digits (thread size, head type, length, etc) and you follow tables to build your part number. It might sound like a lot of work, but once you have the basic structure it is pretty easy to copy existing parts to pull new hardware. We can send you our list to get started if you are interested. The image is an example of an assembly drawing that uses are our part numbering system, and we think it makes for a nice clean drawing.
Hope this can be of help!