Drawing/Part Number Help

[matthewcsmith]

I am new to the forum and did a bit of searching, but got bogged down in not being able to find the information I am looking for.

I am looking for resources (books, companies etc.) on part number and drawing number type of organization. Specifically, I'm looking for something on how to organize part numbers and their relation to drawing numbers in addition to when to create a new part, when to revise etc.

Currently we have a system in place for a certain product we sell where each has a specific part number with describes the piece exactly, including a drawing with revision number, but this system starts to break down on some of our other parts.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Heckler]

Matthew,

Try this link thread559-136028 and also do a search in this forum because this gets brought up every couple of months

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
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[mrMikee]

matthewcsmith,

The thread Heckler mentions above is a good place to start. This is the somewhat typical discussion between the issues of nonsignificant part numbers versus specially coded (or intelligent) part numbers. In my post to that thread I recommended the following books.

"Engineering Documentation Control Handbook, Configuration Management in Industry." Frank B. Watts
This is a good book with both practical information and the theories or reasons backing up his recommendations. It covers part numbering, revision control, and configuration management.

Frank and 'Bart' Bartulli used to teach an "Engineering Documentation" course at the University of Wisconsin Extension in Milwaukee in the past. I don't see it listed now but you could check the following site if interested. I think they do this at other universities also.

http://cfprod.imt.uwm.edu/sce/index.cfm

"Manufacturing Data Structures" by Clement, Coldrick, and Sari
"Bills of Materials" by Dave Garwood
These two books cover BOMs and product structures. I would personally do something that would be a combination of ideas from both books. Of particular interest is the philosophy of shallow bills of materials and modular product structures.

Concerning your questions:

You make a revision to a part (keeping the same number) when the new part is interchangeable with the old part. This is generally harder to determine than you would think. Frank Watts book covers this topic extensively. When a new part isn't interchangeable then it gets a new part number.

Drawings (or files) and part numbers are different things. A drawing may contain more than one part or assembly, a right hand or left hand for example. Or similar piece parts, assemblies, or weldments. A weldment for example may contain cut to size pieces with item (dash) numbers from 1 to 99. The full weldments would start with dash number 100 and so on. The drawing or file would not be a dash number. But this is just one possibility, there are many ways to do this.

It is common for a part number to contain the drawing/file number. This is after all the way you find the documentation for a part. It is not good practice for the part number to include a revision level. Remember that all revisions of a part must be interchangeable.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
-Mike