Let’s talk about part numbers today. Every engineering team and manufacturing company needs a clear, consistent part numbering strategy. But here’s the catch—many teams assume that strategy will just magically sort itself out. Spoiler alert: it won’t.
It’s not uncommon to see product development kick off without any real agreement on how to identify parts, assemblies, or even basic components. The result? A confusing mess that slows everyone down. If you’ve ever found yourself in a meeting that suddenly spirals into a heated debate about part numbers, you’re in good company. It happens all the time and for a good reason.
Part numbers are more than just codes. They are the digital backbone of product development and manufacturing processes. Every time a part is designed, purchased, assembled, or serviced, the part number is the reference that links the entire lifecycle together. It connects your CAD system to your BOM, your BOM to your ERP, and your team to your suppliers.
At OpenBOM, we’ve seen firsthand how crucial this topic is. One of the very first challenges companies face when setting up a product data management system is how to handle part numbers. In fact, many teams get stuck before they can move forward because this one decision has so many implications. That’s why developing a part number strategy is not only important – it’s essential.
In this article, we’ll explore what part numbers are, why they matter, common philosophies and pitfalls, how to design your own strategy, and how OpenBOM can help make the process much easier.
What is a Part Number, and Why It Matters
A part number is a unique identifier assigned to any item that is used in the design, production, or support of a product. This includes physical parts, subassemblies, materials, consumables, and even documents or drawings. Even more, labor, documentation, packaging, etc. – everything can be considered as an item with a Part Number.
The value of a part number lies in its ability to serve as a consistent reference. Unlike descriptions, which are often ambiguous or prone to variation, part numbers provide a clear and unchanging identity for each item. When properly managed, part numbers eliminate confusion, reduce errors, and streamline communication between teams, systems, and suppliers.
When part numbers are inconsistent or poorly structured, the consequences ripple throughout the organization: duplicated purchases, miscommunication between engineering and procurement, delays in production, and costly errors in the field.
In short, a good part number system is a small investment with a big return- it helps build reliable data structures that support traceability, automation, and cross-functional collaboration.
Significant vs. Non-Significant Part Numbers
There are two main schools of thought when it comes to how part numbers are designed: significant (also known as intelligent) and non-significant (also known as surrogate).
Significant (Intelligent) Part Numbers
In this approach, the part number itself contains embedded meaning. For example, you might use a code like ASM-AL-6061-6IN to represent an aluminum assembly made from 6061 alloy in a 6-inch size. These formats are often preferred in smaller or legacy teams where parts are identified manually or visually.
The advantage of this approach is that team members can often understand something about the part just by reading its number. It helps when sorting or filtering parts without needing to look up additional details.
However, this logic starts to break down as the product line grows or changes. If the material or dimensions change, do you change the part number? What happens if two teams interpret the embedded codes differently? Over time, significant part numbers become harder to maintain, more error-prone, and a barrier to automation.
Non-Significant (Surrogate) Part Numbers
By contrast, non-significant part numbers are designed to act as pure identifiers, with no internal logic or meaning. Something like PN-00012345 tells you nothing about the part’s shape, size, or function—but that’s the point. All meaningful information is stored separately as attributes in your data system.
This approach is highly scalable and system-friendly. It reduces human interpretation errors and supports automation across software platforms. With modern systems that can display all necessary part metadata instantly, there’s little value in embedding logic into the number itself.
At OpenBOM, we strongly recommend using non-significant part numbers. They offer simplicity, flexibility, and stability—qualities that matter most as your business scales.
How to Develop a Company Part Number Strategy
Defining a part number strategy is one of the most critical early steps in setting up your digital product data environment. It requires input from engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and IT—and the decisions you make will shape how data flows through your organization for years to come.
Here’s a structured, step-by-step process your team can follow:
Step 1: Define Your Objectives
Start by asking why you need part numbers in the first place. Is the goal to improve traceability? Simplify communication across systems? Automate ERP and procurement processes? Different use cases may push your strategy in different directions.
Also, consider the systems involved. Will your part numbers need to flow across CAD, PLM, ERP, MRP, or supplier portals? Understanding these interfaces will help you avoid design choices that create friction later.
Step 2: Choose Your Numbering Philosophy
Next, choose between significant and non-significant part numbers. While significant numbers may appeal to those who prefer human-readable codes, they are typically harder to maintain at scale. Non-significant numbers are simpler and integrate better with modern tools like OpenBOM.
If you’re still unsure, ask yourself this: “Do we want to design a numbering system that humans can read, or one that machines can manage reliably?” The long-term answer usually points to surrogate, non-significant numbering.
Step 3: Define a Clear Format
Once you’ve chosen your philosophy, standardize the structure. This includes decisions like:
- Prefix rules: Use simple prefixes to differentiate types (PN- for parts, ASM- for assemblies).
- Length: Keep the number between 6 and 8 characters. Short enough to manage, long enough to scale.
- Character rules: Avoid underscores, leading zeros, or ambiguous characters like O vs 0 or I vs 1.
Having a consistent format prevents confusion and simplifies data handling across different platforms.
Step 4: Keep Revisions Separate
A common mistake is to embed revision history into the part number—for example, using 123456_REV_A. This blurs the line between identity and versioning and creates confusion in systems that already track revision as a separate field.
Instead, let the part number refer to the item itself, and use a distinct revision field to track changes. This makes lifecycle management, traceability, and integration much easier to handle.
Step 5: Decide How Numbers Are Assigned
Will numbers be assigned manually, or automatically by a system? Will different teams (engineering vs purchasing) use different number blocks? Will you need to preserve certain ranges for legacy parts?
Deciding this upfront helps avoid conflicts later—and makes onboarding much easier for new team members.
Step 6: Document and Share the Rules
Once your strategy is defined, document it in a clear internal policy. Share it with all relevant teams and make sure it’s reflected in onboarding, training, and system configurations.
Part numbers work best when they’re predictable and consistently applied—so communication is key.
Step 7: Use a Digital System (e.g. OpenBOM) to Enforce the Strategy
Even the best strategy can fail without the right tooling. Manual entry in spreadsheets or siloed systems often leads to duplication and inconsistency.
A system like OpenBOM can automate number generation, validate uniqueness, and keep your catalog organized—all while integrating seamlessly with CAD and other tools your team already uses.
How OpenBOM Supports Part Numbering
OpenBOM is designed to help you implement a robust and scalable part number strategy—whether you’re reusing existing numbers or starting from scratch with new ones.
Support for Both Reuse and Generation
OpenBOM gives you flexibility. If your company already has a part numbering system in place, you can import and manage existing part numbers across catalogs. If you’re starting fresh or looking to automate, OpenBOM supports automatic part number generation based on configurable templates and rules.
This means you can gradually migrate to a better system—without disrupting existing processes.
Integrated Part Number Generators for CAD Add-ins
OpenBOM’s CAD integrations (SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Fusion, Inventor, Altium, and others) include built-in part number generators. Once your numbering scheme is set up in OpenBOM, it can be applied consistently as engineers export parts from CAD. There’s no need to manually assign numbers or worry about mistakes—OpenBOM ensures every part gets a unique and valid number.
This dramatically reduces friction and enforces company standards directly at the source.
Catalog-Based Schemas and Uniqueness Control
With OpenBOM, you can define different part number schemas per catalog. This allows engineering items, purchased components, and tooling to follow different formats or ranges while still being governed by the same system.
OpenBOM also ensures part number uniqueness across catalogs and will alert you if duplicates are detected, helping you maintain data integrity.
Built-In Duplicate Report
One particularly useful feature is OpenBOM’s duplicate part number report. This tool scans your catalogs and highlights items with the same part number—especially helpful after importing BOMs from Excel or CAD systems.
We recommend running this report periodically to keep your data clean and avoid conflicts that could affect purchasing or manufacturing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a part number?
A: A unique ID assigned to a part, component, or item used in design, production, or service.
Q: What’s the difference between a part number and a revision?
A: The part number identifies the item. The revision tracks which version of that item is currently used.
Q: What is a significant part number?
A: A code that includes embedded meaning—like size, material, or function. Useful for humans, but brittle over time.
Q: What is a non-significant part number?
A: A neutral identifier (like PN-00012345) with no embedded logic. All metadata is stored in system fields.
Q: Why avoid leading zeros and underscores?
A: Some systems remove or misinterpret these characters, leading to mismatches and confusion.
Q: Can I use letters in part numbers?
A:Yes, but avoid characters that look like numbers (e.g., O and 0, I and 1). Stick to a clear, readable format.
Q: Can I manage part numbers directly from CAD?
A: Yes. OpenBOM’s CAD add-ins generate and manage part numbers automatically based on your configured rules.
Conclusion
A well-designed part numbering strategy doesn’t just help your engineering team—it creates a foundation for the entire product lifecycle. From CAD to procurement, from prototype to production, your part numbers are the thread that holds everything together.
Avoid the trap of overthinking and over-encoding. Keep your part numbers clean, your data model rich, and your systems in sync.
OpenBOM gives you the tools and structure to get part numbering right—and to grow confidently from startup to scale.
REGISTER FOR FREE to check how OpenBOM can help you develop your improved Part Number strategy.
Best, Oleg
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