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Subject:Re: Repair Parts List Organization From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 4 Aug 2005 10:19:11 -0500
Tom,
You have hit upon a major limiting factor in printed docs.
In my opinion, you must determine how the *users* want to find the
parts. In all probability, it will wind up with several tables--listed
by assembly/subassembly, listed by part number, etc.
Users stocking a repair facility will have a different requirement
than a repair person seeking a special order, and both will differ
from an accounting person looking at invoices listing the part by
number who wants to see what it was for--so listing by part number
with cross-refs to the assembly/subassembly may be desirable for them.
The primary guide must be making the docs as useful as possible for
those who must decipher them. It simply should not be an "either/or"
choice...you may need to do most if not all variations.
Whether you need to list the supplier's part number or not depends
upon whether it is desirable for customers to be able to easily order
the part directly--or whether in your industry there are multiple
vendors for a given part, each with a different part number, that can
substitute for the one being scrutinized.
(In some cases, any such substitute parts may be listed as a further
convenience for the customers, although in others companies want to
control the parts flow completely.)
Personally, I would make such a catalog available electronically in a
searchable and sortable format as a minimum, with the printed docs as
a secondary resource.
David
On 8/4/05, tjohnson -at- starcutter -dot- com <tjohnson -at- starcutter -dot- com> wrote:
> If you were designing a list of parts for a complicated machine, how would
> you organize the list?
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