Classification of Parts and Duplicate Parts Avoidance

PTC’s PLM platform, Windchill, ensures parts are classified to align with important attributes such as supplier status and materials used. For example, is the supplier identified as “approved to use and preferred,” “approved to use but not preferred,” or “do not use?” And were the materials used in creating the part made in support of sustainability initiatives? Windchill connects this information across the part lifecycle; as engineers select parts, procurement establishes new part value, and the supply chain strategizes to avoid part and material shortages.

Within the design phase, teams can classify parts by creating a hierarchical taxonomy, making it easy to break parts down by categories including hardware, software, electrical, sourced components, and more. With this taxonomy in place, engineers and design teams can then leverage self-service search functionality on any of the parameters to find an exact or similar part. As parts are classified, the addition of high-quality, accurate data in the form of metadata describing the attributes of the parts also delivers value downstream.

With supplier management (SUMA), the enterprise understands which parts can be sourced from which supplier as a product is being defined. Windchill makes it possible to list and track vendors and manufacturers and their parts.

Here are PTC’s 5 best practices for getting started with parts classification:

1. Establish a parts governance strategy to avoid duplicate parts being created
2. Assign a new role of Global Module Owner to be responsible for the creation of strategic parts
3. Establish a parts classification taxonomy, including supporting attributes, that focuses on commodity parts
4. Align taxonomy with important attributes for purchasing and the supply chain (i.e. materials used, availability of materials, supplier classification)
5. Expand parts classification taxonomy to include engineered parts (both internal and outsourced)