Do you Use Internal Part Cross Reference?

[NateS (Nate Schoonover)]

I am curious how you all use the Internal Part Cross Reference. We are considering using it to document the many ways in which a product can be identified.

For example, a tube of grease is stored in Epicor as part number GAK-12345. The product may also have a unique product name, SKU/UPC, or other identifying batch information. We store the part in Epicor with GAK-12345, as that is how the customer calls out the requirement for this product. The customer doesn’t care what kind of grease we use, as long as it conforms to GAK-12345.

Looking at the tube of grease, GAK-12345 is in fine print at the bottom. There could be multiple tubes of grease that conform to GAK-12345, and we can use any of them for this customer. That means that we could use different products for the same part number.

We may have 4 tubes of grease on the shelf all with the same GAK-12345, and each with a unique SKU/UPC, and product name. We track these tubes with lot numbers and track their expiration date by lot.

I want to record all the packages of grease in Epicor so we can keep track of expiration dates more easily, and so we can tell when a particular grease is in stock or out.

At first I looked in to Alternate Parts for this functionality, but it seems more like I should be using Internal Part Cross Reference. What do you all think? How should I set this up?
Thanks!
Nate

[Matt_Belshaw]

Hi Nate

My experience with supplier cross reference is here. I know you’re after doing internal part xref but it may highlight the scale of testing required and definitely make sure you can track down the root cause. In my case though the data was valid:

Cross-reference - a fix! and also Why?

Raising a PO against vendor xyz for part #1 and we got this: [image] Turns out there was a vendor part reference elsewhere causing this but that reference was for vendor abc for part #2 referencing part#1. Is there a way to turn this off? Just wondering why this would kick in if we’re doing a PO against xyz and the reference was on vendor abc. Also the part for abc was part #2 which seemed the opposite of what it should be compared to the screenshot. So to track this down I did a BAQ against…

[NateS (Nate Schoonover)]

I am considering using internal part cross reference to help give some parts a user-friendly name.My goal would be to add internal part cross references so that the user can type in a common keyword to find the actual part they need to add. Here are some examples I am considering:

'A-A-56032D'	ink, epoxy, a-a-56032, white
'WD40'	        oil, lube, lubrication, wd40
'VVL-800'	    MIL-PRF-32033, TECTYL 900, VVL-800C, Oil
'MIL-I-43553'	ink, epoxy, a-a-56032, black
'A-A-208WHT'	AA-208, A-A-208WHT,  AA-208WHT, ink, 1250, white

Using the example above, I should be able to type in “ink” as the part number and get a list of all the parts with an internal part xref that includes “ink”. This seems like it would make things easier to search, and give the user more certainty about the part numbers they choose.

What do you think? Am I setting myself up for a future headache? Do you use internal part xref like this?
Thanks for your time!
Nate

[jkane (John Kane)]

Have you looked at Manufacturer Part for this? You can set up part X in your part master and then tie all of the different manufacturer part numbers to it. So if Spacely Sprockets makes it under 123 and Cogswell Cogs make it under 098, you can see that your requirement for part X can be relieved by 123 or 098.

[NateS (Nate Schoonover)]

@jkane

Have you looked at Manufacturer Part for this?

I am considering using that in conjunction. In the cases I listed in my example data, none of those are actual product numbers that we use to order from the manufacturer. Some are specifications that can be applied to more than one product. In the cases where we have multiple manufacturers for a part/product, then I would love to get their part numbers in our system.
Thank you!