Historically we only have the purchased PLC or other programmable component in the BoM and our manufacturing team will program the part according to the product requirements. Sometimes this may be tribal knowledge and other times it might be in a work instruction. We have seen several instances now of these components being sold aftermarket to replace a failed component, but they are shipped from stock without being programmed.
My thought is that the programmed component should be handled as a raw material and used in a part number representative of the programmed version. This could include an operation for programming. But Iām not sure how to prevent the ordering of the PLC and to prompt a user attempting to order it to enter the programmed version. To make this more complex, the programming tends to be project specific and requires the original parent unit serial number to write the correct program.
Any feedback on best practice is greatly appreciated!
