Parts Classification and Duplicate Parts Avoidance
Reduce product complexity and drive down costs
PTC Partner Network
The parts classification and reuse opportunity
In today’s industrial landscape, continuous innovation and rapid Time-to-Market are imperative. However, increasing product complexity leads to a massive volume of parts that, without proper governance, become difficult to locate, frequently resulting in the introduction of duplicate items. This hurdle increases costs and compromises efficiency across sourcing, manufacturing, quality, and service.
By governing the new part creation process, manufacturers achieve significant cost savings and productivity gains through strategic reuse and an overall reduction in part count. Through Windchill Parts Classification, it becomes possible to manufacture with higher quality and bring products to market faster.
Benefits of parts classification and reuse
Executing a parts classification project can save manufacturers millions of dollars and deliver significant strategic dividends. Parts reuse helps reduce inventory complexity, identifies supply chain synergies, and minimizes unnecessary aftermarket inventory costs. Beyond an operational win, this project serves as a cornerstone for evangelizing PLM value across the entire organization.
Reduce Product Costs
- Eliminate the cost of duplicate parts across design, manufacturing, and aftermarket phases.
- Optimize spend by leveraging preferred suppliers, reducing material costs and increasing profit margins.
Improve Lead Time
- Reduce manual effort in creating and sourcing new parts within the NPI (New Product Introduction) process.
- Ensure a strategic parts reserve to prevent future disruptions and inventory shortages.
Increase Efficiency
- Maximize the reusability of existing parts and assemblies.
- Decrease time spent searching for components or suppliers and empower manufacturing to prepare tooling and verification accurately.
- Drive faster customer service by enabling easier identification of accurate replacement parts.
PTC Partner Network
Implementing a Modern Parts Classification Approach
This White Paper shares the secrets to implementing a parts strategy grounded in effective parts classification. Learn how to turn parts management into a competitive advantage to maximize efficiency and drive down operational costs.
PTC Partner Network
Early-Stage Parts Classification with Windchill
Windchill ensures parts are classified according to critical attributes, such as supplier status (Preferred, Approved, or Do Not Use) and sustainability criteria. This data thread runs through the entire lifecycle: as engineering selects parts, procurement defines value, and the supply chain anticipates shortage risks.
During the design phase, teams use a hierarchical taxonomy to categorize items (Hardware, Software, Electrical, etc.). This structure enables precise self-service searches, where high-quality metadata adds immediate value to downstream processes. With Supplier Management (SUMA), Windchill tracks manufacturers and vendors, ensuring sourcing is defined while the product is still being conceptualized.
5 Best Practices for Parts Classification:
Governance Strategy: Establish strict rules to prevent the creation of duplicate items.
Global Module Owner: Create this role to centralize responsibility for strategic part creation.
Commodity Taxonomy: Start classification with off-the-shelf items and their supporting attributes.
Procurement Alignment: Integrate taxonomy with purchasing data (availability and supplier status).
Expansion to Engineered Parts: Extend the taxonomy to include custom-designed parts (both internal and outsourced).
PTC Partner Network
Key Parts Classification Product Features in Windchill:
Configurable Classification Schemes
Establish naming and structural conventions tailored to meet your specific business requirements.
Search and Similar Object Recognition
Localized classification text and measurement standards that improve search accuracy and usability across all global regions.
Engineering BOM Specifications
Align with suppliers directly from the BOM to source/qualify parts and manage quality control plans, material compliance, and DFM analysis.
Automatic Naming
System-generated part and document names based on classification and attribute values, ensuring consistency across the enterprise.
Mass Data Management
Efficient import, export, and mass update capabilities for large datasets without sacrificing quality or accuracy.
Sustainability Tracking
Assign specific attributes to help engineers select parts that meet sustainability goals and regulatory standards.
Supplier Data Management
Automate the flow of supplier reference data associated with a part or product from a Single Source of Truth.
Windchill Customer stories
Learn how these companies have adopted an effective parts classification strategy.
HP: Taming Complexity with Governance
Learn how HP’s parts classification strategy has reduced product complexity, decreased development costs, and significantly improved Time-to-Market.
Seagate: Productivity, Quality, and Scale
Discover how Seagate is reducing duplicate parts, improving data integrity, and enabling seamless collaboration across its global supply chain.
iRobot: Part-Centric Product Development
Learn how iRobot leverages Windchill to tackle component shortages, introduce new variants, and drive high-efficiency product development.
Talk to an Windchill expert
Provide stakeholders with fast, secure access to critical product data. Windchill, the PLM solution by PTC implemented by OMC GROUP, eliminates organizational silos and drives real-world results:
Time-to-Market: Accelerate product launches through optimized engineering processes.
Cost Efficiency: Lower operational expenses and minimize engineering waste.
Quality Excellence: Ensure product integrity and rigorous regulatory compliance.
Focus on Innovation: Empower your team to create market-transforming solutions.
Windchill delivers the scale required for massive datasets with flexible subscription pricing. Furthermore, native integration with the ThingWorx IoT platform enables the use of data from connected products in the field to power a high-precision Digital Twin.
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