Key concepts
The terms below appear on every BOM screen. Knowing them makes the rest of the guides faster to read.
Products, assemblies and parts
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Product | The thing you ship. Sits at the top of a BOM. |
| Assembly | Anything that contains other things. Nests as deep as you need. |
| Part | The bottom of the tree. Comes from your inventory and holds nothing inside it. |
Products and assemblies behave the same way in Partix: both carry versions and revisions. Parts are managed and versioned in inventory instead.
Version and revision
Every product and assembly carries two identifiers, and they mean different things.
- Version is a number like
1.2.0. A new version means a new part number. - Revision is a letter like
REVAorREVB. It is a change that keeps the same part number.
Which one to use
Use a revision when the item is still the same thing: a corrected description, a tightened tolerance, a drawing update. Use a version when it is no longer interchangeable with what shipped before, and purchasing needs to tell the two apart.
Revisions restart at A each time a new version is created. So 1.2.0 REVC is followed by 1.3.0 REVA if you take a version, or 1.2.0 REVD if you take a revision.
CPN, the company part number
The company part number (CPN) is your own part number, assigned the first time an item is committed.
- It comes from a numbering subcategory your company sets up, which keeps related numbers together.
- An item that has never been committed has no CPN yet. That is normal.
Staged and committed
- Staged is a draft. You can edit it, and purchasing does not treat it as approved.
- Committed is released. Fixed, and treated as the record.
Most day-to-day BOM work happens in the Staging Area. Investigations and audits use the Committed Area.
Edited, forced and shared
Three labels appear on rows:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Edited | You changed this item directly since the last release. |
| Re-version | You did not change this item, but something inside it changed, so it has to be released again too. |
| Shared | This item is used by more than one parent. |
The second one catches people out, so to state it plainly:
If you change a part deep in the tree, every assembly above it has to be released again.
Its bill of materials is now different, so the record has to be issued again. Partix works out that chain for you and shows it in commit review.
Quantity and extended quantity
- Qty is how many the line calls for inside its immediate parent.
- Ext qty is how many are needed for one finished product, after multiplying every quantity down the path.
A bracket with a quantity of 2, inside a module used 4 times per product, has an extended quantity of 8. Ext qty is the number you order against.
Rolled-up cost
Parts carry a price. Everything above them adds up:
- An assembly's cost is the sum of its lines.
- A product's cost is the sum of everything in its structure.
You never type a cost onto an assembly. Partix works it out, so it stays in step with the parts underneath.