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Roadmap for Creating Smart Part Numbers

Smart part number provides the following methods for defining how part numbers are generated:

• Dynamic. You specify what product attributes participate in creating a part number and the string that each attribute value will have. You then define a part number template with placeholders for the attribute values. Smart part number inserts the value of the attribute into the part number template to create the final part number. Use this method when your part numbers include important information, besides attribute values, that is needed to uniquely identify the product.
• Predefined. You specify what product attributes participate in creating a part number. You can then do one of two things:
  • You can auto-generate a matrix of all the combinations of these attributes. Random part numbers are provided for each combination. You can accept the random values or replace them with your own values.
  • You can manually create the matrix, inserting your own part numbers.
  • When the user selects product attributes, smart part number searches the list for the correct attribute combination and uses its part number. Use this method when your part numbers cannot be easily created using string substitution.

You define named smart part number methods on product classes. These methods use the attributes defined on the class to generate a part number. Only attributes with a list of values domain can be used to generate part numbers. When you assign a product to a class, you can select for it any of the smart part number methods that have been defined on the class.

If you add or remove attributes on a class, or change the values for an attribute, these changes are not automatically propagated to the smart part number methods defined on the class. You must manually update each smart part number method with the changes.

To create smart part numbers for products, perform the following tasks:

1. Creating the smart part numbers. You can do this in one of two ways:
   • Process of Creating Dynamically Generated Smart Part Numbers
   • Process of Creating Predefined Smart Part Numbers
2. Assigning Smart Part Numbers to a Product