Once upon a time, in a land before barcodes, internal “smart” part numbering systems were all the rage. You know the type — every character and hyphen packed with meaning, like some cryptic treasure map: LHM-09-0805-R10-SM-LF. 

Turns out, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Here’s why smart part numbers are more of a liability than an asset in modern electronics manufacturing.

1. You already have a database. Use it.

Back when people were managing inventory on clipboards and looking at colored bands on a resistor, a part number that told you everything about the component made sense. But today, that info lives in a database. Or at least, it should.

Your team isn't memorizing resistor specs anymore — they’re scanning barcodes, clicking into ERP systems, or pulling up data from a clean, structured index. So what’s the point of encoding a resistor's tolerance and packaging into a 20-character string of confusion?

Spoiler: there isn’t one.

2. Smart numbers = more room for human error

Humans are bad at remembering codes. Even worse at interpreting ones that change based on tribal knowledge or context.

Teams waste hours trying to decipher whether “201-” refers to the package size, a customer prefix, commodity code, or a New Jersey area code. (It’s always the package size. Except when it’s not.)

The more “meaning” you shove into a part number, the more likely someone misreads it, miskeys it, or misuses it. That's how you end up with thousands of wrong capacitors in your warehouse — or worse, on your production line.

3. Training new hires becomes a nightmare

Imagine this: it’s someone’s first week on the job, and you hand them a 38-page PDF that explains your internal part numbering system.

Now imagine they’re still confused by page 7.

Smart part numbers are often so “smart” that only the original author — who retired 10 years ago — knows what they mean. That’s not documentation. That’s job security in disguise.

4. No schema survives first contact with reality

In theory, your smart numbering system is MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive). In practice? It’s a hot mess after three years, two product line pivots, and one acquisition.

You’ll run out of room for new categories. You’ll find exceptions that don’t fit. You’ll bolt on suffixes. Before long, your elegant system starts looking like a ransom note written by an engineer and an accountant who don't talk to each other.

And you’ll still be explaining why “-X7R” means “transistor” instead of being a dielectric indicator.

5. It adds no actual value

This is the kicker. You’re not shipping the part number. You’re shipping the part.

If your ERP, MRP, or PDM system already stores the attributes — voltage, footprint, tolerance, whether it glows in the dark — then the part number should just be a dumb, stable identifier. Bonus points if it is easier to type on a number pad.

The moment you start encoding intelligence into the part number, you’re just asking for pain with no payoff.

TL;DR

“Smart” part numbers are a relic of a time when people had to memorize things. Today, data is cheap, software is smarter, and your team deserves better than playing codebreaker.

If you really want smart parts, don’t make humans do the work. Let your systems — or better yet, a company that lives and breathes structured data — handle it for you.

We know someone like that. Just sayin’.