Same product - new vendors; how to avoid changing part numbers

It will depend on how your product is defined in your configuration management system.

Part number rolls are actually very expensive industry-wide. Lots of people have to touch paperwork. A lower tier part number change requires all higher assemblies to change as well.

If the parts are identical with respect to form, fit and function, then you may be able to make the parts 2-way interchangeable. Your higher level product structure then says you can use A or B without rolling the next-higher assembly.

Vendor parts can also be managed via a Specification Control Drawing which defines all the requirements for the parts (often part families). Your new vendor will have their own internal part number which is qualified against the Spec. You then use your own internal part number in the Spec., and any vendor part qualified to the spec part number is valid for use. In that case your next-higher assembly calls out the spec part # and not the vendor part number.

As a former enterprise rep. for configuration control, there are many ways this can be handled and much of it depends on how it's defined in your product structure, so I would try and work with your own CM people to identify viable solutions. They often exist, but may incur other costs IF your system is set up to use them.

Michelle -

I'd suggest finding out from the regulatory folks what control objective they are trying to satisfy and see if there's a different way in which that can be addressed. The healthcare sector does have more regulatory "bureaucracy" than many others, but you'll want to ensure it is not bureaucracy for its own sake, but rather to manage well identified risks.

Kiron