RE: Repair Parts List Organization

Subject: RE: Repair Parts List Organization
From: "James Jones" <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 10:46:41 -0500


Not that I know much about this kind of thing. However, maybe my
comments will be helpful. I'd go with a 'from bigger to smaller' schema.
I think it will work on more than one level of information at once (for
example, machine, subassemblies of the machine...). This kind of mirrors
the technical writing 'more general to more specific' schema, too.

Of course you will want to be consistent and use the same format
throughout your documentation. And you will want to keep in mind, when
designing this stuff, how to use online technology and information with
the printed matter.

As to lists referenced by part number, couldn't you have one at the end
of each doc?

Jim Jones http://www.tinyurl.com/4arjc

...If you were designing a list of parts for a complicated machine, how
would you organize the list? . . . We build machines. Systems,
subsystems, and components come from a number of vendors in addition to
parts we manufacture. Our company assigns a unique part number for each
component: both purchased and manufactured. We provide assembly drawings
that show how the components fit together and a list of parts for each
assembly...Ages ago, our engineers actually created the list of parts in
CAD files based on the assembly. We extracted the text and used that to
create the parts lists...Now, all the parts are in a database and I have
the task of designing the parts list (for printed copies) and I wonder
how we can make the information more accessible. Although it is broken
down by assembly, the lists seem almost random and I can't imagine
trying to locate a particular part in the list to find out what I need
to buy to fix my machine. I'm assuming we'll organize the list by
assembly/system, but should we sort by our part number or manufacturer
or part name (description) or the manufacturer's part number. Due to
different numbering schemes, the last option does not seem at all
reasonable...Our products aren't hugely complex (like the space
shuttle), but the parts lists have several hundred items in total...



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