Vendor Management via Crossparts

Many manufacturers purchase a component from multiple preferred vendors, each with their own vendor part number. This can be a headache when there is not an agreed-upon manufacturer’s part number (MPN) that they can all leverage. Your purchasing team has to be able to get costing and availability from each vendor, and easily see and track this data over time. So, how do you manage multiple vendors and vendor part numbers for the same part?

Cetec ERP helps you manage this with a feature we call Cross Parts, which allows you to define a cross-type and a part number. One of the uses of Cetec ERP’s cross-part feature is the ability to manage the vendors approved for a particular part, and what name the vendor may use to refer to the part.

For a detailed description of setting up vendor cross parts, you can check out one of our video guides.

Now that you are familiar with the Cross Parts feature, let’s look at an example of how this tool can be utilized. In the first screenshot you can see the part record for BOM102. BOM102 has three Vendor Part Crosses built out: ASSEMBLY102, Bill-of-Material 102, and 567342034569.

To get an idea of how this information is passed to the purchasing department, let’s take a look at this BOM102 on the MRP screen. Here, the purchasing user has run MRP and found that there is a row for BOM102. The purchaser can now open the part information and tell from a glance at the counter in the tab name “Crosses (3)” that there are three crosses indicated that may influence which vendor they’ll decide to send a quote.

Your purchaser can then click into the tab to check the vendors and choose which they want to quote. Then when they go to generate a PQuote for that vendor, Cetec ERP will detect the part cross and automatically display the vendor name as indicated by the cross part record.

In addition to all this, crosses will affect the documentation generated. If you have a part-cross set up for a given vendor, and you select that vendor on the PQuote you generate for that part, then Cetec ERP will find the vendor part name that was associated with that cross. Using this information, Cetec ERP will display the Vendor name in a field that you can choose to show on your PDF in addition to or instead of your internal part name.

Cetec ERP’s Cross Parts is an invaluable feature that helps to manage multiple approved vendors for your parts. It allows purchasers to easily and quickly compare costs and availability of components, enabling them to quickly make better decisions. This results in cost savings for your businesses, as well as increased efficiency in your supply chain, leading to improved customer satisfaction and operational success.