Industrial Distribution

Jack Keough

Unreliable part numbers?
April 8, 2005

This is an e-mail I recently received from a veteran branch manager in the power transmission business regarding unreliable parts numbers. This is a problem that seems to be getting worse. What do you think?

I have been in the bearing and power trans. business since 1978, and have never been more disappointed than I am now.

In the last year I have had several instances where customers have ordered and received the wrong item because the manufacturers are using common parts on their products without regard to part numbers. I have sold:

single row ball bearings instead of desired double row because the mfr. installed seals with single row nomenclature on them, standard conveyor chain instead of over sized roller conveyor chain because the mfr. used common side plates with the wrong part number on it, a "5V" type sheave when the customer wanted a "C" section sheave because the mfr. used a common casting but did not bother to remove the cast in part number.

In one case my customer almost lost his job because his manager had promised the production dept. that a down machine would be up and running as soon as the needed bearing was in and installed. We supplied a single row sealed bearing, when in fact they needed a double row-self aligning bearing. He ordered what the part number clearly stated on the seal. Needless to say they could not use the bearing that I had sent and therefore were not able to resume production. Of course blame was placed on the purchasers shoulders. When he called me to explain that he did not get what he really needed I had to drive over and straighten out the mess.

Fortunately, I was able to explain what had happened and cool down a very angry maintenance manager. When I told the bearing mfr. that this was happening (two separate occurrences), I was assured that the matter would be looked into. They still have not corrected this.

In fact I have complained to all of the mfrs. that I have seen this happen with, and have yet to hear that anything would be done about it.

I can only hope that somebody at your publications might look into this and perhaps write an article alerting the industry that part numbers are no longer reliable and that exact descriptions are needed to ensure accuracy in filling orders,(a very cumbersome, and sometimes impossible task).

Please keep in mind that in the bearing industry we routinely hold tolerances to four decimal places, but can not even rely on part numbers any longer.

Posted by Jack Keough on April 8, 2005 | Comments (2)