Create Part Types

Part Types are primarily assigned to help you to organize your database. Some Part Types may also have attributes that control how Aligni performs some operations such as attrition and so called “non-material” part types that do not have associated inventory. Typical Part Types are “Capacitor”, “Resistor”, “IC”, “PCB”, “Mechanical”, “Document”, “Fabrication”, etc.

Part Types

Organization Settings Parts Part Types

Part Type is a required field for defining all parts in your database. Although mostly an organizational attribute for a part, the part type also prescribes certain functionality within Aligni and controls behavior, in particular with regard to inventory features.

If your Part Numbering scheme involves a part type prefix, that information is defined and viewed here. For auto-numbering schemes, the next part number to be assigned is also seen here.

Attrition

You may assign a default attrition value to any part type. This attrition value is the default amount of attrition that is used to compute inventory consumption on a board. For example, if a particular build requires 1,000 resistors and you have 5% assigned as the resistor attrition, then the build can be setup to automatically consume 1,050 resistors during the allocation stage for that build. Part Type attrition values may be overridden by each specific part, if desired.

 

Although non-material parts do not have associated inventory, they can still contribute to the cost of manufacturing. Non-material items such as labor or testing are figured into the cost of an assembly at the end of the build process.

Non-Material Items

Non-Material part types are those that do not have inventory associated with them. They are present on an assembly’s BOM and also figure into the cost for the assembly, but do not have any inventory accounting. Examples include fabrication steps which are performed during assembly. Other examples include PCB entities that may be required by your CAD software and included on the BOM, but are not costed and are not inventoried.