Manage parts - ION Manual

Create a part

1. Navigate to Parts Library from the main nav.
2. Click Create Part.
3. Fill in the fields in the Create Part dialog:

• Part Number (required): your org’s identifier for the part.
  • Description: a short description of the part.
  • Revision Scheme (required): the scheme that governs how this part’s revision values increment, such as A, B, C or 1, 2, 3. See Set a part’s revision scheme.
  • Revision: the starting revision value. Leave it blank to start at the scheme’s first value.
  • Purchase Type (required): how the part behaves when purchased. Options are Creates inventory, Does Not Create Inventory, Physically Received, and Does Not Create Inventory, Digitally Received.
  • Sourcing Strategy: Buy, Make, Dual source, or None.
  • Tracking: LOT, SERIAL, or None. See Serial and lot tracking before you pick.
  • Unit of Measure: the unit the part is counted or measured in.

4. Click Create Part. The new part has the status Released, and ION opens the new part’s page.
5. On the part page, fill in the remaining fields you need, such as Cost, Lead Time, Reorder Point Minimum, Reorder Point Maximum, and an Image for visual identification. Each field saves on its own as you edit it.

To create a second part that shares a part number, create it under a different revision.

Edit a part

Open the part from the Parts Library. Fields in the Part Information card edit in place and each one saves on its own as you change it. The card includes Part Number, Description, Revision Scheme, Purchase Type, Lead Time, Unit of Measurement, Cost, Tracking, Sourcing Strategy, Reorder Point Minimum, Reorder Point Maximum, and Image. Some fields have downstream consequences:

• Tracking: changing this after inventory exists is constrained. ION blocks switches that would invalidate existing inventory.
• Sourcing Strategy: Buy, Make, or Dual source determines how procurement and planning treat the part.
• Cost: propagates to BOM cost rollups and inventory valuation.

The Revision field is read-only on the part page. To change a revision, create a new revision or change the revision scheme. If two people edit the same part at the same time, ION rejects the second save. Reload the part and reapply your change.

Create a revision

To create a new revision:

1. Open the existing part.
2. Click Create New Revision.
3. ION creates the new part record at the next revision in the scheme, links it to the previous revision, copies forward editable fields, and opens the new revision’s page. Edit anything that the design change requires.

Archive a part

When a part is out of production:

1. Open the part.
2. Click Archive.

The part’s status changes to Archived, and the button becomes Release so you can reverse it. The part stays searchable and historical references stay intact, but by default it’s filtered out of active-part pickers, such as BOM line creation and PO line creation.

Don’t delete parts. ION archives parts instead of deleting them because runs, issues, BOMs, POs, and inventory all reference the part. Deleting a part would orphan years of history.

Bulk operations

For large-scale changes, such as importing a thousand parts from an ERP, use ION Importers. It gives you a dry-run mode to preview the effect before you apply it. For programmatic part management, see Common queries: create a part.