Customer part number cross-reference
A customer part number cross-reference is a mapping between the part numbers a customer uses on its orders and the item numbers in your own catalogue, so that an order written in the customer's numbering can be entered against the right items.
Why customers use their own numbers
A customer’s purchasing system has its own item master. Its buyers order by the number in that system, not by yours. The same physical part can therefore appear on orders under several numbers:
- the customer’s own part number,
- the manufacturer’s part number,
- your item number,
- a UPC or other barcode number.
On an EDI 850, each identifier comes with a qualifier that says which kind it is. On an emailed or PDF order there is no qualifier, only a number in a column, and a description if you are lucky.
Where the mapping lives
Most distribution ERPs keep a cross-reference table per customer: customer part number on one side, your item on the other, sometimes with a customer-specific description or unit of measure. Order entry looks the number up there before falling back to the catalogue.
Why it is hard to keep right
- It is never complete. Customers add parts, and the first order for a new part has no entry.
- Parts are superseded. A manufacturer replaces one number with another, and old orders keep using the old one.
- Numbers are written inconsistently. Dashes, spaces and leading zeros come and go.
- One number can mean two things. The same string may be a customer part for one account and a manufacturer part for another.
- Long orders multiply it. A forty-line order needs forty correct lookups.
A wrong match is worse than no match. An unmatched line gets noticed; a line matched to the wrong item ships.
How Runtara handles it
In a Runtara order workflow, customer part numbers are matched to your items before the order reaches the ERP. Where a part has a substitute, the substitution is suggested for review rather than applied silently. Anything the workflow cannot match with confidence is held for a person, with the order and ERP data side by side.