Each part that you maintain in inventory can have one or more manufacturers that supply it. Each part manufacturer may also supply you with several manufacturer part numbers.
You can maintain information about the manufacturers of your parts in the Part Manufacturers page. The manufacturer must be registered in IFS Enterprise (in the Manufacturer page) before you can enter a manufacturer part number record for it.
Manufacturer part numbers are maintained in the Part/Part Pages/ Part Manufacturer or in the Manufacturer Part Numbers page. In these pages, you create a manufacturer part record and associate your company's part number with the manufacturers' part number.
Whenever a manufacturer part has a change in the approval status, or a manufacturer part record is deleted, these events are logged in the manufacturer part history table and can be viewed in the Manufacturer Part Numbers History page.
If you specify manufacturers for a part, one (and only one) of the manufacturers must be selected as the preferred manufacturer for the part. Optionally, you also can select one of the manufacturer part numbers as the preferred part number from that manufacturer. If you have specified a preferred part number from the preferred manufacturer, this part will be suggested whenever you order the part.
For example, suppose your company has a company part number Part-101, which can be ordered from either of two manufacturers, ABC Manufacturing and XYZ Industries. XYZ Industries is the preferred manufacturer. Let's also say that each manufacturer supplies two manufacturer part numbers appropriate for your company part number. See this example illustrated below.
Part-101 -- Manufacturer and Manufacturer Part Number Record
*
= preferred manufacturers and parts
** = part that will be suggested
| Manufacturer | Manufacturer Part Numbers |
| ABC Manufacturing, Inc. | ABC-351 * ABC-353 |
| XYZ Industries Ltd. * | XYZ-1005 XYZ-1010 * (**) |
In the example above, the XYZ-1010 manufacturer part will be suggested anytime you need supply for your Part-101 because it is supplied by the preferred manufacturer and it is the preferred part number from that manufacturer.
Only manufacturer parts records that have been approved can be selected as preferred parts.