A partial part is exactly that - an incomplete assembly. It is a product of an MRO disassembly shop order, and occurs when the user chooses a maintenance level that would remove some (but not all) of the components of the part. Those components that are not removed comprise the partial part, sometimes called a 'husk' or 'lump' part. While the part is incomplete, it is still an important item for purposes of material tracking. The partial part functionality allows the user to retain visibility to a partial part - where it is in inventory, what order created it and what order will consume it.
For purposes of partial part tracking, only serial-tracked parts may be partial parts.
The requirement for a partial part is defined on the Maintenance Level Part definition. If the disassembly of the part to the listed maintenance level would result in a partial part, the user will indicate this on the maintenance level part definition. The user will also indicate the condition code that would be used to describe the partial part.
When performing the disassembly of the part in question, the system will indicate to the user if a partial part receipt is expected. The user performs the partial part receipt. This will allow the user to indicate the location the partial part is to be received into. When the receipt is made, the system will automatically reserve the partial part to the assembly shop order that will reassemble the part.
The receipt of a partial part also causes the system to mark the part serial catalog record for the received serial as a partial part. The record will contain information in the part serial history to describe the order that resulted in the receipt and the condition code that was defined for the partial part will also be noted in the part serial catalog and history.
A partial part can be unreceived, which will unreserve the part from the assembly shop order, and update the part serial catalog information so that it no longer is marked as a partial part.
Because the partial part was reserved to the assembly order automatically, it will appear as one of the allocated components to be issued to the assembly order, and the issue process works the same for a partial part as it would for a normal part. Once the partial part is issued to the assembly order, it ceases to be a partial part and is instead restored to its normal complete state. This means the information in part serial catalog that noted the serial was partial is updated to show the serial is now complete, and the part serial history will show the order that the partial part was issued into.
A partial part can be unissued from an assembly order - this will result in the partial part being returned to the location it was issued from, and will result in the part serial catalog being updated again to show the part is a partial part. The unissued partial part will still be reserved to the assembly shop order. However, once the assembly shop order has been received, the partial part cannot be unissued from the assembly order.