A pump manufacturer had accumulated 137 bearing line items across four product families over twelve years. Most were duplicates that had been created by different engineers, different brands and different ways of writing the same suffix. The target was fewer part numbers with no change to any interface dimension.
Every line was rewritten as dimensions + type + seal + clearance + cage, stripping brand and any house codes.
Lines that normalised identically were grouped; the group inherited the strictest suffix in it.
Each group was checked against the worst-case duty in the range — highest speed, highest temperature, heaviest load.
Each consolidation was signed off by the engineer responsible for the family, not by purchasing.
| Category | Before | After | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total line items | 137 | 41 | 70% reduction |
| Brand-only duplicates | 38 | 0 | Same suffix, different maker |
| Notation duplicates | 21 | 0 | C3 vs blank, 2RS vs 2RS1 |
| Genuine size variants | 62 | 41 | Some families shared a bearing |
| Special items | 16 | 16 | Left alone — high temperature and vertical shaft |
Sixteen items were not consolidated, all of them for a reason: four ran above 120 °C and needed a high-temperature grease and a brass cage; three were on vertical shafts where the fill quantity mattered; nine were inch-series and had no metric equivalent in the range. Consolidation is a documentation exercise with an engineering veto, not a purchasing exercise.
It can if the group inherits the least demanding suffix instead of the most demanding one. Always consolidate upward, to the strictest requirement in the group.
For a range of this size, a few weeks of engineering time spread over the four product families. The data work is quick; the sign-offs take longer.
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