Good Morning All,

I'm looking for suggestions for the best way to identify individual parts on assembly drawings and the corresponding BOM. 

Currently my company uses a split balloon, with the top half being the item number (which is the item/line number on the excel BOM) and the bottom half being the drawing number.  If it is a manufactured detail, our numbering scheme is XXXX-YYY (Job and section) -A001 (for assemblies) or -D101 (for details).  If it is a purchased item, the bottom half of the balloon is a 1 (to signify the BOM, the first sheet in the book). 

We have a macro that automatically numbers all of the balloons for us, we just have to select them in order.  We also have a macro that generates the excel BOM, but the excel BOM is not linked to the SW assembly BOM. 

This is in the assembly automation field, so there are repeat jobs, but when that happens it is usually one, or a couple per year, with some engineering upgrades. What I'm trying to figure out is if this is the most effective/efficient way to document a machine. It's currently very difficult to re-use details between machines, or even sections really, because the numbering system is a little clunky when you start putting together the actual print books.

All in all, the system works fairly well, but I was just curious as to what everyone else in the SW world uses to see if there are any improvements that we could make.

Thanks!