Everything physical in electronics production needs to be identified: parts, lots, storage locations, orders, projects, and builds. ID Anything™ is how PartsBox does it — automatically, with no numbering scheme to design and no chance of a duplicate.
PartsBox generates a unique ID Anything™ code for every object as it is created. You never assign one, reserve a range, or worry about two things colliding. A code identifies one specific object: a reel of a part, a shelf, a purchase order, a finished device.
Every code exists in several forms:
ad5fym30zmk04ahv29mhvg1gd35fym30zmhttps://partsbox.com/Iad5fym30zmk04ahv29mhvg1gd3The short form is simply characters 3–10 of the full code. It is short enough to fit a table column, and typing three of its characters into search is usually enough to jump straight to the object. Codes avoid easily confused characters, so a code read over the phone or copied by hand onto a traveler or an invoice stays unambiguous.
A QR code holds the URL form. Scan it with the built-in scanner in PartsBox, or with any phone or tablet camera, and it opens the information page for that exact object — the part, lot, order, build, or location. No special hardware, and no app to install; you log in if you are not already. Show a code on screen and scan it with your phone to carry on working away from your desk.
This is what makes traceability concrete. Put a label on a reel and a scan tells you the lot, where it came from, and where it has been used. Put a build's label on a finished device and a scan brings up the whole build: which lots of which parts went in, traced back to the orders they arrived on. The same code is searchable everywhere in PartsBox, even when its column is hidden.
The API identifies every object by its ID Anything™ code, and can generate the QR-code image for you. For machine processing, the code is the 26 characters after /I in the URL.
ID Anything™ is in every plan, including the free Maker plan. Viewing what a code points to requires being logged in with access to that data.