Additional Windchill Capabilities > Windchill Supplier Management > Windchill Supplier Management Overview > Understanding OEM Parts, Manufacturer Parts, and Vendor Parts
  
Understanding OEM Parts, Manufacturer Parts, and Vendor Parts
Windchill Supplier Management enables you to manage parts that must be purchased from external suppliers. It also lets you track manufacturer and vendor parts provided by these suppliers. Descriptions of Windchill objects used to represent these parts follow.
OEM Part
An Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) part is an enterprise part that has a Source attribute set to Buy (or Buy-Single Source). An OEM is a company that manufactures original equipment using components supplied by external suppliers. For an OEM part, Component and Procurement Engineers create an AML and/or AVL. An OEM part can also be associated with multiple manufacturer and vendor parts.
Manufacturer Part
A manufacturer part is a part produced by a manufacturer other than the OEM. A manufacturer part is described by attributes (for example, a manufacturer part number). The owning organization for a manufacturer part is the organization that represents this manufacturer. A manufacturer part can be associated to an OEM part. A manufacturer part can be classified to allow its physical characteristics and the manufacturer information to be used in the Classification search.
Vendor Part
A vendor part is a part supplied by a vendor. A vendor part is described by attributes (for example, a vendor part number). The owning organization for a vendor part is the organization that represents this vendor. A vendor part can be associated to a manufacturer part, or it can be directly associated to an OEM part. A vendor part can be classified to allow its vendor information to be used in the Classification search.