Automated notification of part revisions for outside suppliers

A computer program product for performing a process of making revisions to part specification and purchasing documents and a process of notifying relevant parties associated with purchasing documents of the revisions, the computer program product comprising a set of instructions, stored on a tangible non-transitory computer readable medium, that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the following operations:

• monitoring user access to the part specification documents, the user access being for creation, deletion, or release of a part specification document defining a revision, the revision being associated with a part having a unique part number;
• searching open purchasing documents relating to outside suppliers for the unique part number responsive to the creation, deletion, or release of the revision to thereby identify each open purchasing document associated with the part associated with the revised part specification document, the identified open purchasing documents comprising one or more open purchase orders for the part, the part being currently manufactured under the one or more open purchase orders;
• automatically identifying an email address associated with each respective outside supplier associated with each purchasing document containing the unique part number of the part associated with the revised part specification document;
• automatically notifying each identified outside supplier of the revision;
• and
• providing the revised part specification document to each identified outside supplier associated with each respective purchasing document containing the unique part number of the part associated with the revised part specification document.

A computer implemented method of notifying relevant parties of revisions to part specification documents, implemented by a manufacturer computer associated with a manufacturer and for performing a process of updating manufacturer part databases and a process of notifying outside part suppliers of updated purchasing requirements, the computer implemented method comprising the following steps:

• responsive to detecting a revision to a part specification document for a part, identifying a unique part number associated with the part having the revised part specification document;
• positioning each unique part number associated with the revised part specification revisions within a queue defining a part revision notification queue;
• checking the part revision notification queue for presence of a unique part number indicating a revision to an associated part specification document has been made;
• responsive to the presence of unique part number in the part revision notification queue, searching all open purchasing documents and all part specification documents stored within computer memory for documents containing the unique part number, the open purchasing documents comprising one or more open purchase orders for the part, the part being currently manufactured under the one or more open purchase orders;
• responsive to locating an open purchasing document containing the unique part number, identifying an outside supplier electronic mail address associated with the identified open purchasing document;
• and
• generating, responsive to identifying each outside supplier electronic email address, an electronic mail message notification of the revision to the part specification document for the part having the unique part number associated with the purchasing document, the electronic mail message notification being generated for transmission to the outside supplier electronic mail address associated with the purchasing document, the electronic mail message notification containing the unique part number and a link to the revised part specification document.