---
id: KB-IU-006
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/manufacturing/sectors-with-part-level-traceability
idioma: en
categoria: sector-industria
subcategoria: aeronautica
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-IU-001, KB-CS-010, KB-IU-030]
citadoPor: [KB-IU-007, KB-IU-031]
---

# Sectors with part-level traceability

_Aerospace, rail, marine: every part carries its history for decades._

**Responde a:** aerospace part traceability · material certificates by heat number · documentation accompanying a critical part · rail component traceability

Some sectors have documentation that does not accompany the order: it accompanies the part, and does so for its whole service life, which can be thirty years. Aerospace, rail, marine, nuclear and pressure equipment share that demand, and with it a failure mode of their own.

## What travels with each part

| Document | What it evidences | How long it is needed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Material certificate | Which heat the metal came from | The component's whole life |
| Process certificates | Heat treatment, welding, coating | The same |
| Non-destructive testing | That it was checked and with what result | The same |
| Operator qualification | That the welder was certified that day | And that it was valid on that date |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The last row is most underestimated. It is not enough for the welder to hold the qualification: you must be able to show it was **valid on the specific day** the joint was made. A certificate that lapsed two weeks earlier invalidates the work done after.

## The typical failure mode

It is not losing a document: it is being unable to show which part it belongs to. When certificates are filed by supplier or by date instead of by heat and part number, they all exist and none is useful, because nobody can rebuild the association.

1. **The part identifier rules** — Everything hangs off it: heat, processes, tests, who and when.
2. **Documentation arrives with the material** — Not afterwards. A certificate arriving three weeks later no longer finds its part.
3. **Qualifications, with validity and warnings** — It is what prevents work done by someone whose certification has lapsed.
4. **And the set is kept for decades** — Outside the production system, which will change several times in that period.

> [!WARNING]
> The fourth point causes long-term trouble. If documentation lives inside a proprietary system replaced every eight years, each migration is a chance to lose the part-document link. You should be able to export the set in a self-readable form.

## Customer audits

**En corto**

- They pick a part at random and ask for its full history.
- They check that signatures and qualifications were valid on their date.
- And they look at whether you can show it without depending on one person.

> [!NOTE]
> The same pattern applies to pressure equipment, lifting gear and automotive safety components. The reference standard changes; that the filing unit is the part rather than the order does not.

**What about parts made twenty years ago?**

Keep whatever exists; from today, structure by part.

**Is paper acceptable?**

It is, but it cannot answer in minutes or check validity by itself.

**Can it be sealed so the date is not disputed?**

Yes, and for documentation kept for decades it adds a lot.

## Ejemplos

**A machining shop files material certificates by supplier and month.**

- Reorganises by heat and part number
- Links operator qualifications with their validity

→ Answers a customer audit on a specific part in minutes, with validity provable.

**The part is identified and the link is lost at assembly.**

- Ties the part to the assembly as it goes in

→ The backward journey survives assembly.

**A client asks about one specific part.**

- Checks that part's file

→ You reach the heat or the origin batch.

**The material certificate arrives after production.**

- Attaches it to the consignment on receipt

→ The certificate lives with what it covers.

**A consignment problem must be contained.**

- Checks which parts came out of it

→ Scope narrows to what is affected.

**A review asks about parts from years ago.**

- Keeps the files with their dates

→ You answer from the archive.