Engineering Decisions, Rants 
16 Comments Commodity Codes Suck
Why is it that, when I either process a stamping or setup a formability simulation for any company in any industry on any continent, I get some proprietary commodity code for a material specification from the customer?
Commodity codes suck, and I will tell you why: they are completely useless.
Every company that needs sheet steel to manufacture products buys the same steel from the same material manufacturers. Commodity codes are a reference to an existing material that the company will purchase.
Die engineers need material properties to do their job effectively. It takes longer to cross-reference some bullshit commodity code to something meaningful than it does to do the job itself.
Here is an idea: create a universally-recognized generic smart code for each material. By smart I mean include the abbreviation for the material type and grade plus the tensile strength.
So, instead of a commodity code like SPX28975AFU, I would have S-DP-500 for Dual Phase Steel with a tensile strength of 500 MPa.
From there, I not only know generally what the material is, I can also get the material properties I need without guessing.
Totally agree, and it just gets worse and worse each year.
One addition to you suggestion, just to avoid confusion:
S-DP-380Y-500P (380 min yield and 500 min tensile)
With HSS some note yield, some quoted Tensile
(with HSLA in the past it was always the yield, with DP some had shifted to Tensile. Lead to much confusion in the Product community. “why is this DP 590 having same performance as HSLA 340?” One was yield the other tensile.)
Yes, it is getting worse every year. Automotive is king of commodity codes that suck – they all make you research what it really is because even they don’t know.
I see this problem all the time in the semiconductor, medical device, consumer product, appliance, and aerospace markets.
I like your refinement of a smart code. Works for me!
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