The vision

One part. One code.
Everywhere.

A manufacturer makes a part. A distributor lists it. A plant creates a material record for it. An engineer specifies it, procurement buys it, maintenance fits it. By then the same part carries a dozen numbers and a dozen descriptions, and every system that touches it repeats the work of deciding what it is.

Q-UPID ends the repetition.

What Q-UPID is

A permanent code for one manufacturer's part

Q-UPID, the Qualified Unique Part Identifier, is a permanent code for one manufacturer's part.

Identity rests on two facts: the manufacturer, resolved against governed evidence, and the manufacturer's part number, kept as the manufacturer writes it. Descriptions give context. They never decide identity. If the combination cannot be resolved, no code is issued.

Example: Q-AC4F82M-3. Every code has the same shape, and nothing inside it means anything.

AI can search, read and propose candidates. Probabilistic discovery finds the evidence; deterministic allocation decides identity.

Q-UPID 2D code for the demo part Q-AC4F82M-3, inside the Q-UPID magnifier mark
The 2D code carries the Q-UPID on a label or specification sheet. Scanning it opens the code's page on q-upid.com.
Q - A C 4 F 8 2 M - 3 PrefixQ marks a Q-UPIDAlways the same Identity: 7 characters27-symbol alphabet10.46 billion possible codesNo meaning encoded Check: 1 characterComputed in GF(27)Catches every single error,every swap, every repeated pair Alphabet: A C D E F G H J K L M N P R S T U V W 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9Left out: 0 5 B I O Q X Y Z, which are easily confused when read aloud or printed small.
Structure of a Q-UPID. The check character is explained, with reference code, on the demo datasheet.

How a Q-UPID works

Four principles, no exceptions

  1. PRINCIPLE 1

    Globally Unique

    One code identifies one manufacturer's part, worldwide.

  2. PRINCIPLE 2

    Manufacturer-Specific

    Identical parts from different manufacturers get different codes.

  3. PRINCIPLE 3

    Specification-Defined

    Any change to part number, fit, form, function or defining specification needs a new Q-UPID.

  4. PRINCIPLE 4

    Permanent and Immutable

    A code is never changed, reused or reassigned.

Scope

What it is not

Q-UPID is not a catalogue, a specification database or a register of equivalents.

A replacement is a relationship between two parts. So is a compatible alternative. Those relationships belong in a separate layer, never inside the identifier. Nothing is silently treated as the same part.

The opportunity

Why it matters

Once records point at the same verified identity, connecting them becomes cheap. Manufacturer specification to purchase order. Documentation to installed asset. Field evidence to an AI-assisted decision.

Nobody has to give up their own numbers. Plants keep their material codes, distributors keep their SKUs, assets keep their serials. What changes is that every one of them can state, without ambiguity, which part it means.

That is the foundation on which shared industrial knowledge can be built: a reference the world can agree on, and evidence that accumulates against it instead of fragmenting across it.

Status

Where it stands

Take part

Help set the reference layer for what comes next

If you make parts, publish catalogues or build the systems that hold them, you can help set the reference layer for what comes next.

To find out how to enable Q-UPID for your products or platform, send an enquiry or email [email protected].

Send an enquirySee the demo datasheet