Werk24 Expands Identifier Support: Tackling the Messy World of Numbers, Codes, and IDs

Knowledge Explained
Written By Maria Anwer

Introduction

Engineering drawings and manufacturing documents are full of numbers. Some are part numbers, some are drawing numbers, others are customer or supplier references. Each company, each ERP system, and sometimes each department comes up with their own way of labeling and tracking things. The result? A confusing maze of identifiers that often mean slightly different things to different stakeholders.

At Werk24, our mission is to make this complexity understandable and usable. With our latest release, we’ve expanded the set of identifiers that our software can recognize, classify, and return to you.

 

What's New

Starting with Werk24-Client 2.2.0, you’ll now see support for additional identifiers in your output:

  • ORIGIN_DRAWING_NUMBER

  • REFERENCE_DRAWING_NUMBER

  • PROJECT_NAME

  • MATERIAL_NUMBER

  • MATERIAL_WAREHOUSE_NUMBER

  • PRODUCT_ID

These join our already extensive list of supported identifiers, which includes essentials like PART_NUMBER, DRAWING_NUMBER, ORDER_NUMBER, CUSTOMER_NAME, ERP_NUMBER, and many more.



Why Identifiers Are Hard 

The fundamental problem with identifiers is simple:

  • Everyone invents their own. There’s no central database of all the different numbers, IDs, and codes that exist across industries.

  • Same thing, different names. What one company calls a Werk24 Number, another might call a Drawing Reference.

  • Context matters. An identifier might be about the supplier, the customer, the manufacturer, or even a specific time period (e.g., "previous supplier drawing number").

That's why Werk24 doesn’t just extract raw text—we interpret identifiers within a clear framework.



How Werk24 Structures Identifiers

To make identifiers useful and unambiguous, Werk24 classifies them along three dimensions:

  • Type (IdentifierType)
    Defines what kind of identifier it is: a part number, a drawing number, a project name, a material number, etc.

  • Stakeholder (IdentifierStakeholder)
    Tells you who the identifier relates to: supplier, customer, or owner. For example, a supplier drawing number is not the same as an owner drawing number.

  • Period (IdentifierPeriod)
    Clarifies the when: is this the previous number, the current number, or a planned future one?

A full identifier entry in Werk24 therefore looks like this:

Identifier(
    identifier_type=IdentifierType.DRAWING_NUMBER,
    stakeholder=IdentifierStakeholder.SUPPLIER,
    period=IdentifierPeriod.PREVIOUS
)

This means: The supplier’s previous drawing number.

Why This Matters

By structuring identifiers in this way, Werk24 enables:

  • Cleaner integrations with ERP, PLM, and MES systems, which often choke on ambiguous identifiers.

  • Traceability across document revisions, suppliers, and customers.

  • Context-aware automation—because knowing whose number and which period we’re talking about makes all the difference.

 

Looking Ahead

Identifiers will never be simple. There will always be new types, new stakeholders, and new contexts. But by steadily expanding our support and keeping the framework flexible, Werk24 gives manufacturers, engineers, and integrators a stable way to work with messy, real-world data.

This release is just one more step in that journey.

If you’re already on Werk24-Client 2.2.0, the new identifiers are available today. If not, now’s the perfect time to upgrade and simplify how you deal with identifiers in your workflows.

👉 Ready to try it? Get started with Werk24 and see how structured identifiers can make your engineering data cleaner and smarter. You can also schedule a call with one of our experts now to learn more.

Maria Anwer
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