Approved Substitute & Alternate Parts Manager
Build an internal tool that keeps a controlled, engineer-approved list of substitute parts - so when a component is short, the floor swaps in an approved equivalent instead of making a risky one-off call.
A controlled substitute-parts list where engineering approves each pairing, planners look up approved alternates during a shortage, every chosen swap is logged with a reason, and you can export the full substitution log on demand.
Before you start
- A free Vercel account
- A free Supabase account
- A free Resend account (for approval and shortage notifications)
- A list of primary parts and proposed substitutes (a spreadsheet is fine)
The problem this kills
A line goes down because one component is short. A planner remembers that "we used a different cap last time, it was fine" and swaps it in. Maybe it was fine. Maybe it wasn't - maybe that substitute was only good up to revision C, or only in one direction, or only on a different customer's job. Now you have a quality escape, a deviation nobody approved, and no record of who decided what.
The fix isn't a hero with a good memory. It's a controlled list of approved substitutes that engineering signs off on once, and that the floor can safely look up every time a shortage hits - with the conditions and effectivity right there next to the part.
What you'll build
A small internal web app where:
- Anyone can propose a substitute pairing: primary part, substitute SKU, the conditions ("up to rev C only"), and whether it's one-way (A can be replaced by B) or interchangeable (either direction).
- Engineering reviews and approves each pairing before it can ever be used. Nothing is usable until a person signs off.
- During a shortage, a planner looks up approved alternates for a part and sees exactly what's allowed and under what conditions.
- The planner records the swap they chose on a specific job, with a reason - so there's a clean trail of every real substitution.
- You can export the substitution log as a clean CSV any time.
What's inside the Implementation Plan
The plan opens by interviewing you about your business - your real part-numbering scheme, the systems and spreadsheets you use today, who proposes vs. who approves, your effectivity rules, your typical and peak shortage volumes, and your messy edge cases. It reflects a short tailored spec back to you and waits for your thumbs-up. Then it builds a tool shaped to your shop, not a generic template.
Inside you get:
- A guided discovery interview so the data model matches your part numbers, revisions, and rules.
- Step-by-step build instructions, each ending with a ready-to-paste prompt for your AI coding agent.
- A data model that tracks substitution direction (one-way vs. interchangeable) and conditions/effectivity.
- A duplicate guard keyed on primary SKU + substitute SKU + effective date, so the same pairing can't be entered twice.
- A human approval gate, full audit trail, login, and per-organization data isolation.
- A "No API yet?" fallback that imports your part and substitute lists from CSV and exports a clean substitution-log CSV - so it's fully buildable today even with no ERP integration.
The governance it includes (this is the point)
- Login so only your team can use the tool.
- Row-level security so each organization only ever sees its own parts and logs.
- A complete audit trail - who proposed, who approved, who swapped, and when.
- A hard human-in-the-loop approval gate - the tool never auto-substitutes. Engineering approves each pairing; a planner manually records each real swap with a reason.
- Duplicate guards so the same pairing can't be approved twice.
Who it's for
Manufacturing engineers, production planners, and buyers who deal with shortages and last-minute substitutions - anyone who has ever had to decide "can we use this other part instead?" under pressure and wished the answer were already written down and approved.
You've got this - paste the first prompt and let the agent interview you.