New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Product Knowledge Systems

Ask HN: Product Knowledge Systems
2 by retSava | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hi all, curious what those manufacturing physical products use for tracking individual units, their hardware, and history. In this case, suppose a SMB manufactures a sensor unit for industrial use. Volume 100..1000 units per year. Units consists of a few hardware and software components. What sw or system can be used to track those units and what happens to them? Eg, unit X consists of components A, B, C, firmware version D. Shipped to customer Y, shipped back for repairs at date E, replaced component B with F that has firmware version G. Etc, such things. I don't know what I don't know and greatly appreciate any pointers! What are such systems called? What options are there? What are most suitable when volumes are small, up to 1k, and what when larger, perhaps 1Mn? What are the criterias when one should consider migrating from system A to system B, perhaps at a certain complexity? Thanks!