Use of manufacturing serial numbers as asset numbers and/or asset serial numbers

Hello Friends,

In our current implementation of Oracle EAM we are not using manufacturing serial numbers provided by the manufacturer due to primary concern that there could be duplication. I am not sure how likely it is that two different items from two different manufacturers end up with same serial numbers? Our case is an utility, but take any industry for that matter.

I would like to hear from you, please share your experiences!

1) Have you used manufaturing serial numbers in your implementations?

2) How often did you encounter duplicates? What did you do address duplicates?

3) With or without mfg serial number, how much do you rely on asset description to search or identify assets?