If you need to generate part numbers as part of your product design process, check out the part number service available at http://www.part-numbering.com. They offer a web-base, on-demand part numbering service that will have you up and generating part numbers within minutes. The setup is really easy, and you can configure it to work with descriptive or non-descriptive number formats (or both). You can set up as many number formats as you like, so you can get it to work with existing number format schemes as well as creating new numbering schemes.

Since it's web based, you can have all the other people in your organization using it without having to install anything (they let you add as many users as you like for now additional charge).