How BISSELL retired its approval spreadsheets with 8090
8090 built the system that now runs part and model numbering inside BISSELL’s product development organization. The naming rules that a handful of expert reviewers once enforced by hand are written into software, requests that follow them are approved in seconds, and reviewers give their attention to the requests that need it. The system also runs at about half the annual cost of the process it replaced.
Client
Sector
Consumer products · Manufacturing
Program
Product development automation
Engagement
Custom workflow software
Approach
Codified rules · PLM integration
0%
cost reduction in running the process, people and software included.
0+
parts submitted through the system since launch, every one checked against the rules.
0.0%
of submitted parts approved automatically, with no reviewer involved and no time in a queue.
0 days
on average from a request’s first draft to final approval, for requests that once waited on a reviewer’s calendar.
A product pipeline that waited on spreadsheets.
Every product BISSELL ships is built from parts, and every part needs an official name and number before engineering work can move forward. For years that process ran on Excel forms routed through a defined PLM process: an engineer would fill out a request, sometimes with more than twenty parts on it, and send it off to be checked by hand against conventions that were documented but not systematically enforced, so they were applied a little differently depending on who did the checking.
Requests came from BISSELL teams around the world, and all of them waited on a small approval group in North America. The rules themselves were the kind a computer could apply in an instant: a name can only be so long, it has to start from an approved list of words, it can only use certain characters. Because no system knew them, every name got reviewed by a person, including the large majority that would have passed anyway.
Write the rules down, then let software apply them.
8090 built the Part Management System, a web application that sits in front of the PLM system BISSELL already runs. The PLM system stays the system of record. What changed is everything that used to happen before a part reached it.
01 · Codify
One rulebook instead of many
8090 worked with BISSELL’s administrators to reconcile their differing conventions into one centralized rulebook of approved words, descriptors, and values.
02 · Check
Every request is validated as it’s written
The system checks each name against every rule as engineers type. A name that passes is approved on submission, and one that doesn’t goes to a reviewer with the reason attached.
03 · Connect
Approvals land in the PLM system on their own
Approved parts are created in the PLM system automatically, with forms and approval history filed alongside them.
One part, through the system.
The system sorts every submitted part into one of two paths. Most parts follow the blue one.
01 · ENGINEER
Builds a part name
A guided form assembles the name from approved blocks.
AXLE - BLK, 12mm DIA, STEEL
02 · SYSTEM
Instant rule check
The documented naming rules, written into the system and applied live.
03A · NO REVIEW NEEDED
81.4%
Auto-approved in seconds
Compliant names never wait in a queue.
03B · A PERSON DECIDES
18.6%
Routed to a reviewer
Only the exceptions reach a person: approve, approve and add a new rule, or send back to revise.
revise & resubmit
04 · RECORDED
Created in the PLM system
BISSELL’s engineering system of record, updated automatically.
Illustrative · Flow representative of the BISSELL Part Management System · Approval rates from production analytics, December 2025 to July 2026
A part name builds itself from approved pieces.
In the system, a name can only be assembled from pieces the rulebook recognizes, so most of the old mistakes can no longer be made at all. Pick a different part type, choose a custom value on any field, and watch the rules react.
Constructed part name
Every value came from the approved lists, so the part is approved the moment the request is submitted and the name is created in the PLM system without anyone in the loop.
Rule check
Illustrative · The nouns, descriptors, and formatting shown are representative, and the interface is simplified from the production system.
One system for the paperwork of product development.
Part naming was the sharpest bottleneck, and it was one of about six request workflows across parts and models that ran the same way. The system brought them into one place.
Model requests follow the same path
Marketers request model numbers through the same kind of guided, rules-first workflow, from number generation through approval, the way part requests already work.
BISSELL can edit its own rulebook
Administrators add approved words and values and adjust validation rules without waiting on 8090. Any user can propose a new value with a justification, and the request routes to an administrator inside the system instead of over email.
The process is measurable for the first time
A live dashboard shows request volumes, approval rates, and time to finalization. Questions that once had no answer, like how long approvals actually take, are now a glance at a chart.
The bottleneck is gone, and the judgment stayed.
Every part and model request at BISSELL now runs through the system, and the spreadsheet-based approval process it replaced is retired. Reviewers still decide every case that needs a decision. The difference is that nothing else reaches them.
The rulebook also gets more capable with use. When a reviewer approves a new value, they can add it to the rules in the same action, and every similar request afterward approves automatically. BISSELL keeps the judgment calls while the software does the manual checking.
Are the processes your business depends on stuck in spreadsheets, waiting on somebody’s calendar?
8090 uses Software Factory to replace the manual middle of an operation, codifies the rules your experts carry in their heads, and stays accountable for the result in production.