Physical Item Manufacturers Reference

Hi All,

I was at a user and they have run into a problem. They identify procured items with an internal identifier and then relate multiple manufacturer references to this item.

They have now encountered a problem in that some of these manufacturers are no longer in existence or have been bought out by other manufacturers. (Obsolescence management)

They need a mechanism to identify that specific manufacturers references are no long valid or obsolete. They do not want to remove the manufactures reference as when they identify new items they must have the ability to search on manufactures reference to see if the item already exists.

The question is have any of you encountered this issue before? and if so how have you been able to resolve it?