The Standard Manufacturer Codes (SMC) were established by RCHTA, now the Hobby Manufacturers Association (HMA), some 30 years ago. Distributors, retailers, and point-of-sale vendors use the 3-letter code assigned to a manufacturer to differentiate between products with the same stock number. It is necessary that the standard codes be used so that retailers receive the products they intended to receive when ordering from their distributors. These three letters appear before the product number. Distributors prefer 4-5 numbers with no other letters or special characters other than the SMC letters, for example, SMC1001.

The Standard Manufacturer Code program is voluntary – not official. It was started to relieve the confusion of distributors each using a different code for the same company. Before the program was started distributors assigned companies they did business with a code and did not share them. A distributor may choose to use any in-house code they choose to assign to a company. We do have distributors that choose not to use the voluntary Standard Manufacturer Code program.