Cross-references and equivalents: one part, one card

A parts catalogue rots in two ways. The same part appears twice because somebody typed it with a dash; and two different parts are treated as one because somebody said they were "the same" on the phone. The first costs you stock you did not know you had. The second costs you a customer.

One spelling of a number

328-0730 and 3280730 are one card on the desk, shown in the brand's own spelling. Number-shape rules per brand keep new numbers in the same form: Liebherr never has dashes, a 3-3-2 shape is Komatsu, bare digits are decided by the rest of the enquiry. Before any new card is made, up to 300 numbers are checked against the catalogue and shown to you, so nothing gets in without a yes.

An equivalent is a group, not a note

Numbers from different brands that are the same part are kept as one group, not as a remark in a description field. The group is searchable, and it is used everywhere a part is looked up: supplier ranking, pricing from price lists, and the agent's lookup on the phone. An equivalent is always marked as one, never passed off as the original.

Quality on two axes

"Aftermarket" and "used" are different questions, and a catalogue that has one field for both will get one of them wrong. The desk records both: original, OEM or aftermarket; and new, remanufactured or used. A supplier's answer keeps the brand and quality they offered, so the quotation says exactly what is being sold.

Who decided

Every cross-reference records who made it and when. When a customer disputes a substitution, you know whose call it was, and you can undo it for everyone at once.

One part, one card, one person who said so.

Signs your catalogue needs this

• Searching a number with and without dashes gives different results.
• Two suppliers quote "different" parts that turn out to be the same.
• Nobody can say why a part is listed as an equivalent.
• The phone team cannot tell a caller whether you have an alternative.

Where it pays

Cross-references are where a trader's knowledge lives. Kept as groups with a name against them, they rank more suppliers for every order, price more lines from the lists, and let the agent tell a caller at night that an equivalent exists.

How to start with a messy catalogue

Nobody starts clean. Load the price lists you already have, let the desk check every number against the catalogue before a card is made, and merge the duplicate spellings it shows you. Then record cross-references as they come up in real work: a supplier offering an equivalent, a customer asking for an alternative, a salesperson who knows two numbers are the same part. Each one is a group with a name against it, and each one makes the next RFQ faster to price and the next supplier ranking longer.

The systems: TERRA-308 CROSS, TERRA-306 CATALOGUE and TERRA-110 LOOKUP.

Questions