Industrial and Manufacturing Marketing Blog

How Mobile Technology Helps Component Manufacturers Make Their Printed Catalogs More Productive

Component manufacturers are keenly aware of the fact that design engineers must first specify their components or parts before purchasing can place an order. These manufacturers have relied on their printed catalogs in the past to get their parts “designed in.”

However, there is an inherent drawback to these static printed catalogs. An engineer must first leaf through the pages, find the right part number and then call the components manufacturer for details, CAD drawings and pricing information. This manual process can lead to delays, errors and lost opportunities.

CADENAS PARTsolutions, a leading provider of PLM solutions for next generation 3D part catalog management and hosting, has come up with an innovative solution that marries today’s mobile technology with yesterday’s printed catalog. They call it their “Smart Catalog.”

Component manufacturers can now link their catalog pages with live product details and CAD models utilizing QR codes thereby reducing an engineer’s specifying time from hours to seconds. This diagram from their blog illustrates the whole process very nicely.

Smart Catalog from PARTSolution

Their USP is pretty cool too – Print catalog + Smartphone = Smart Catalog

You can read more about Smart Catalogs here.

NOTE: I’m not affiliated with this company in anyway. I just happen to be familiar with their digital solutions for manufacturers.

CAD drawings, 3D models, Online Configurators and Part Number Finder/Builder are powerful content assets for manufacturers to use in their industrial marketing. Some companies have reported that cost per lead from CAD downloads are significantly lower and close to 60% of them turn into RFQs and orders. You may also want to check out my earlier post, “How Manufacturers Use 3D CAD Models and 2D CAD Drawings as Sales Enablers.”

Do you use eCatalogs and/or online configurators in your industrial websites?

Achinta Mitra

Achinta Mitra calls himself a “marketing engineer” because he combines his engineering education and an MBA with 36 years of practical industrial marketing experience. You want an expert with an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s objectivity who can point you in the right direction immediately. That's Achinta. He is the Founder of Tiecas, Inc., an industrial marketing consultancy in Houston, Texas. Read Achinta's story here.
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