Why Parts Identification is the Core Challenge to a Thriving Genuine Parts Business for Material Handling Equipment OEMs
The Critical Challenges for Material Handling Equipment Manufacturers Selling Genuine Spare Parts
Imagine the current scenario where your customers or authorized distribution partners are navigating a complex maze of spare parts, desperately searching for that one elusive component to bring their forklift or other material handling equipment back to life. It might sound like an exaggerated story, but this is the reality for many end users struggling with spare parts identification. In an industry where operations are heavily reliant on machine uptime, removing the friction from the spare parts buying process is essential.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) producing material handling equipment require a spare parts system that minimizes downtime, handles a wide variety of parts, and can respond to urgent needs. We recently attended ProMat 2025 to visit our customers and continue learning more about the challenges facing these critical equipment manufacturers.
Several factors create unique challenges regarding spare parts for material handling equipment manufacturers. Here’s a breakdown:
Downtime is expensive: Equipment failure halts operations.
Variety and complexity of equipment: Requires managing a huge assortment of spare parts.
Urgent need for parts: Companies can’t afford long lead times.
Long equipment lifespan: Need to support new and old equipment.
Harsh operating environments: Increased wear and tear on parts.
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Whether selling spare parts directly or through authorized dealer networks, genuine parts are essential to ensure the highest levels of safety, quality, and machine uptime. Spare part sales for material handling equipment often rely on outdated paper or digital catalogs that cannot support parts identification in the event of unknown part numbers. OEMs that struggle with the parts identification and search process in their buying experience are seeing declines in their parts businesses to non-genuine aftermarket competitors.
The core of the issue lies in unique spare part search challenges from complex machine parts data and less-than-ideal eCommerce or customer portal experience. The poor experience can transform even the most determined end user into a “Parts Detective,” struggling to find answers amidst confusing catalogs, obscure part numbers, and a lack of clear solutions to get the equipment up and running again as quickly as possible.
Outdated and poorly maintained parts databases can create significant hurdles for you and your partners. Inaccurate part numbers and missing information lead to frustrating and time-consuming searches, unnecessary support calls, and incorrect part orders that lead to expensive returns and increased downtime of critical equipment. OEMs that fail to prioritize this crucial aspect of their parts-selling process will struggle to compete with non-genuine part manufacturers.
What Makes Genuine Part Identification So Challenging for Material Handling Equipment?
Whether you sell directly to customers, through an authorized dealer network, or a combination of both, the parts identification process for end users can be a very frustrating experience due to several challenges.
To address these challenges, we must uncover the obstacles inherent in the complete buying process. From elusive part numbers and static catalogs to overwhelmed service desks, let’s explore why so many customers are forced to become the Parts Detectives, leading a complicated investigation to find the right spare part.
Elusive Part Numbers: Imagine the frustration of your customer trying to find a needed part, only to discover they can’t accurately identify the part number. Whether the serial number is worn, the original Bills of Materials (BOMs) are missing, or your parts data is incorrect, nonexistent, and non-matched part numbers deliver a poor customer experience. It’s enough to cause significant frustration and critical machine downtime that drives end users down a competitor’s path of least resistance. To improve this experience, you must ensure that your customers have extensive options to accurately identify and search for their parts digitally.
The Static Parts Catalog: Excel spreadsheets, paper or PDF part catalogs, or other outdated parts management methods leave users scrolling endlessly through pages of static diagrams, struggling to decipher tiny part numbers, and hoping they’ve selected the right component without any visual confirmation or confidence in the purchase. The time-consuming parts identification search process can quickly become a draining experience that becomes costly to your top and bottom line while consequently eroding trust. OEMs that focus on creating a digital-first visual parts identification and search experience empower end customers and dealers to identify, search, and buy the right parts without extensive knowledge or expertise.
The Overburdened Help Desk: When all else fails, there’s always the call to the help desk. The process is a time-consuming and costly option that can even stump experts with vague descriptions of parts and disjointed parts data to work with. It can quickly turn what should be a few minutes into hours as your customers and service teams struggle to decipher the part number. When your end users call the help desk and cannot get the help they need in a timely manner, you can imagine the frustration growing as time goes by and machine downtime increases. Suppose a fully digital and ecommerce genuine spare parts business is not in the cards right now. In that case, it’s important to give your service reps and partners a digital portal that enables them to service your end users with the right spare parts quickly.
The Real Cost to Material Handling Equipment OEMs that Do Not Address these Challenges
These part identification challenges go beyond frustrating customers and service reps; they also impact profits for your overall service business and the longevity of the equipment. A poor parts identification and search experience results in high support costs, wasted time, and poor eCommerce adoption, all of which significantly impact your bottom line and overall brand perception.
New capital equipment sales have considerably lower margins compared to spare parts, which can offer much healthier margins when your buying process is seamless. Considering the long lifespan of material handling equipment, OEMs should have thriving parts businesses to help customers maximize machine uptime and longevity.
If your aftermarket service business strategy does not include implementing new technology to enhance the parts identification and purchasing process, your profits can be affected. Buyers will abandon their searches in frustration or turn to non-genuine competitors who offer a better experience, even if it impacts efficiency in the long run.
But there’s good news! There is a reality you can create where parts identification is no longer a complicated guessing game but a quick and painless process that enables anyone to be the successful Parts Detective who solves the case of the missing part number.
Address Your Challenges with CDS Partable: The AI-Powered Visual Search Solution Empowers Anyone to Be a Successful Parts Detective in Any Channel
CDS Partable is the AI-powered visual identification and search solution built for material handling equipment OEMs. Partable seamlessly helps eliminate uncertainty by allowing customers and end users to identify, search, and visually confirm they’ve selected the right part before making the purchase.
Visually guiding users through a self-service part identification and buying process provides a sense of confidence and control that transforms a once-challenging process into a satisfying experience.
Visual Search that Eliminates Ambiguity: Say goodbye to the ambiguity of traditional part search catalogs. With CDS Partable, customers can quickly identify the part they need by serial number, 2D/3D exploded view, BOMs, or AI-powered image search.
Ecommerce Integration that Streamlines the Process: CDS Partable seamlessly integrates with your eCommerce platform, allowing customers to easily identify, search, and purchase the spare parts they need with just a few clicks.
Dedicated Customer/Dealer Portals: Enable self-service part identification through personalized portals that allow customers or authorized dealers to visually search, identify, and specify parts using Partable’s AI-powered tools, even without immediate eCommerce transaction capabilities. Portals help facilitate accurate part selection and streamlined communication for subsequent ordering processes between you, your partners, and your end customers.
Increased Sales that Improve Your Revenue: By simplifying the parts identification process, CDS Partable can boost online orders by up to 900% and increase eCommerce revenue by up to 700% (See Case Study). By streamlining the spare parts buying process, OEMs of material handling equipment are experiencing increased sales and margins.
Don’t let the complexities of spare parts identification and purchasing challenge your customers and partners. Deliver your customers a seamless parts identification and buying experience that not only protects your profits by reducing support costs and encouraging digital sales but also builds customer loyalty that extends far beyond any single equipment breakdown.
