New techs don’t fail from lack of theory—they fail while hunting SKUs.
Veteran techs still guess on look-alikes and variants.
The fix: a faster front door to the right record, not more modules.
Photo → shortlist: image match narrows viable candidates despite grime.
OCR rescue: any surviving characters/codes become search signals.
One-hint disambiguation: add “24V”, “M25 thread”, or “left-hand” to lock it.
Prompted next attribute: “Check connector angle” to separate look-alikes.
Tech tablet: shortlist, part photos, spec nudge, Use Alternative action.
Approvals (ERP/EAM): OEM vs approved alternative with price, lead time, lifecycle; audit trail preserved.
Median seconds-to-identify (before/after).
Wrong-pick rate and returns.
% of approvals where an approved alternative was considered.
Rush buys avoided (one-liners in work orders).
Pick one painful category (e.g., electrical spares).
Enable 10 techs; capture 50 real searches.
Review edge-case photos weekly; add one FFF note where confusion recurs.
Training doesn’t beat instant feedback.
Exact text search fails on dirty reality.
If Visual Search isn’t visible in approvals, the win gets lost downstream.
Visual Search is the TL;DR for training: a camera, one hint, a correct pick. Put it where people decide and you’ll trade classroom time for uptime.
On our blog: A Successful Strategy for Fast and Accurate Spare Part Search (Visual Search hub).
External: McKinsey—A smarter way to digitize frontline operations (practical wins vs. heavy rollout).
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