Parts Intelligence
Spare parts identification: from what you have to the right part record
Spare parts identification is getting from whatever you have at the machine, a few words, a label, a code, the bill of materials or a photo, to the one right part record: its number, its maker and where it is stocked. Partium Find is the software that does it.
What spare parts identification covers
Every part in your plants has a record in the material master. Spare parts identification is the step before everything else in spare parts management: finding that record from what someone actually has in hand. Until the record is found, nobody can check stock, reserve the part or buy it.
Three people do this work every day. The technician at the machine, holding a worn part with no readable number. The storeroom at the counter, with a request that says “the hydraulic cylinder on line 3”. The buyer at the desk, about to order something the store may already hold.
The boundary is the CMMS. It plans the work order, reserves the part and books the issue at the counter, but every one of those steps needs the right part number first. Identification is that step, and Partium Find is the product for it, beside your ERP and CMMS rather than inside them.
You keep your systems. Your ERP stays the system of record. Partium Agent reads from it and writes back what your team decides.
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You have something, not the number
Start from whatever is at hand
A part number search asks for the one thing that is missing. A technician has a worn part, a nameplate, a code on a bin, a line in the bill of materials. Good identification starts from any of these, and the five should work equally well.
In Partium Find, each is a way in:
Type what you know: a few words, a function, part of a description. Find searches by meaning, not by exact naming.
Scan the label or nameplate, and Find returns results from the text on it.
Scan a barcode or QR code to go straight to the part.
Use the bill of materials to narrow down a part that is hard to name.
Take a photo of the part. Find matches it even when the part is worn, dirty or obfuscated.
Read more: 9 Ways to Find the Right Spare Part Faster
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The record is written differently
Search by meaning, not by spelling
The same hydraulic cylinder sits in the catalog as “ZYL HYD 50/30”, as “Hydraulikzylinder” from the German plant, and as the machine builder’s description in a third word order. A keyword search finds one of them, or none, and the answer is “not in the system” when it is. Good search goes by what the part is and forgives the way it was typed.
In Partium Cockpit, this is Material Search:
Finds the part from the words you have, even when the record is messy.
Forgives typos and the many ways one part gets written.
Read more: Why Keyword Search Misses Spare Parts in the Material Master
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No part number at all
Put the clues together
Old machines, painted-over nameplates, documents lost with the machine builder. When there is no number anywhere, identification becomes detective work: the maker, the dimensions, the category, the assembly the part sits in. Each clue alone returns too much; together they return a short list. Without that, the part is ordered by description and often comes back.
In Partium Find, you start from the assembly in the bill of materials, and then:
Narrow the results by manufacturer, dimensions or category.
Read more: Identify a Spare Part Without a Part Number by Putting the Clues Together · Maintenance Doesn’t Wait for Data. It Waits for the Right Part.
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It is already on a shelf somewhere
Identified is not done
Once the part is known, the next question is where it is. The right cylinder may sit in another plant’s store under the same record, while the buyer is told to order it new. Good identification ends with stock at every plant, before anyone raises a purchase.
In Material Search, this is one step:
One search shows where the part is stocked, at every plant, so you find it before you buy it again.
For MRO teams, this is where identification and purchasing meet.
Read more: Search Before You Buy: Why MRO Buyers Reorder Parts They Already Have · Maverick Buying in MRO Starts With a Search That Came Back Empty
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The record is too thin to find
Fix the record once, so the next search works
Some parts cannot be found because their record says almost nothing: a short text, no maker, no part number. Better search helps only so far. The lasting fix is completing the record, once, so the next technician finds it straight away.
Find does not change records; it hands over:
When a part’s record is incomplete, you complete it in Partium Cockpit: Partium Agent proposes what is missing, and your team decides.
In Cockpit, that is the Data Enhancement Monitor. How records get that thin, and how to keep them right, is the subject of MRO data cleansing.
Spare parts identification in the field
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn began with Partium at DB Fernverkehr in 2019. Five of its business units then chose one app built with Partium, DB Mat.ID: Fernverkehr, Cargo, Regio, Fahrzeuginstandhaltung and the DB Netz machine pool.
The work happens where the part comes off. At the vehicle, a technician searches by text or photographs the removed part, and DB Mat.ID shows its SAP number, manufacturer, storage location and stock within seconds.
ÖBB Train Tech
At ÖBB Train Tech, technicians identify spare parts with Partium on the train, by text, label text, QR code, barcode or photo, without involving colleagues and without walking between train, workshop and warehouse.
It also changes who can do the job. Technicians who are new to rail terminology, or for whom German is a second or third language, find the right part from a photo, without an expert.
Where to start: four steps
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Collect a month of “can’t find it”.
Every request the storeroom could not match, and every part bought by description.
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Count the thin records.
How many spare-parts records have no manufacturer part number?
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Pick one place.
One workshop or line where searches are frequent and parts are old.
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See it on a catalog.
Book a demo on our demo catalog or a sample of your own. Nothing to prepare.
What do parts bought twice cost your plants? Try it out for yourself in the ROI calculator.
One platform for the part, beside your ERP
Partium Find is for the technician at the machine; Material Search in Partium Cockpit is for the storeroom and the buyer at the desk. Cockpit is where your team works on the catalog, the stock and the price. Partium Find is the separate product for identifying a part in the field.
Both search the same way. Semantic Multi-Modal Search finds the part from the words you have, even when the record behind it is messy. It is one of the capabilities of Partium Agent. Partium Agent runs beneath every feature of Cockpit and Find. You work in the product; Agent does the work underneath.
More on Parts Intelligence. You buy Partium Cockpit, Partium Find, or both. Partium Agent comes with either and is not sold on its own.
Selling parts rather than keeping them? The parts desk of a machine builder has its own page: aftermarket.
Questions about spare parts identification
What is spare parts identification?
Finding the one right record for a spare part, its number, maker and stock, from whatever information is at hand: a description, a nameplate, a code, the bill of materials or a photo.
One search shows where the part is stocked, at every plant, so you find it before you buy it again.
How do I find the part number of a spare part in our catalog?
Take a photo of the part, scan its label or describe it in a few words. Find searches your catalog and shows the matching part with its number.
What does AI spare parts identification software do?
It uses AI to match whatever someone has, a few words, a label, a code, a line in the bill of materials or a photo, against your own catalog, and returns the record that fits: the number, the maker and the stock. Partium Find is that software for maintenance and storeroom teams.
Type what you know: a few words, a function, part of a description. Find searches by meaning, not by exact naming.
How do I identify industrial spare parts at the machine?
Start with the surest clue you have: a code or nameplate first, then the bill of materials, then a description or a photo. Before anyone orders, check the match:
Narrow the results by manufacturer, dimensions or category.
When nothing on the part is readable, see What Is This Part? Find It Without a Part Number.
Does it work with our ERP and CMMS?
Find searches your own catalog and works beside your ERP and CMMS. For OEMs, it runs as a search inside the parts portal or shop you already have.
See it on a catalog like yours
See it on our demo catalog, or on a sample of your own. There is nothing to prepare.