OEM number or description: two ways into the same catalogue

Roughly half the enquiries we see arrive with an OEM reference. The rest arrive as a sentence: water pump for a six-cylinder on a mid-size excavator. Both have to land on the same part.

When you have the number

Search it directly. An OEM reference is the shortest path there is, and it brings its own cross-references — the equivalents recorded against that line come back with it, which is usually the answer to the question behind the question: is there another way to get this?

Two habits make this work better:

• Paste the number as it is printed, including spaces and dashes. Normalising it yourself can turn one reference into a different real one.
• If the number came off a superseded box, search it anyway. Superseded references are usually still recorded against the current line.

When you only have a description

Describe the part and the engine, not the symptom. "Leaking at the front of the engine" is a diagnosis; "front crankshaft oil seal" is a search. If you are not sure which component it is, send the engine identification together with the symptom and let us close the gap — that is a conversation, not a search box.

Why the catalogue is online at all

Because the alternative is a PDF and an email thread. A searchable catalogue means the person standing next to the machine can check coverage at the moment they need to, instead of waiting a day to find out we do not stock it — or, far more often, that we do.

That is the whole of what we mean by innovation here. Not a reinvention of the parts trade; just removing the day of waiting that used to sit between a question and its answer.

Either way, send the list

Numbers, descriptions or a mix — a complete list quotes faster than the same lines sent one at a time, and it ships in fewer runs. That last part matters more than it looks, and there is a separate piece on why.