Fast and Easy Online Ordering

By Jerry Fireman

Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument (SDP/SI) is a manufacturer and distributorof more than 68,000 electro-mechanical, mechanical, and linear motion components;and subassembly components. The company has grown over the last three decades,largely based on a reputation for on-time delivery of quality products at competitiveprices. But unlike conventional parts distribution centers, SDP/SI is an all-inclusiveengineering and manufacturing facility, able to furnish products that exactlymatch specific design, application, and budget requirements. In fact, more than75 percent of its ready-to-deliver components are produced onsite.

   

The screen shot at left shows Stock Drive Product’s online catalog site.

The New Hyde Park, New York, company employs 300 people in three plants encompassing137,000 square feet. And to satisfy customers, its components can be ordered froman enormous standard parts inventory, modified from existing stock, or producedto custom specifications. This unusually broad manufacturing capability translatesinto tighter control over product quality and production costs, and improves overallproject management operations.

But to keep up with the times, several years ago the company developed a Web-basedcatalog. And, in addition to the chore of managing the hard-copy version, manpowerconstraints meant the online parts guide offered only limited technical informationon a fraction of the company’s huge product line.

Limitations Of Earlier Catalogs

Company management has long understood the amount of valuable time engineersspend searching for parts, specifications, drawings, and building CAD models ofstandard components for use in their designs. They also recognized the limitationsof most existing engineering catalogs. Parametric search capabilities are criticalin an engineering environment because technical specifications and product geometrytypically drive the selection process. But existing catalogs typically offeredno or limited parametric searching capability.

“Over the years we have had many requests from customers to make detailed productinformation, including CAD drawings and pricing information, available over theWeb,” says Robbie Robinson, SDP/SI’s technology manager. “We tried an early venturethat involved incorporating our catalog into a much larger offering provided bya firm that specialized in industrial directories. The problem was that we hadto manually convert all of our existing product information over to their formatand we just didn’t have the manpower to do it. So we ended up providing limitedinformation on just a subset of our product line. We heard from our customersthat they tried the online catalog but hit a roadblock…. Sales were disappointing.”

In order to solve the problem, and actually make the online catalog encyclopedicin scope and more useful than the paper facsimile, Robinson turned to Windchill,Inc. He heard they were developing an application that would largely automatethe process of converting CAD models developed in Parametric Technology’s Pro/Engineerinto an online catalog while maintaining most of the wealth of technical detailand parametric searching capabilities found in the original CAD system. SDP/SIalready used Pro/E as its own CAD system and became the first Windchill customer.The program was later purchased by PTC and is now called Windchill PartsLink.

The new online catalog (sdp-si.com/eStore/) makes it much easier for customers to purchase and use SDP/SI products. Windchillautomatically converts existing part attribute and CAD information so customerscan browse through a product hierarchy, perform parametric and text searches,and download CAD files.

The Proof is in the Metrics

“The new online catalog has exceeded our expectations by dramatically increasingthe amount of traffic and numbers of orders that we are receiving over the Web,“says Robinson. “Our customers have told us that giving them all the informationthey need to order, including pricing, at any time of the day or night providesa major incentive for giving us a larger share of their business.”

“I originally went to the SDP/SI website because I only had an older catalogand wanted to get the latest product information,” says Dan Corrado, developmentengineer for Kern International, Columbus, Ohio. “When I got on the site, I discoveredthat it is very easy to use and that I can find things much faster than in a papercatalog. In the past I found it faster to find parts in catalog vs. online. Inthis instance I found the opposite case. For example, I recently needed bushingsthat fit a certain ID and OD criteria. I used the site’s parametric search capabilityto type in these dimensions, and immediately got a list of all of the availableparts that met my specs.”

Larry Cull, principal engineer for Bausch and Lomb, Rochester, New York, saysthat he likes the SDP/SI website because he can get information and get productsmuch faster than using the traditional approach. “We use project-specific purchasingcards so it’s much faster to buy components online,” he says. “The website isnice because it’s easy to use and provides downloadable CAD files of every product.”

The new online catalog has even made fans of a high school class. Michael Randall,a high school teacher in Los Angeles, California, and a group of students fromvarious high schools, are building a search-and-rescue robot for an internationalcompetition called RoboCup. “The Stock Drive website made it very easy to findthe components that we needed using the parametric search feature. Being ableto download CAD drawings saved a lot of time in creating our design.”

Publishing Rich Product Content

Windchill PartsLink enables manufacturers to publish product content, includingrich technical data such as CAD models, and other technical specifications directlyfrom the product development process to the Internet. It serves up dynamic 3DCAD information directly to customers in multiple formats, including native Pro/Eand neutral files such as DXF, IGES, and STEP that can be read by virtually anyCAD system including SolidWorks, Solid Edge, and AutoCAD. It can support entitlementsthat allow specific customers access to technical or product line informationthat other customers might not have access to. It also provides powerful parametric,natural language, and part number search capabilities, and provides rich, customizableclassification structures designed to support future additions.

“We found it to be a relatively quick and painless process to translate our existingCAD models and product information to the new catalog,” Robinson says. “The trickiestpart was creating a hierarchical structure that accurately represents our productline and makes it easy for our customers to find what they are looking for.

“We created top-level categories that cover our major products such as balls,bearings, and pillow blocks, brakes, chains, clutches, couplings, etc. When acustomer clicks on any one of these categories,” he says, “they are immediatelypresented with a list of second-level categories. For example if they click onbrakes, they are presented with a choice of hysteresis, magnetic, power-off, andpower-on categories. Clicking on these categories, in turn, may take them to aneven deeper level of selection…. In this way, users can quickly get an overviewof our product line and navigate to the particular item they need.”

Powerful Search Capabilities

Robinson says the search capabilities provided by the catalog also set the companyapart from its competitors. PartsLink’s parametric search engine provides fastpowerful searches through these classification systems using parameters that arerelevant to each component. “Suppose you go to our site and the “gear” category,the “spur gears” subcategory, and the “metal” type. Then you are presented witha list of the hundreds of different gears we make with fields that describe theirimportant properties such as part number, pitch diameter, number of teeth, material,hub style, etc. But you don’t have to work your way down through the entire listsearching for a gear that meets your requirements. You just click on one of thefields that is most important and our parametric search tool drops down with alist of all your possible choices.

“If you need a diametral pitch of 48, you select that entry and the list is immediatelynarrowed down to only the gears that meet your criteria,” he says. “Next, youmight move to the number of teeth field and perform a parametric search. An importantpoint is that the drop-down list will only show the choices that apply to gearswith a diametral pitch of 48, so there’s no chance of making a wrong selection.”

Robinson noted the company’s engineers did not have to enter any of these productattributes nor do they have to take the time to update the catalog whenever theyadd, drop, or modify a product in their line. The information in the catalog issynchronized with the company’s CAD files so changes made to the part designsimmediately update the online presentation. He also pointed out that the e-commercesite will generate quotes on request for customers who need to generate a purchaseorder before placing an actual order.

Providing Design Files

Once the customer has selected a part, they usually want more detailed designinformation. One alternative is to simply download the catalog drawing in theform of a PDF file. Usually the customer starts there, but most also want a CADfile that they can insert into their own design. They can download a CAD filein any of a wide range of formats, including versions of IGES that are speciallytailored for all leading CAD systems. If they are using the Pro/E Wildfire module,the job is much simpler. All they have to do is drag the file from the librarywindow into their existing assembly and the SDP/SI product is automatically addedto their drawing. The library models are automatically flagged as catalog parts,making them read-only components within the Pro/E environment. These models containall important part information such as name, description, and critical attributessuch as diameter, material, etc.

“Our new online catalog makes it much easier for our customers to purchase ourproducts and design them into their assemblies,” says Robinson. “We have alreadyseen a significant impact on our business and are expecting even greater revenuegains once more customers become aware of all of the information they can getfrom our website. Another reason to check out the site, especially for small orders,is the much lower minimum order requirements. Why, you even get a free gift justfor trying the new eStore service.”

Jerry Fireman is the President of Structured Information, a marketing and communications companyfor the high-tech industries based in Lexington, Massachusetts. You can send himyour comments about this article via e-mail c/o Desktop Engineering Feedback.