Work more efficiently with product selectors

Defined product features allow customers an easier search for parts with PARTcommunity

A big product selection offers customers many options to realize their ideas and desires. The search for the suitable part, however, can quickly become a needle-in-the-haystack situation. At the Industry Forum 2014 Dipl.-Ing. Anatol Kligermann explained how the company Balluff solved this challenge in cooperation with CADENAS by means of product selectors in its electronic product catalog.

Overwhelming amount of options

Balluff, a leading, globally acting specialist for sensors and provider of connectivity, has more than 2.600 employees and offers a complete product range of high-quality sensors, distance measurements and RFID systems as well as networking solutions for all areas of factory automation.

The number of CAD models in Baluff's product catalog have exceeded the 10,000 mark for the first time. At the same time Baluff felt they would like to offer customers a fast and uncomplicated solution to find the right part within this overwhelming amount of options.

Fast and precise search with product selectors

Kligermann says: "For our extensive catalog, the fast and precisely working search is of highest priority. If customers already know the order number or article designation of a part, they easily find their target in the catalog with a few clicks."

The case is a different one if a customer has an accurate idea of what the product looks like, but doesn't know the order number and article designation. Normally he would have to browse through various property catagories to find, for instance, a sensor that could be listed among the category "pressure-resistant" and "3-4 wire".

With the new product selectors the catalog is ordered according to selection criterias. By selecting specific variables, parts can be excluded little by little from the search and the data volume to be processed is reduced to a convenient size. The product selector is very compact, clearly arranged and intuitive to use. At the same time the catalog stays flexible and easy to maintain, so subsequent amendments to the selection criteria and extensions are easily possible.

For the complete presentation about the Baluff product selectors, please visit http://www.industry-forum.biz/rueckblick/2014/vortraege/balluff.